Perspective: Beto O’Rourke is a Gen X cliche
By Elizabeth Spiers Elizabeth Spiers is the chief executive of the Insurrection, a progressive digital messaging firm. March 22 at 8:57 AM If a presidential candidate is the sum of his or her experiences, identity, policies and track record, then Beto O’Rourke looks like a pretty regular middle-aged white guy with slightly left-of-center policies, a respectable amount of experience in office, a nice house, a lovely family and a photogenic dog.
But O’Rourke so completely — and hilariously — embodies the stereotype of a white male Xer that if someone wrote him into a dystopian fantasy about a youthful 40-something ex-punk-rocker dropped into politics to save America from a selfish boomer narcissist who failed upward into the presidency despite a history of corruption and incompetency, the character would be way too on the nose.
Since he declared that he was running for president, O’Rourke has spent a lot of time standing on things. Not because he needs to; he’s 6-foot-4, but he still often climbs atop furniture to talk to crowds. Or he climbs up and then perches kneeling to address a specific potential constituent, while emanating something akin to a cool camp counselor vibe that says: I’m here to listen to you and fix your problems.
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