When I saw Christine Allison in the elevator Monday morning on the way to work, she was still aglow from having attended a Beto O’Rourke rally Saturday in Austin, where some 50,000 people turned out to hear him speak and then watch Willie Nelson play. “A big part of that crowd didn’t even stick around for the Willie show,” Christine said. “They were there just to hear Beto.”
You might be able to guess my reaction. I couldn’t believe that I have to work for a member of the liberal elite. It was all I could do to ride the elevator with her to the 21st floor.
Now, this morning, I’ve got people emailing me a link to this New York Times opinion piece, which Michelle Goldberg begins thusly: “On Saturday night, at the end of a hideous week in American politics, there was an unfamiliar feeling in Austin, Tex.: hope.” She goes on to write:
Like Obama, O’Rourke is running on hope over fear; he exudes compassion and speaks about “power and joy.” Christine Allison, a Republican-turned-independent, is president of the company that publishes D Magazine, a city magazine for Dallas, and one of O’Rourke’s ardent supporters. “He listens,” she told me, saying that he has what Christians sometimes call a “servant-leader approach to politics.”
Aargh! Not only did Christine go to a Beto rally, but she is one of his most ardent supporters. So ardent, in fact, that talked to a writer for the failing New York Times about Beto’s leadership style. It’s almost too much to stomach. I would resign in protest, but, you know, they’d probably make me fill out a whole bunch of paperwork to do that. I hate paperwork.
Anyway, there are still tickets available for the Beto rally this weekend at Main Street Garden. Spoon and Polyphonic Spree and Sarah Jaffe and Bobby Sessions are all playing. Sounds pretty awesome.
