Beto O’Rourke’s quest for the presidency fizzled into oblivion. The campaign remains stagnant at less than two percent in the major polls. Although Beto has survived to make it to the first three national debates, his stagnation remains steadfast. And then 22 people were murdered in his hometown.
Beto O’Rourke has often claimed the “safest-city” designation when arguing for immigrants. The City of El Paso has used FBI crime data to designate itself as one of the safest cities in the nation. O’Rourke, like other El Paso officials, embraces the self-designated safety metric.
For the most part El Paso is a safe city. There are many reasons for this. Among them is that the city boasts one of the largest concentrations of law enforcement outside of Washington and New York. El Paso’s local police is boosted by an alphabet soup (DEA, FBI, etc.) of federal and state security operators.
There is also the unpleasant fact that El Paso is an illicit drug corridor (Juárez Plaza) into the U.S. Drug cartels like to cultivate safe havens in communities to keep their drug pipelines open. Without a safe haven through El Paso, drug cartels would not fight so hard to control the Juárez Plaza.
But then 22 people were killed by a lone gunman.
The “safest city” designation was immediately put to the test.
It also gave Beto the platform he needed to try to revitalize his quest for the presidency.
Gun control is now the platform Beto is milking to keep his presidential ambitions intact.
But gun control is not enough. Beto needs a gimmick. He has it with his cursing language.
But like most of the El Paso leadership, the El Paso murders have been added as part of the gun control debate.
Never mind that the killer targeted Mexicans to kill. That is an inconvenient narrative. But gun control, that is something most can stomach. So, the El Paso leadership ignores the killing of Mexicans and focuses on gun control.
Beto, however, sees the gun control as his ticket back into the presidential game.
Is it enough? Unlikely.
Is it a Beto moment?
He made it so.
But the politics keep ignoring the fact that Mexicans were targeted because it makes too many people uncomfortable to have that discussion.
