You have the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of...a short commute to work preferably in walking distance -- according to 2020 Democratic presidential candidate Robert Francis O'Rourke. On Monday, the Beto 2020 campaign -- reminder Beto is a self-given nickname imposed upon himself to sound Hispanic -- tweeted that "Living close to work shouldn't be a luxury for the rich. It's a right for everyone." This left many wondering whether or not the failed 2018 Senate candidate actually knows what a right is.
"Here's the tough thing to talk about, though we must. Rich people are going to have to allow, or be forced to allow, lower income people to live near them," Beto told a crowd at a campaign stop. "Which is what we fail to do in this country right now."
Living close to work shouldn't be a luxury for the rich. It's a right for everyone. pic.twitter.com/lohRdoFGrH
— Beto O'Rourke (@BetoORourke) September 10, 2019
"We force lower income, working Americans, to drive one, two, three hours in either direction to get to their jobs, very often minimum wage jobs, so they're working two or three of them right now," Beto lamented.
We're going to pause here. The government is not forcing anybody to have any job like Beto is speaking about. I've also never met anybody who drives three hours to get to their job -- except folks driving into cities who get stuck in traffic heading to white-collar jobs. I'm not saying it doesn't ever happen, but it just doesn't seem to be true on the surface. But what is undeniable is that Democrats keep saying that more people are working two or three jobs. But the data shows that actually fewer individuals are working multiple jobs. I broke down this information here.
Beto's solution to these made-up problems is more government interference. "What if, as we propose to do, we're investing in housing closer to where you work?" he suggested.
"Very often, mixed-income housing means the very wealthiest are living next to those who are not the very wealthiest in the country, to make sure they can both afford to go to the same public schools," he added.
"What if we invested, as we propose to do, in high-speed rail and in transit and in all our cities to make sure that if you do not have a car, do not want to use a car, you will not need to have one, or you will not be penalized for not having one right now," Beto remarked.
What he doesn't mention is that these investments will be paid for by the taxpayer. Most likely by taxes from the very wealthy, which would mean an increase in taxes and a decrease in jobs. As for how feasible a high-speed rail is, let's ask California why they had to scrap their project. (Hint: It was too expensive and big government stinks at its job.)
Beto then continued to say that having cities which are denser will help with climate change, in addition to why we need to force people to live next to other people.
Beto continues to show that the new platform of the Left simply means free stuff. His idea of a "right" is not based on natural law, but in whatever sounds good at the time.
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