{"id":11947,"date":"2019-08-14T08:00:19","date_gmt":"2019-08-14T15:00:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/?p=11947"},"modified":"2019-08-13T22:58:56","modified_gmt":"2019-08-14T05:58:56","slug":"how-robert-orourke-became-beto","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/how-robert-orourke-became-beto\/","title":{"rendered":"How Robert O\u2019Rourke Became \u2018Beto\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Victor Davis Hanson \/\/ National Review<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A  great deal of controversy has continued the past few days over Robert Francis O\u2019Rourke\u2019s longtime use of a nickname given to him at birth (albeit temporarily jettisoned while in prep school<\/a>) \u2014 especially in the wake of his recent sensational and unfounded charges that Donald Trump is directly responsible for the mass shootings in El Paso, Texas, and that white supremacy defines America, past and present, and explains Trump\u2019s culpability.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The point of the amused contention is not<\/em> that O\u2019Rourke was given such a nickname at or near birth. Rather, the controversy is over his continued use of the sobriquet for cynical political advantage in a somewhat related manner to Senator Elizabeth Warren\u2019s longtime false cultural appropriation of a Native American identity for careerist purposes. After all, we live in a progressive era in which \u201ccultural appropriation\u201d is a mortal sin and non-minority university students are routinely chastised for wearing clothing or hairstyles associated with minority groups or appearing in dramas playing the roles of characters of a different ethnic background.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to the Dallas Morning News<\/em>, a quite prescient senior O\u2019Rourke once explained why he had given the shortened form of the Spanish \u201cRoberto\u201d to his son as a nickname. And he seemed to imply that such naming was for political reasons<\/a> in addition to avoiding confusing young Robert with his maternal grandfather of the same first name:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the backdrop of the city\u2019s multicultural community, his father, Pat O\u2019Rourke, a consummate politician, once explained why he nicknamed his son Beto: Nicknames are common in Mexico and along the border, and if he ever ran for office in El Paso, the odds of being elected in this mostly Mexican-American city were far greater with a name like Beto than Robert Francis O\u2019Rourke.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Read the full article here.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Victor Davis Hanson \/\/ National Review A  great deal of controversy has continued the past few days over Robert Francis O\u2019Rourke\u2019s longtime use of a nickname given to him at birth (albeit temporarily jettisoned while in prep school) \u2014 especially in the wake of his recent sensational and unfounded charges that Donald Trump is directly responsible […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p466Sb-36H","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":11897,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/democratic-candidates-are-running-a-race-of-authenticity\/","url_meta":{"origin":11947,"position":0},"title":"Democratic Candidates Are Running a Race of Authenticity","author":"victorhanson","date":"July 12, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Victor Davis Hanson \/\/ American Greatness An epidemic of false identities, massaged resumes and warped ancestries has broken out among the current Democratic presidential primary candidates. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) for years claimed Native American ancestry. An embattled Warren ironically took a DNA test that only proved her critics\u2019 contention\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":12452,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/trump-will-win-if-he-responds-to-righteous-voter-rage\/","url_meta":{"origin":11947,"position":1},"title":"Trump Will Win If He Responds to Righteous Voter Rage","author":"victorhanson","date":"June 30, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Victor Davis Hanson \/\/ American Greatness The 2020 election will be decided in the fall by swing voters in ten or 15 states. Prior to the COVID-19 outbreak, those voters were leaning to reelect President Trump, largely on the powers of incumbency and a near-record vibrant economy. The Democratic left-wing\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":12245,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/the-portentous-biden-blowup\/","url_meta":{"origin":11947,"position":2},"title":"The Portentous Biden Blowup","author":"victorhanson","date":"March 12, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Victor Davis Hanson \/\/ National Review Joe Biden lost it again on the campaign trail at an auto plant being built in Detroit, and in a now familiar script. His blowup had all his characteristic theatrics of prior such encounters. There were the shouting at blue-collar workers, the he-man, corn-pop-like\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6766,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/the-tenth-life-of-and-obamacat\/","url_meta":{"origin":11947,"position":3},"title":"The Tenth Life of an Obamacat","author":"victorhanson","date":"November 18, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson \/\/\u00a0NRO's The Corner\u00a0 An Obamcat administration is given nine, but not ten, lives: 1) The dismal economy 2) Guantanamo, renditions, and tribunals that were to be relegated to the Bush-Cheney ash heap 3) Fast and\u00a0Furious 4) The \u201clead from behind\u201d fiasco in Libya 5) Benghazi 6)\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Commentary"","block_context":{"text":"Commentary","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/obama-administration\/commentary-obama-administration\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3308,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/the-unexamined-president-and-his-media-enablers\/","url_meta":{"origin":11947,"position":4},"title":"The Unexamined President and His Media Enablers","author":"victorhanson","date":"April 29, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"by Bruce S. Thornton Advancing a Free Society As usual, the mainstream media are getting wrong the significance of President Obama\u2019s release of his actual birth certificate. In the liberal-left narrative, the \u201cbirther\u201d issue was always evidence of the Republican Party\u2019s fringe kookiness: as the\u00a0Daily Kos\u2019s Markos Moulitsas crowed, \u201cWhat\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Bruce S. Thornton"","block_context":{"text":"Bruce S. Thornton","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/our-contributors\/bruce-s-thornton\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2268,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/no-rules-in-the-arena\/","url_meta":{"origin":11947,"position":5},"title":"No Rules in the Arena?","author":"victorhanson","date":"September 21, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson Tribune Media Services It was certainly uncouth of Rep. Joe Wilson, R-S.C., to scream out \"You lie\" at his commander-in-chief in the middle of Barack Obama's recent healthcare speech before a joint session of Congress. And others who keep insisting that the president doesn't have an\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "September 2009"","block_context":{"text":"September 2009","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/archives\/2009\/september-2009\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11947"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11947"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11947\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11948,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11947\/revisions\/11948"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11947"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11947"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11947"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}