[TX US Senate candidate (D) Beto] O’Rourke’s conclusion: “I can think of nothing more American than to stand up or take a knee for your rights.”
"Many people outside of Texas got their first sense of O’Rourke last month, when a
video of his answer to a citizen’s question about whether it is disrespectful of some National Football League players to refuse to stand for the national anthem went viral.
|  | 'I can think of nothing more American': Beto O’Rourke responds to questi...The Democratic nominee in the 2018 Texas Senate race, Beto O'Rourke, responds to a veteran's question about whet... |
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O’Rourke began by emphasizing that “Reasonable people can disagree on this issue. Let’s begin there. And it makes them no less American to come down on a different conclusion on this issue, right?”
In reciting some of the achievements of the civil rights movement in the 1960s, O’Rourke linked those achievements to the heroic efforts by America’s veterans to safeguard our liberties. Just as members of the military put their lives on the line “on the battlefields of Omaha Beach,” so too “the freedoms that we have were purchased” by “peaceful, nonviolent protests.”
In O’Rourke’s view, those who protest the killing of innocent Americans — “nonviolently, peacefully” — are acting in that tradition. O’Rourke’s conclusion: “I can think of nothing more American than to stand up or take a knee for your rights.”
Like Reagan, O’Rourke knows how to mix gentleness with moral commitment. Like Reagan, he uses the word “American” with reverence. He gives people a sense that he is on their side, not in their face."
