The clown car that is the Democrat 2020 presidential field just added a new member — Robert Francis “Beto” O'Rourke. The former punk-band bassist, drunk-driving arrestee, and three-term representative from Texas rose to heartthrob status during his losing bid to take Ted Cruz’s Senate seat in 2018. O'Rourke has clearly bought into the hype about himself. Indeed, he coordinated his official announcement this morning with yesterday’s release of a nearly 9,000-word hagiography in none other than the aptly named Vanity Fair, in which he admitted, “You can probably tell that I want to run. I do. I think I’d be good at it. … I want to be in it. Man, I’m just born to be in it.”

Well, he’s got the ego to go toe to toe with Donald Trump, that’s for sure.

In his announcement video, O'Rourke pledged to tackle “the interconnected crises in our economy, our democracy and our climate.” And in a bid to distinguish himself from a crowded field of socialists, O'Rourke insists, “I’m a capitalist. I don’t see how we’re able to meet any of the fundamental challenges that we have as a country without, in part, harnessing the power of the market.” It’s the “harnessing” part that should be most worrisome to Americans.

Besides the pure force of his ego, how will O'Rourke, a privileged white man who married into money, handle the biggest problem most Democrats see in our country — white men? “The government at all levels is overly represented by white men,” he said. “That’s part of the problem, and I’m a white man.” Not to worry; he’ll just hire the right people, he says. “So if I were to run, I think it’s just so important that those who would comprise my team looked like this country. If I were to run, if I were to win, that my administration looks like this country. It’s the only way I know to meet that challenge. But,” he continued, “I totally understand people who will make a decision based on the fact that almost every single one of our presidents has been a white man, and they want something different for this country. And I think that’s a very legitimate basis upon which to make a decision.”

Race is a “very legitimate” basis to decide things in a nation where “all men are created equal.” Got it.

For a better sense of what Beto brings to the table, we’ll leave you with two things. First, the former representative of El Paso said last month, “Absolutely, I’d take the wall down.” What a contrast with President Trump that would be. Far more alarming, however, is O'Rourke’s contemptuous view of the Constitution, of which he said, “I think that’s the question of the moment: Does this still work?” Tearing down the wall is bad enough. The next Democrat president, whether O'Rourke or any of the others, would immediately set about to continue Barack Obama’s work of tearing down the Constitution.

(Edited.)