For this writing assignment I decided to compare and contrast the online websites of candidates for the 2020 Democratic nomination for president John Delany and Beto O’Rourke. John Delaney was born in Wood-ridge NewJersey, to a blue collared union family. Delany explains how he understands the American dream because he has lived it by being able to work his way through college and how the community help in with his law school payments. He has seen Bruce Springsteen over 30 times. Delaney’s campaign slogan is Focus on the Future. If elected Delaney’s future would present major reform in environmental, education, immigration policy. Delaney plans to implement a carbon tax that will “Reduce carbon admissions by 90% by 2050”. Delaney believes all students should be entitled to a k-14(community college or technical degree) education. Regarding immigration Delaney believes that a comprehensive reform on this issue should include a clear path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants and DREAMers, and an increased refugee cap for resettlement in the US. Delaney appears to take a person to person approach, he provides a lot of background info about him and his family, Delaney also makes it very easy for supporters to get involved or contribute through his engaging site. When looking at news articles that discuss John Delany it appears as though he may be a long shot for receiving the Democratic nomination for President. John Delaney doesn’t provide groundbreaking ideas or policies (such as the green new deal & medicare for all) to bring about the political change, rather Delaney focuses on finding ways to break through the partisan stalemate in Congress.
Beto O’Rourke began his grassroots campaign in his home town of El Paso, Texas. His website did not have a whole lot of information on it and it felt kind of Boring compared to John Delaney’s. Beto’s really emphasizes wanting to bridge the divide between Americans and provide access to universal health care. Beto also expresses the importance of economic reform that would make the economy work for everyone. Beto’s campaign slogan is “A vision for America.” Despite his website being kind of bland, Beto also makes it easy for people to get involved and support his campaign via his website. When looking at the media coverage of Beto O’Rourke many of the articles I found criticized him, calling him a Fauxbama or a accusing him of pretending to be a Kennedy. These articles worked to show how candidates such as Beto are taking a page out of former successful democrats’ books. Beto allegedly adopts and utilizes similar posture and speaking techniques that worked well for Kennedy, by doing this these articles claim that Beto is trying to channel this charisma and charm that helped Kennedy into office. The Fauxbama critique also comes from people saying that Beto is essentially a copycat by using many mannerism and techniques that Obama utilized during his campaign. By closely following the script of Obama and Kennedy, Beto might just fake it till he makes it.