Run, Beto, Run!

As an old white male, I'm entitled to say that it's old white males who got us where we are today – which is between a rock and Donald Trump.

Trump is the king of the old white males – a Queens real estate grifter with a cantilever comb-over and the soul of a Medici who sensed that it was shadow time in America and went on a fascist bender that is still going on.

Tuesday's results might slow Trump's roll after January but right now he is stacking the deck for all he's worth. Ask Jeff Sessions or Robert Mueller. And there's more coming, folks. Like Al Jolson said, “You ain't seen nothin' yet.”

Trump is a new kind of political old white man; he makes no pretenses and takes no prisoners. He is a for-real horror, a golem globbed from all that is dark in the American soul. And there are a lot of people out there who eat that shit up for a legion of reasons. Trump knew they were out there somehow – a predator's instinct? – and went after them in the most direct and juvenile and bottom-feeding way and boy are they still eating it up! 

But Trump and the rest of the good old white boys can't stick their withered sticks in the spokes of the wheel of time. There is not a one of them who  thinks the phrase “Hold on tightly and let go lightly” has anything to do do with their old white man world. These furious fogies are going to fight with every breath of their political, financial, ethical, and moral bodies to put off their inevitable political and physical deaths. But they cannot fight the demographic and political certainty which will make old white males – finally – deservedly marginal at best. 

Tuesday saw the election to the house of the first Native American and Muslim women  and the election of the first Latina governor. Democrats all. A lot of old white Republicans got their asses kicked by dedicated young Democrats.

In Texas, Beto O'Rourke almost pulled the biggest upset since David bonked Goliath, giving slimeball Ted Cruz the scare of his shameless life. Beto did it his way: no polls, no PACS, no bullshit. Just hard work – he hit every one of Texas' 254 counties at least once – and a clear, clean message, not the garbled negative garbage that is political discourse today. He raised $75 million in  small donations because people all over the country sensed an authenticity, decency, honesty, and intelligence that is missing from politics as we know it. 

The 46-year-old Beto O'Rourke went negative on Cruz only once and it really bothered him and he apologized. He campaigned in worn jeans, not the starched and pressed numbers most politicians wear like they were going to a VFW barbecue. 

There has been of course talk about a presidential run for Beto. Why not? He is young and a household name in many voting households. He has a glow, too. It is there. The glow of youth and energy and integrity. Hey, Democrats, he is very marketable, if you want to put it in those terms. And you better.

Michael Bloomberg is making presidential noises; he'll be 78 in 2020. He is a very rich white old man. Hillary Clinton is the female equivalent, although not nearly as rich. Elizabeth Warren? Nah. Beto. I'm a romantic.  

I'd love to see Beto and Trump in a presidential debate. It would be a battle of wits and Trump would be obviously unarmed. 

So run, Beto, run!