Poor Robert Francis O'Rourke. He married into an uber wealthy family after having a financially well-off upbringing, is convinced that he was "born" to run in the 2020 election cycle, and was fawned over by national media in his 2018 Senate campaign against Ted Cruz. But still, he somehow finds himself to be a sad sack of a leftist whose colleagues wish would just shut his trap. Beto, as he likes to call himself in order to court the Hispanic vote, keeps letting the left's true desire slip out of his mouth. Whether he is talking about wanting to ban virtually all guns, or take away tax-exempt status for religious organizations, everybody just wants Beto (his Democratic opponents especially) to put a sock in it. But is it because he has nothing to say or because he's revealing the Democrats' goals?
Cortney covered South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg criticizing Beto for his CNN town hall comments that any religious organization which opposes same-sex marriage should be stripped of tax-exempt status. Here's what Buttigieg had to say:
I'm not sure he understood the implications of what he was saying," Buttigieg said of O'Rourke. "That would mean going to war not only with churches, but with mosques and a lot of orgs that may not have the same view of various religious principles that I do."
Buttigieg reminded his opponent about the separation of church and state, which acknowledges churches and other religious organizations as nonprofits in the U.S.
According to the Washington Post, Sen. Warren is now also condemning Beto's proposal:
Asked to respond to former Texas Rep. Beto O’Rourke’s assertion last week that religious institutions should face the loss of their tax exemption for opposing same-sex marriage, Warren campaign spokeswoman Saloni Sharma said that “Elizabeth will stand shoulder to shoulder with the LGBTQ+ community” to help stamp out “fear of discrimination and violence.” But she declined to take aim at the tax status of religious organizations that don’t support same-sex marriage.
“Religious institutions in America have long been free to determine their own beliefs and practices, and she does not think we should require them to conduct same-sex marriages in order to maintain their tax-exempt status,” Sharma said by email.
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But, as several have pointed out, Beto's CNN audience comprised of ardent progressives cheered this idea. Indeed, the idea to abolish the tax-exempt status over gay marriage has been advocated since at least 2015. In a Splinter article titled, "Does your church ban gay marriage? Then it should start paying taxes," the author uses virtually the same language as Beto does. "We’ll let you practice your bigotry, at least within the confines of your own church. But we’re not about to reward you for doing so," the piece states.
Beto's calls for gun confiscation were also met with ire from some leftists on the national level, but applauded for by his immediate audience. This raises the questions, do Democrats hate Beto because his policies violate the Constitution, or do they hate him because he is a man ahead of his time and exposing what the progressive base really wants?
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