It just verifies what several other polls have shown -- that we have a real race for the senate seat from Texas for the first time in quite a while. Democrat Beto O'Rourke (pictured) is within 4 points of incumbent Republican Ted Cruz (45% to 49%). That margin is barely outside the margin of error, and with a couple of months still to go, could easily be made up by O'Rourke. He has just started his campaign ads, and I believe as Texas voters get to know him, they will like him.
This is the first time in a couple of decades that I have believed Democrats have a real chance to send a Democrat to the U.S. Senate -- and it would be especially sweet if that seat was the one now occupied by Cruz.
It's not going to be easy, and it will require Democrats to get all their voters to the polls on election day (or in early voting). No one can stay home this time. But we have a chance -- a real chance this year!
Why is Beto doing so well? Because he's personable, smart, presents a good image, and is an adept and very hard campaigner. But there's another reason also. He's not afraid to speak the truth to power, even when it might not be popular with some people.
Here's an example of that. In a campaign stop in Houston, O'Rourke was asked about how disrespectful it was for NFL players to kneel during the national anthem. I suspect the question was designed to make him look bad, and he could have dodged it (like many other Democrats have), but he didn't. He told the truth (and you can go here for the video of his response). Here is a transcript of what he said:
"My short answer is no, I don’t think it’s disrespectful. Here’s my longer answer, but I’m gonna try to make sure that I get this right because I think it’s a really important question. And reasonable people can disagree on this issue, let’s begin there. And it makes them no less American to come down on a different conclusion on this issue, right? You’re every bit as American all the same.
But I’m reminded that somebody mentioned reading the Taylor Branch book—you did—"Parting the Waters: [America] in the King Years." And when you read that book and find out what Dr. King and this nonviolent, peaceful movement to secure better—because they didn’t get full—civil rights for their fellow Americans, the challenges that they face—those who died in Philadelphia, Mississippi, for the crime of trying to be a man, trying to be a woman, in this country; the young girls who died in the church bombing; those who were beaten within an inch of their life crossing the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama, with John Lewis; those who were punched in the face, spat upon, dragged out by their collar at the Woolworth lunch counter for sitting with white people at that same lunch counter, in the same country where their fathers may have bled the same blood on the battlefields of Omaha Beach or Okinawa or anywhere that anyone ever served this country.
The freedoms that we have were purchased not just by those in uniform, and they definitely were. But also by those who took their lives into their hands riding those Greyhound buses, the Freedom Riders in the deep South in the 1960s who knew full well that they would be arrested, and they were, serving time in the Mississippi State Penitentiary. Rosa Parks getting from the back of the bus to the front of the bus. Peaceful, nonviolent protests, including taking a knee at a football game to point out that black men, unarmed; black teenagers, unarmed; and black children, unarmed, are being killed at a frightening level right now, including by members of law enforcement, without accountability and without justice.
And this problem—as grave as it is—is not gonna fix itself, and they’re frustrated, frankly, with people like me and those in positions of public trust and power who have been unable to resolve this or bring justice for what has been done and to stop it from continuing to happen in this country. And so nonviolently, peacefully, while the eyes of this country are watching these games, they take a knee to bring our attention and our focus to this problem and ensure that we fix it. That is why they’re doing it, and I can think of nothing more American than to peacefully stand up or take a knee for your rights anytime, anywhere, anyplace."
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