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Posted on 09/05/2011 4:20:57 AM PDT by Kaslin
Florida’s young Republican Senator Marco Rubio gave an important speech at the Reagan Presidential Library in California that has set off the liberal talking head universe.
He had the temerity to suggest that the huge growth in government’s role in American life over the last century “actually weakened us as a people.”
The resulting onslaught from liberal blogs and cable hosts comes as no surprise because Rubio directly took on the idol at which liberals worship – Big Government.
But his analysis was courageous and profound.
Eighty percent of Americans are not happy with the direction of the country. And, new Gallup polling shows that only 17 percent are positively disposed toward the federal government.
Americans want answers.
Senator Rubio, in this speech, stepped up to the plate to provide answers.
If liberals disagree, they are going to have to get equally serious. They’ve certainly got to do better than MSNBC’s Ed Schultz, calling Rubio “a political hack” who wants “to get rid of social safety nets.”
Our fiscal crisis is undeniable. The trillions in debt we’ve taken on to finance massive government spending has resulted in the unthinkable downgrading in rating of our government’s bonds.
But Senator Rubio took a bold step beyond looking at our problems just as an accountant.
He suggested that we cannot separate our budget from our culture. The culture of government has displaced the culture of personal responsibility.
I have been making the point for years regarding what the welfare state culture has done in our black communities. How it has created a permanent underclass, defined by family breakdown, sexual promiscuity, disease, and crime.
American culture has changed profoundly over these years that Americans have come to increasingly believe that government social engineering can solve life’s problems and challenges.
A snapshot of today’s American family shows how much things have changed, even compared to 1981 when President Reagan took office.
Since 1980, the percentage of babies in America born to unwed mothers has doubled, from 20 percent to 40 percent.
Fifty two percent of Americans over the age of 18 are married today, compared to 72 percent in 1960.
Among blacks, 44% of the population over 18 has never been married, compared to 17% in 1960.
Sixty four percent of American children today live in a home with two married parents, compared with 75 percent in 1980 and 87 percent in 1960.
And, according to the Pew Research Center, 44 percent of those between ages of 18 to 29 “agree marriage is becoming obsolete.”
We used to be a nation, as Senator Rubio pointed out, where parents raised and cared for children, then those children cared for their aging parents. Where neighbors cared for neighbors.
We might note that the welfare state idea is not an American invention but an import from Europe. We also might note that about 20 percent of Europeans attend church regularly, half that of Americans.
Europe is characterized today by low birth rates – so low that they are not replacing themselves – and high unemployment rates. The unemployment rate in France has hovered between 8 and 11 percent over the last 25 years.
We must wonder if even we can take on our fiscal problems, if traditional American family life can be restored, and if we believe it even matters.
It is to Senator Rubio’s considerable credit that he has stood up to argue that we must look at the picture of our nation in its entirety. That we cannot separate our budget matters and our attitude toward government from our overall culture and our personal behavior.
What is before us today is not a battle of competing numbers but a battle of competing visions.
Is America to continue in the direction of welfare state materialism? Or will this be a free nation under God?
Marco is absolutely great as a senator. He should replace Mitch McConnell as leader ASAP.
But it HAS TO BE SAID. Regardless of what any pundit or GOP promoter like Dick Morris thinks, Marco is NOT A NATURAL BORN CITIZEN and should not be considered as VP material.
Marco was absolutely and provably a NATIVE BORN citizen, born in Miami in 1971....his parents, however, did not take the step of naturalization until 1974.
Marco, I think, knows this and that is one reason why he is so coy about higher office. Marco believes in the Constitution and our country’s established practices. And he knows that a NATURAL BORN CITIZEN IS A PERSON BORN IN THE USA OF TWO CITIZEN PARENTS.
http://www.birthers.org/USC/Vattel.html
It is not Rubio’s fault that his parents were tardy but what is, is.
If someone wants to start a movement to amend the Constitution, that’s fine and dandy. But the Constitution and the debates surrounding its enactment should be the authority, NOT politics or popularity.
Marco Rubio would be great as a leader, and hopefully one day he will be. However because he is a junior Senator the time is not yet
I take it, then, that the constitutional issues surrounding a Rubio candidacy don’t concern you?
Not eligible is not eligible and nothing can change that short of a constitutional amendment. But he should take over Reid’s job once the Republican’s win back the Senate.
I did not say that. I replied to the part about him becoming Senate leader
He's one of the few who understands it. The deficit and all the other nuts and bolts problems we are trying to solve right now all come from the fact that we have created a monster in the federal government and it is devouring our lives as well as our fortunes.
Rubio is great and he has what Reagan had, which was more than just a grasp of the immediate problems, but an understanding of the fundamental philosophical problem. Then as now, the real problem was the direction in which the country was moving and the way it conflicted with the essential nature of America.
Well said and well reasoned. I agree entirely.. and admire Rubio immensely.
Gentlemen, aside from appearing on every thread that mentions Rubio to discuss your erroneous belief that he is not eligible for the presidency, maybe it would be worthwhile thinking a little more about what he said. Every single thread about him gets dragged off topic.
I think Star Parker is right; we have immediate problems to solve (deficit and economic matters) but none of those will be solved until we make a fundamental readjustment in our attitude and return to the traditional American ideal of the primacy of the individual and private life. The government should exist only to make these things possible and protect the individual in situations in which he himself is unable to do so (attack by a foreign power, for example).
That said, I’m not sure that even if Rubio were President, he could undo the monstrous, stifling structure that has been built over the past few years. I’m not sure how we go about doing that.
Government is God to the half of the nation that is now dependent upon it to supply the basic needs of food, housing, transportation and income. And as long as people with no skin in the game are free to keep voting for representatives that promise to redistribute the fruits of their productive neighbors then this situation will only worsen. Heck when folks are forced to pay for stranger's birth control and renovations to stranger's rental properties while not being able to afford to flood insurance on their own property it begs the question; when does half the country start standing on it's own two feet? Answer: only when they have to.
Wrong. ONLY two categories of citizens: Natural born and naturalized. Native born IS natural born.
BTW, I get a kick out of the Birth Bozos. See, for years they were hunting down Obama's birth certificate while it was a flat out fact that his father was a citizen of Kenya. So how often did we hear this NEW argument about native born not being natural born if one parent a foreigner at birth? Hardly ever. At the same time they were desperately hunting down Obama's birth certificate which would be completely unnecessary if their fictitious citizenship rule applied in real life.
FUnnie, but it didn't keep Chester A. Arthur from being chosen as part of the Presidential ticket with James Garfield in 1880. And Arthur had a LOT of enemies, especially within his own Republican party. They tried to track down where Arthur was born in order to disqualify him. But guess what? None even thought to disqualify him on the basis that his father was a foreign citizen at the time of his birth. Why? Because this new natural born rule is a recent FICTION.
I'd say that people today...
are obsessed.
I mean, real drawn for security.
They want protection, coddling from the cradle to the grave.
I say that weakens the moral fiber.
Daniel Boone wasn't looking for unemployment insurance and old age pension. All he needed was his ax and his gun...
and a chance to hew a living out of the forest, with his own hands.
That’s the spirit that built this country.
That’s two taking on big government. That, along with Obama’s political terrorism, is what Sarah Palin took apart in her Indianola speech. Rush does a good job, too.
But his analysis was courageous and profound.
It seems rather mundane and obvious to me. What Republican politician doesn't say this?
While most of them at the same time are helping increase government's role in American life.
I mean, in the recent debate over the debt ceiling, Rubio supported a plan that would have raised it by $2.4 TRILLION dollars, which is pretty much where we ended up.
IMO a direct result of the "fairness" mindset. People electing representatives that forever promise to "level the playing field", and representatives willing to try doing so to maintain their own power. The rub is that the playing field will never be level. People have differing degrees of ambition and comfort levels. The illusion of providing "fairness" ensures the never ending need to elect the do-gooders with good intentions. Consequences be damned.
You got that right! And I can think of a LOT more adjectives to describe them, too. :) bttt
Bttt
Is the Left Insane or Merely Unsane?
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