Conservative Columnist Attacks Beto O’Rourke For ‘Nostalgia Peddling’ And ‘Cult Of Personality’

Conservative columnist Jonah Goldberg has accused Beto O’Rourke of developing a cult of personality. Writing in Tuesday’s Los Angeles Times, Goldberg blasted the Democratic presidential hopeful for ‘nostalgia peddling’ and suggested he’s been groomed for the presidency.

In an article titled ‘Beto-mania is proof that cult-of-personality politics is our new normal’, Goldberg compares the three-term congressman to former President John F. Kennedy, and manages to make this sound as bad as possible.

Goldberg, who is the author of a book called Liberal Fascism, criticized Senator Bernie Sanders, former VP Joe Biden and O’Rourke for their appeal to nostalgia, and even made a swipe at them for being white men, mocking a critique coming from the left.

“Everything about his candidacy feels like a triumph of nostalgia peddling,” Goldberg writes of O’Rourke’ “The constant refrain that he’s this generation’s Robert F. Kennedy is an interesting play on the time-tested effort by Democratic candidates to claim the Kennedy mantle, though usually it’s John F. Kennedy, not RFK. Then again, it makes sense given that RFK moved left of JFK — and so has the Democratic Party”

“His candidacy feels like a rerun, and not merely because the media covered his recently concluded race against Ted Cruz as if it were a presidential contest. (A race, it’s worth nothing, that O’Rourke lost despite having raised more money than any Senate candidate ever, and despite the fact that his opponent was wildly unpopular.)”

Goldberg, who is senior editor at the conservative National Review, writes that O’Rourke makes him feel ‘queasy’. O’Rourke, he says, will have to develop a cult of personality because he has nothing else, as a white male candidate.