Typically politicians act in ways in which mirror badly on their judgment and character and dishonor the trigger they search to advance.
Such was
Robert Francis O’Rourke’s
stunt on Might 25, the day after 19 college students and two academics have been killed at Robb Elementary Faculty in Uvalde, Texas. About quarter-hour right into a information convention by state and native officers to replace the press on the investigation into the taking pictures, the Democratic gubernatorial candidate strode into the high-school auditorium, slipped right into a seat close to the entrance that had been held by a supporter, and waited for his close-up.
When Gov.
Greg Abbott
completed his briefing and turned to different leaders for feedback, Mr. O’Rourke stood up, walked to heart stage, and confronted the governor, pointing his finger and saying, “You might be doing nothing.” Whereas Mr. Abbott sat grimly, not making eye contact, others on the stage angrily denounced Mr. O’Rourke. As officers escorted him out of the corridor, he turned to wag his finger on the governor and grandly declare, “That is on you.” He then held an impromptu press scrum within the parking zone.
Again inside, Mr. Abbott appealed for unity: “There are relations whose hearts are damaged. There’s no phrases that anyone shouting can come up right here and do something to heal these damaged hearts.”
At roughly the identical second, Mr. O’Rourke’s marketing campaign blasted an electronic mail to supporters saying that he’d phoned his spouse as quickly as he heard of the assault and that his children “appear to count on” college shootings like this newest one. Mr. O’Rourke wrote that “our damaged hearts are with Uvalde,” thanked first responders, then blamed the taking pictures on the governor, declaring “these massacres” have been “direct penalties of the alternatives made by Greg Abbott” and the Texas Legislature and have been “completely predictable.”
By Might 28, Mr. O’Rourke was utilizing the mass taking pictures as the topic of fundraising emails asking for a $3 marketing campaign contribution to “hold standing up, hold organizing, and hold preventing.” Extra such electronic mail appeals adopted on Might 29, Might 31, June 1 and June 2, every utilizing the tragedy to prospect for brand new donors and solicit marketing campaign funds.
Politicians typically attempt benefiting from occasions to additional their ambitions, however prospecting for brand new marketing campaign contributors—simply $3!—off the bloodbath of youngsters was shallow and classless even by Mr. O’Rourke’s low requirements. And to say the taking pictures was “completely predictable” is clearly false. If it have been foreseeable, why didn’t Mr. O’Rourke name 911 earlier than it occurred?
“If we wish to lastly save lives,” one electronic mail declared in a revealing apart, “we’ve got to win political energy.” Political energy is what Mr. O’Rourke craves, and he’ll twist himself right into a pretzel to get it. Recall that in the course of the September 2019 Democratic presidential debate in Houston he declared, “Hell sure, we’re going to take your AR-15, your AK-47.” The road was clearly preplanned, for by the point the talk ended, his marketing campaign was promoting T-shirts on-line bearing the slogan.
Mr. O’Rourke calculated that gun confiscation was a successful situation when he ran for the Democratic presidential nomination. His marketing campaign flamed out. However he depicted his stance as a profile in braveness: “I do know saying that’s the proper factor to do, and the results, be they what they could.”
However he determined “the fitting factor to do” when in search of the presidency in 2019 was the unsuitable factor when working for governor of Texas in 2022. Lagging within the polls, Mr. O’Rourke informed reporters in conservative East Texas in February that he wasn’t “all for taking something from anybody.” As a substitute, he mentioned, “what I wish to be certain that we do is defend the Second Modification.” After Uvalde, he’s flipped again to his earlier gun-grabbing opinion. His perspective on the Second Modification is seemingly tied to his political ambitions of the second.
Opportunism in politics is unattractive however common. What’s unusual is trying to rescue your flailing marketing campaign by turning an official occasion right into a political circus after which utilizing the dying of innocents to prospect for $3 donations.
Distinction Mr. O’Rourke’s sordid actions with the affected person, behind-the-scenes work of Sens. John Cornyn (R., Texas) and Chris Murphy (D., Conn.) and a bipartisan group of colleagues to see if in today of grief, they will discover frequent floor on smart steps to confront gun violence. Let’s hope they succeed.
On this period, it’s arduous to make politics look any worse. However Robert Francis O’Rourke has managed to take action. For individuals who’ve adopted his vainglorious, vacuous procession via the nation’s politics, that’s no shock.
Mr. Rove helped arrange the political-action committee American Crossroads and is writer of “The Triumph of William McKinley” (Simon & Schuster, 2015).
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