Posted on 01/01/2016 5:56:12 PM PST by EveningStar
It is now axiomatic that Marco Rubio is the "establishment" favorite in the 2016 Republican primaries, due for a collision with a conservative alternative such as Donald Trump, Ted Cruz, or Ben Carson.
But if Rubio really represents the new GOP "establishment," then the fight is over and the conservatives won. Despite infuriating many grassroots conservatives by pushing the failed Gang of Eight immigration-reform bill and advocating a path to legalization, Rubio has an indisputably conservative record as a senator.
This is a man who has a lifetime ACU rating of 98 out of 100. A man who has a perfect rating from the NRA in the U.S. Senate. A man who earned scores of 100 in 2014, 100 in 2013, 71 in 2012, and 100 in 2011 from the Family Research Council. A "Taxpayer Super Hero" with a lifetime rating of 95 from Citizens Against Government Waste. A man Club for Growth president David McIntosh called "a complete pro-growth, free-market, limited-government conservative."
Across the board, Rubio's stances, policy proposals, and rhetoric fall squarely within the bounds of traditional conservatism.
(Excerpt) Read more at nationalreview.com ...
One cannot contemplate the tragic fall of Marco Rubio from the heights without a real feeling of sadness for what might have been. He was a man of extraordinary gifts who committed the major sin.
Rubio betrayed that he would risk the entire future of conservatism in America in order to advance his career. We conservatives equate the future the conservative movement with the future of the nation. Rubio consciously put the nation at risk for personal gain. The issue of immigration is an existential importance for conservatism and for the Republic. Rubio would cost us our sovereignty, our economic future, and any hope for preserving sanity in the polling booths for at least a generation. By the time America recovers from the immigration flood consciously created by the Democrat party to stack election demographics for generations, there might well be no grand American experiment to salvage. The issue of immigration is just that serious.
His defection could not have come at a worse time because it put him not just on the wrong side of the issue of immigration but on the wrong side of the ledger. The party is in the process of purification and it is looking for leaders whom they can trust for the very survival of the movement and of the nation. At a time when the party perceives John Boehner and Mitch McConnell to be selling us out on the issues of Obamacare and immigration, Marco Rubio's betrayal comes at a time when conservatives are marking their paladins to be either with us or with the enemy. Rubio sold out at a time when conservatives are looking to clean house and are in no mood to forgive.
Rubio has aligned himself with the elitists and against conservatives. He has done so at the worst time. In doing so he risks everything. We simply can no longer tolerate self dealing politicians who will sell us out. Rubio can never, ever be trusted.
Why would anyone vote for Beaver Cleaver?
They are too soon in the bait and switch of Rubio for Cruz. That means either 1) they think Cruz has peaked/got all the mileage out of him they can, or 2) they think Rubio is in deep trouble & they can wait no longer.
(Snort...snicker). So Mr. Amnesty is conservative, eh? Well, at least we know who the gop-e journal of record is pushing.
>> Since your mind is made up in advance, you really do not wish to be troubled by the mere facts <<
Welcome to FR!
The fact is, if Rubio got/gets his way on amnesty the entirety of the rest of the conservative agenda is la morte. History.
Did I write that? It looks like you might not pass your own literacy test.
If you are offended by me not like RINOs and the pimps who continually push them, that’s tough. Loathe away!
Say hi to Lindsay and Karl for me! Ha ha
I’m still chortling. Rubio is done. Most GOP voters have recognized him for what he is a nakedly ambitious, disloyal little political hack who has basically quit his job in the senate due to lack of interest but keeps taking the paycheck.
Yup. A fatal flaw. He was coopted by McCain and Graham and he will pay the price.
I don’t know. The country is ill served by conspiracy theorists who are poorly informed and think of themselves as too good to be informed.
However, I am human enough to acknowledge that on almost all issues, Rubio is a conservative, but the immigration blunder is too big to overlook.
One can disagree without hating Rubio in the lowest form. It's obvious you are a Trump supporter, since from what I have read on this site most of Trump's supporters have no class, at all.
In the meantime, Obama is president for an additional year and three weeks. Why don't you do something productive and actually try to do something to help prevent implementation of some of his policies.
Are you kidding me? You are ragging on someone for calling NPR liberal?
Look to the future not the past. Eschew the GOPee.
Gesundheit.
Remember, when you ASSume, you make an ass out of yourself.
Could be either, I can’t really tell. There is some truth to both. Scary scenario is Cruz and Trump take 55 percent and Rubio unites GOPe w 45.
Typical, tired, old, worn out cliché. Unoriginal.
Typical, tired, old, worn out cliché. Unoriginal.
Trust me. I am. I’m happy with Cruz or Trump. I think Trump will be a horrible president, but if he can build a wall like he has promised, and deport and/or make conditions so many will self deport, then anything extra is gravy.
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