Good headline writing is the first order of business in the world of news publishing on the Internet, it’s the headline that brings the clicks. So when I saw this headline on the Dallas Morning News’ RSS feed, I clicked: “Beto O’Rourke is a philosophical psychopath. Let me explain.”
The opinion piece by Joshua Whitfield is full of great phrasing and is seriously insightful despite its mirthful style.
Take this bit: “And so, he practices now that willful fantasy born of desperation, common to all early exiting presidential hopefuls. He struggles to say something that will catch a headline, that will catch that magical adulation he drank like a novice drunk when he ran for Senate in 2018, when he visited politically unreal cities like Austin. A political star among political stiffs, he believed his own hype, and he likely continues to believe it, even though the more sober and more seriously political see him for what he is, and that’s an inexperienced city politician doing his best with his unearned wealth, his un-scrutinized privilege and his white liberal charm.”
That line “politically unreal cities like Austin” says much truth in the context of Texas in few words. And who can’t, given the opponents in the 2018 Dem Primary were nobodies and the November opponent Ted Cruz, not appreciate the truth of the phrase: “A political star among political stiffs, he believed his own hype,…”
Here’s a bit more great writing that is superior insight: “…Beto O’Rourke has likely won more votes for the Republican party than he’s ever won for himself. But that’s not the worst of it. The problem with Beto O’Rourke, and why he is such a horrible candidate for the Democratic party, is that as a Mailer-esque psychopath, that is, as a borrower of the radical wisdom of the people he claims to speak for, he can’t help but tame and cheapen the radical left.”
It’s a great column at DallasNews.com and Whitfield is to be admired for it.
DMN column by Joshua Whitfield on Beto a gem
The opinion piece by Joshua Whitfield is full of great phrasing and is seriously insightful despite its mirthful style.
Take this bit: “And so, he practices now that willful fantasy born of desperation, common to all early exiting presidential hopefuls. He struggles to say something that will catch a headline, that will catch that magical adulation he drank like a novice drunk when he ran for Senate in 2018, when he visited politically unreal cities like Austin. A political star among political stiffs, he believed his own hype, and he likely continues to believe it, even though the more sober and more seriously political see him for what he is, and that’s an inexperienced city politician doing his best with his unearned wealth, his un-scrutinized privilege and his white liberal charm.”
That line “politically unreal cities like Austin” says much truth in the context of Texas in few words. And who can’t, given the opponents in the 2018 Dem Primary were nobodies and the November opponent Ted Cruz, not appreciate the truth of the phrase: “A political star among political stiffs, he believed his own hype,…”
Here’s a bit more great writing that is superior insight: “…Beto O’Rourke has likely won more votes for the Republican party than he’s ever won for himself. But that’s not the worst of it. The problem with Beto O’Rourke, and why he is such a horrible candidate for the Democratic party, is that as a Mailer-esque psychopath, that is, as a borrower of the radical wisdom of the people he claims to speak for, he can’t help but tame and cheapen the radical left.”
It’s a great column at DallasNews.com and Whitfield is to be admired for it.