Pickups, Punk rock, and politics (or why Beto doesn't stand a chance)

What do these two images have in common? Almost everything.

Texas political pop quiz time: Who are we talking about, here?

• This young(ish) rising star won the Democrat primary for U.S. Senate and quickly drew national attention for his persona, appeal to the grassroots, and a media biased to the left.
• He completed a successful tour of small town stump speeches to rally Democrats and swing voters covering 60,000 miles of Texas heartland.
• He boasted about refusing PAC money while focusing on small donors.
• His David vs. Goliath bid against the Senator Texas liberals fear the most has made him the hope of a state Democratic Party with few other hopes of winning a race at the top of the ballot.

If you guessed Democrat Congressman Robert Francis "Beto" O'Rourke ...

... you'd be wrong.

Remember Victor Morales? You're probably more likely to remember his white Nissan pickup truck that became his campaign's mascot of sorts (pictured above -- that's an older Morales in the photo, and the truck is still running). In what seems to be an eternity ago, in 1996, Morales took on U.S. Sen. Phil Gramm, a conservative Republican famous for leaving the Democratic Party in favor of his tax policies that favor "Dickey Flatt" and not D.C. consultants.

Here's how Texas Monthly saw Morales just after the '96 Primary. Aside from the fundraising totals, see if it doesn't ring familiar:

In the age of outside politics, metaphors come cheap. No one knows this better than senatorial candidate Victor Morales, the 46-year-old high school government teacher who will face the formidable Phil Gramm this November. Last spring, in one of the most improbable upsets in Texas political history, the unknown Morales won the Democratic primary by defeating the party favorite, Congressman John Bryant; he did so by traveling more than 60,000 miles across Texas in his dented white pickup, using $8,000 in savings as his campaign fund, and not at all coincidentally, allowing himself to be turned into an icon. The victorious Morales was compared in the press to Cinderella, Don Quixote, Rocky Balboa, and David of Goliath fame, to Forrest Gump and Being There’s Chauncey Gardiner. He was labeled Señor Smith, as in Señor Smith goes to Washington. 

The voters did not seem to mind that Morales was vague about his platform and weak on issues, that a question about rising gas prices could elicit a deer-in-the-headlights stare. They found him “down to earth” and “sincere” and thought it “refreshing” when he confided to one reporter, “I don’t have any formulated plans. What I have are life experiences.” Morales won big points for refusing money from political action committees, for refusing to open a headquarters in Highland Park, for refusing to stand on a phone book to enhance his five-foot-seven-inch frame during a speech. 

Read more: https://www.texasmonthly.com/politics/truckin

Given, a lot has changed since the mid-'90s and Republicans have made significant gains statewide. But the political values of your average Texan hasn't all that much since Texas "flipped" that year.

For anyone who wasn't here (or born yet) in that heyday for the Texas GOP, we were in the midst of a massive shift as Southern Democrats who otherwise voted for Ronald Reagan were leaving the party of abortion, high taxes, Ann Richards' acerbic tongue, and Bill Clinton's now-famous fabrications. There are entire books written on this phenomenon (one written recently by a former Travis County GOP Chairman), so we'll spare the history lesson of how Texas went from a Democratic state to Republican in two cycles.

But apparently things have not changed at all in the Democratic playbook. They think they have the hearts and minds of the average voter ... if only they would turn out and vote. However, this has proven wrong time and time again. Wendy Davis, Bill White, Chris Bell ... you get the idea.

When it all shook out in November of '96, Morales walked away with 44 percent compared to Gramm's 55 percent (the missing 1 percent went to third party candidates). Anyone wagering that Gramm's alleged social awkwardness would cost him re-election, or that the teachers' lobby groups would come out in droves to support a fellow educator thus putting Morales over the top, lost those bets.

Will Congressman O'Rourke -- the phenom from El Paso with a Punk rock repetoire and the political connections to lead the 2018 Dem ticket -- fare as well? Time will tell, of course, and the campaign season is just now ramping up. Our friends at Cahnman's Musings have a much-needed reality check here: http://acahnman.blogspot.com/2018/09/reporters-seem-to-keep-discovering-that.html

"The bottom line" (as the Cahnman is fond of saying): It'll take more than yard signs or beat up trucks to appeal to Texas voters. Nice guys as O'Rourke and Morales surely are, Sen. Ted Cruz is right on the issues. As much as we all love a Cinderella story, the issues are what what will carry Cruz to victory on Nov. 6, 2018.

We're almost certain his history as a garage band rocker won't cut it. Just make sure the sound isn't all the way up on your device.

CORRECTION: O'Rourke was not the guitarist wearing the suit in the video as previously reported. We have since been informed that he was the bassist.

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Images credit:Left: ubiquitous image of Beto's "Foss" album cover.
Right: http://www.terrelldailyphoto.com/2008/04/meet-victor-morales-and-joe-parnell.html