Presidential primary candidate Beto O’Rourke has an unusual message for Democrat voters. America was founded on racism and America is still a racist country today, 243 years later. How’s that for an inspiring message?

Beto’s re-launch of his presidential campaign is off to a rocky start, just like the previous re-launches. This time around he’s gone to a dark place and now insists that racism in America is his primary concern. He went off on a tangent Saturday night as the speaker at the third annual Arkansas Democratic Party Clinton Dinner in Little Rock.

Our country was founded on racism—and is still racist today. In Arkansas, I said why I believe there’s no denying this reality; and why it’s on all of us to change it. pic.twitter.com/cHLKmCMGEB

— Beto O'Rourke (@BetoORourke) August 18, 2019

In the clip of his speech, you can hear Beto go through a laundry list of grievances that white Americans have brought about, in his line of thinking. More white people are wealthy, more minorities are imprisoned, children of color suffer in school at the hands of racist teachers, and so on. He shifted from that opening statement to his version of American history and race relations.

O’Rourke describes slaves from West Africa building America and then claims America went on to “deny their ancestors the meaningful opportunity to enjoy in the wealth that they have created.” This is the worst kind of race-baiting hyperbole and it denies America’s true greatness. The greatness of America lies in the fact that though our founders were slave-owners, America is the only democratic republic in history to abolish slavery. The Civil War, where over 600,000 soldiers were killed, was fought over slavery and economic issues. The Republican Party was established as an anti-slavery party in the 1850s.

Is race-baiting and dividing Americans the only arrow in O’Rourke’s quiver? Perhaps it is. All you have to do is listen to an interview with him and you quickly find out that Beto is an empty suit. He offers no policy initiatives or ideas in a conversation. He simply pieces together standard talking points and buzzwords and it all comes out as word salad. Apparently, he has decided that delivering a message of liberal white guilt is the way to go. It is particularly rich coming from a man who is the beneficiary of a privileged life. He falls up in life.

After the phony Russian collusion narrative failed to take down President Trump, the Democrats settled on the charge that President Trump and Republicans, in general, are racist. This is nothing new for Democrats as they have employed this tactic for decades against Republicans but today’s Democrats have taken it to a new level of vitriol. We now hear Democrats running for president calling Trump a white supremacist. This also implies that his supporters are white supremacists. He said in the speech, “It was only until this administration and this president that that racism was invited out into the open.”

Democrats, including O’Rourke, have little to run on. The economy is doing well and that is why you now hear talk about a recession hovering just around the corner. Democrats know that as long as the economy hums along and record employment rates continue in literally every category imaginable, President Trump’s chance of re-election is good. Instead of uplifting people to garner their vote, O’Rourke has decided to divide along racial lines. He is really just that shallow.

Speaking of “denying” black people “the meaningful opportunity to enjoy in the wealth that they have created” (word salad), the irony of O’Rourke’s hateful rhetoric is that President Trump’s economic policies have provided minority populations in America with unprecedented opportunity. Unemployment is at all-time lows for black Americans, Hispanics, young people, women, and blue-collar workers.

Maybe Beto has forgotten that Americans elected President Obama. Twice. He should be reminded that Michelle Obama pointed out that she lived in the White House, built with the help of slaves, therefore acknowledging the opportunities she and her husband embraced to get there. She delivered the remarks at the Democrat National Convention in 2016 in Philadelphia.

That is the story of this country, the story that has brought me to this stage tonight, the story of generations of people who felt the lash of bondage, the shame of servitude, the sting of segregation, but who kept on striving and hoping and doing what needed to be done so that today I wake up every morning in a house that was built by slaves. And I watch my daughters, two beautiful, intelligent, black young women playing with their dogs on the White House lawn.

As is typical for Beto, he said the “responsibility to respond” is on all of us yet offered no suggestions or ideas. He just wants to point his bony finger and name-call, especially against President Trump. He’s all emotion and no logic. As I write this, Beto is ranked at 2.8% in the Real Clear Politics average. Maybe he should go back to jumping up on counters and bust out the skateboard again.

I’ll end with this little nugget. At the beginning of the program, Beto took part in the Calling of the Hogs. Enjoy.

@BetoORourke started his speech off by Calling the Hogs! @THV11 pic.twitter.com/mbTotRk7e5

— Mercedes Mackay (@THVMercedes) August 18, 2019