Beto, get off the counter

As the Beto backlash finally begins, I find myself glad of it.

I didn’t follow him closely during the midterms, but I heard about how much people loved him. Running against Ted Cruz, hated by just about everyone, Beto has been praised by only losing by 3%. I get it that Texas is deeply red these days, but I don’t know how a guy everyone loves lost to a guy that everyone hates. But ok, I was still feeling good about him.

As the counterpoint to Trump’s El Paso rally, I thought Beto was pretty great. Local guy, former politician, dressed down, hyped up, expressing a more attractive message… he seemed like a perfect fit.

Considering him as a Senate candidate, how does he beat Cornyn if he couldn’t pick off Cruz? He must agree, since he skipped that offer.

As a presidential candidate, standing on a counter in a small cafe in rural Iowa — yikes. You’re already taller than everyone, dude. Get off the counter. We don’t need to be craning our necks to look up at you.

In the 2008 democratic primary, I went to the polls thinking about Obama and Hillary. Two historic choices. But I was also thinking about Biden. After 9/11, Biden seemed like one of the few bold voices, willing to stand up against the Republican war machine.

I walked out of the polling place shaking my head, asking myself if this isn’t how racism and sexism works. I had gone to the polls wondering whether I would cast a historic vote for a black man or a white woman. I left having voted for Biden.

I vowed never to let internalized racism and misogyny win my vote again.

In the 2020 democratic primary I hope I have the opportunity to vote for any one of a number of diverse candidates, and I’ll be checking myself for the kind of thinking that might try to convince me that none of them are good enough.