(NBC News)
Alex Seitz-Wald March 15, 2019 4:29 AM
BURLINGTON, Iowa — A lot has changed in the Democratic party in the six months since Beto O'Rourke was its biggest fascination.
The crowded 2020 Democratic presidential field that O'Rourke joined on Thursday has supercharged the pace of policy innovation as candidates looking to stand out push ideas like boosting the number of justices on the Supreme Court, slavery reparations, breaking up Facebook, the Green New Deal, new ways to tax the rich, and much more.
"We're in a revolutionary moment," said Alexandra Rojas, executive director of the left-wing group Justice Democrats. "The progressive movement wants to see candidates that are not only calling for these progressive policy visions now, but also who is going to take on the people that have been halting progress for a long long time."
Where does O'Rourke — whose new campaign website offers no policy ideas — fit in this new playing field?
Depending on who you ask, he's either arriving late to a battle of ideas he's not equipped to fight or he's smartly coasting above the fray of the internecine wars of Twitter activists that few voters really care about.
"Campaigns aren't typically won based on a side-by-side of issues, but instead by voters judging the character and vision of candidates," said Ben LaBolt, a former aide to Barack Obama.
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