One slight correction without at all weighing in on the matter you present ... per Wikipedia:

O'Rourke was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 2012 after defeating incumbent Silvestre Reyes in a Democratic primary. Instead of seeking re-election in 2018, he ran for U.S. Senate, nearly staging an upset before being narrowly defeated by Republican incumbent Senator Ted Cruz.

Wonderful topic to start a discussion Carl!

I am just going to tell you a story that relates.

My sister, Patti has 10 children, the last 2 were adopted Aids orphans from Kenya. Great story below:

Our Sons from Kenya

http://www.pattimaguirearmstrong.com/2012/03/our-sons-from-kenya.html

Maybe a decade ago, during a conversation that I had with her, something related to this topic came up. Not reparations but  related to many blacks in this country feeling all the time that they are getting a raw deal and then, taking the conversation into the realm of slavery and connecting today with  the conditions under which their ancestors were brought here.

Her response was something like, "maybe instead of the American blacks being upset about their situation here in the United States,  all the other blacks left behind living in squalor in  Africa today should be suing the US because their ancestors got left behind. 

Many people would consider a remark like that to be racist. Racists don't save the lives of destitude blacks living in Africa by adopting them and raising them in their home. 

And its true. Crimes committed to Africans hundreds of years ago, the worst of which was denying them the most important right of a human being............freedom, have morphed into massive benefits to their offspring today.

There is no better country to be living in right now...........regardless of how they got here many, many generations ago.  Patti and her Kenyan sons, Calvin and Joash know this first hand. 

When Patti and her husband Mark first brought Calvin over, they were amazed at how so many, basic necessities in their other children lives were seen as big luxuries to him. By far, he was the hardest working of their kids and he took nothing for granted..............the way American born children do. 

And there are over a billion children just like him and Joash in the world that will never be blessed with the many opportunities offered to ALL Americans today compared to those living in Africa............or Central America for instance. This includes opportunities for black Americans. 

Of course, if one wants to, one could dwell on the fact that a higher % of blacks are in poverty in the US than whites. 

But if reparations are meant to compensate for the situation of slavery, then it should also take into account the difference in the lives of black Americans compared to what their lives would have been like if their ancestors had not been captured and brought here as slaves.

Calvin and Joash obviously were adopted into an ideal situation in a loving home with 2 model parents. Calvin is now a medical doctor working in Toledo OH, and Joash is in the US Marines, Many poor blacks living in the inner city don't have the same ideal environment.

So let's compare their "potential" opportunities and chance for success, living in poor America compared to living in Africa  today............very likely with less of everything and no opporunties. 

My Dad by the way, is a white man that grew up in the inner city of Detroit, never met his Dad, on welfare as a child and graduated from the Univerisity of Detroit, then worked as an Industrial Engineer for 40 years for Ford. Could he have done this if his poor parents had not come over from Ireland 100 years ago?

These people trying to get into our country from Central America know what a good thing we have here. Why would a race of people, not just appreciate it for what it is today but instead look for compensation (keep in mind that slavery was very accepted and legal when this happened) for what, in the end has resulted in them having what billions of poor people on this planet wish they had right now.

When I emailed this thread/post to my sister, her response was:

"Don’t mind at all. And Calvin is a doctor and Joash in the marines, both married with 1 child  they’ve done well "

Reparation is stupid. It’s over. Just help populations that need it.  

Patti Maguire Armstrong

Journalist at  National Catholic Register and  OSV Newsweekly

Blogs at: CatholicMom, Catholic Lane,   Spiritual Direction,  PattiMaguireArmstrong.com

What Mike said.

Thanks for the correction, John. Just trying to establish that THE Dems are not trying to buy black votes with reparations. (There is no such thing as THE Dems ... or THE Pubs, for that matter.)

IMHO, Nancy Pelosi would never allow such a disaster to even be voted upon.

Fascinating display of our rapidly changing country below(1789-1861):

Slavery in the United States

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slavery_in_the_United_States

An animation showing when United States territories and states forbade or allowed slavery, 1789–1861

anyone who has seen the television series "Roots" should have a good understanding of how horrible a crime slavery is.

Even though none of the African Americans  have ever seen a slave or a slave master here in the US, I can still understand that the memory of those horrible days has been passed on, through generations, to the descendants of slaves, 

But then, metmike made a valid point, when he wrote " Crimes committed to Africans hundreds of years ago, the worst of which was denying them the most important right of a human being............freedom, have morphed into massive benefits to their offspring today."

In legal terms, I believe, a case can be made that descendants of victims can ask for reparation. But then, who would have to pay? the descendants of "slave masters" and slave traders?

That's not what is being discussed by Beto today. He would punish the US tax payer. Who is the US tax payer? 

Are the US taxpayers the descendants of the guilty parties of 400 years ago? 

How about all the descendants of the soldiers from the Northern States who gave their lives during the Civil War, to free the slaves? Should they be punished?

And there is more....Since the end of slavery, some 150 years ago, millions of immigrants have poured into the US from all over the globe. These immigrants became part of the American life and became "Americans". They had families, and their descendants make probably up the major portion of US population today. None of these descendants have any connection with slavery. Why should they, or why should the taxpayer be punished for something that happened 4 centuries ago, and for something that has absolutely nothing to do with him or his ancestors?

I don't believe you can make a legal case for making the US taxpayer make any reparations. But then, if the advocates of reparations know the right people in Washington..... it will be done!