WATCH: Beto O’Rourke’s Most Glorious Debate Fail

So Beto O'Rourke dodged a very specific question in a way that was hilarious and silly and ruthlessly mocked online. Take a look at this. Some Democrats want a marginal individual tax rate of 70% on the very highest earners, those making more than $10 million a year. Would you support that? And if not, what would your top individual rate be? This economy has got to work for everyone. And right now we know that it isn't, and it's going to take all of us coming together to make sure that it does. Dude, that was a bad idea, man. That was a bad idea. Everybody on Twitter was like, what are you doing, bro? What are you doing? That's like a perfect encapsulation of the left argument against identity politics. Because what do lefties say? Oftentimes, identity politics is used as a shield, and you deflect from the conversation about serious policy issues by just interjecting something about race or gender or just identity in general so that you don't have to talk about the policy thing because you think you're out-lefting people simply by bringing up the identity thing. So here Better O'Rourke is basically trying to be like, hey, forget about the fact that I didn't answer the question about a 70% top marginal tax rate because I don't want there to be a 70% top marginal tax rate, and I don't want to raise taxes on the rich probably at all. I'm speaking Spanish. I'm speaking Spanish. Do I get my social brownie points? Do I get my social brownie points? I'll be the virtue signaler in chief. Everybody I saw on Twitter was like, oh, what are you doing, bro? Here's the deal. If you're gonna dodge a question, you have to be artful in how you do it. Hey, should there be a 70% top marginal tax rate? You know, I think this economy, as I do my Obama impression, which is also my Better O'Rourke impression, the economy has to work for everybody. You have to say something like, you know, that's a good question, and I don't have an exact answer to that right now, but what I will tell you is the rich have to be paying more in taxes. You could say something like that. You know, I'm not sure what the exact rate should be at this point, Tom, but I will say that the top marginal tax rate has to go up because right now, you know, they're paying significantly less than they have in decades. I don't know, say something like that. He couldn't do it. He couldn't bring himself to do it. He had to pander. He went right to pandering. Went right by the question and went right to pandering. Nobody's gonna like that, man. Nobody's gonna hear that and go, like, what do you think? People are that incapable of independent thought where they'll just be like, ah, you know, I didn't like the answer, but then he started speaking Spanish, so I am totally for this guy. Yeah. Nobody's gonna do that, man. Nobody's gonna do that. I think this definitely hurt him with more people than it helped him with, and it appeared unanimous on Twitter again that he did the worst of everybody, and then he went on some news show afterwards and said he gives his performance an A. Bro, you're gonna go down in the polls now. Like, not only are you not gonna get a bump, and you need a bump, you're gonna go down in the polls, dog. You're going down. You know, Beto really could have won a Senate seat. I think John Cornyn is done. He's retiring. He really could have won a Senate seat. He almost beat Ted Cruz, so he could have run for the Senate again and likely won. Had a really good shot, but no. His giant ego made him jump into the presidential race, and now he's lighting his political career on fire. Dude, he has really bad instincts. He has really bad political instincts. You could tell he's like clinging to that politician's persona as he talks. Like, if I just keep pretending that I'm this thing, then maybe people will like me. No, man, we see right through you. It is honestly time to start making the Beto O'Rourke-Martin O'Malley comparisons, because that's who he's reminding me of now. Martin O'Malley, in 2016, overcoached, always sounded on script, super fake, very standard politician-like. That's Beto O'Rourke, but the thing is, Martin O'Malley never had a moment in the sun. He was always flailing and doing terrible in the polls. Beto O'Rourke had that launch where corporate media tried to shove him down our throats like he's awesome and we're gonna love him, and then all it took was like a month or two of hearing this guy talk, and everybody was like, oh no, what have you done? Stop it. Stop talking. Ugh, gross. What are you doing? So yeah, Beto, first of all, answer the question. You can answer the question. Even if you have no answer, you can answer the question. That still would have been more honest. So, first of all, answer the question. Second of all, don't do that. If you're gonna dodge, you have to be artful in how you dodge, and you have to not try to score the cheap pandering points.