Whether by accident or by coordination both Charles Krauthammer and Rick Lowry on the same day have maneuvered toward Marco Rubio as the new establishment answer to Donald Trump.
It is interesting that both of these pundits identify immigration as the key issue. Lowry argues, "In the argument with Trump over mass deportation, clearly Bush is right." By extension, one assumes that Marco Rubio whom conservatives see as a rank betrayer on this issue, is also right. Marco Rubio has disqualified himself in the eyes of informed conservatives when he betrayed his Tea Party base to sleep with the Gang of Eight on immigration. Ever cynical, the Republican Establishment believes that informed conservatives amount to only such a small minority within a minority that Marco Rubio's evident onstage skills will ultimately prevail with less well-informed conservatives and independents.
Revealingly, the establishment argument over immigration inevitably reverts to alleged electability. Republicans cannot win, the argument goes, without a respectable showing on election day in the Latino demographic with the breakpoint usually put at about 40%. Antagonize Latino voters on the issue of immigration, they warn us, and lose the national election. Who better to soothe the misgivings of Spanish-speaking people of color than a Latino with matinee idol looks who has associated his name with amnesty?
The establishment's reverting to arguing electability is revealing because it betokens their cynicism on every issue beyond immigration. We dare not shut the government down, the people will blame Republicans and nothing, not Obama care, not bankrupting the country with runaway debt, is worth an election.
No principle is worth losing an election, fidelity to no promise is worth losing an election, adherence to oath and Constitution is not worth losing an election. It is not worth losing an election to repeal Obamacare. It is not worth losing an election to save the country from bankruptcy, it is not worth losing an election for any cause by shutting the government down or even appearing to be associated with a shutdown done by Obama. It is not worth it to defend the people against the bureaucrats, to defend the people against executive tyranny done by executive order. It is not worth it to oppose leftist judges, leftist attorneys general, leftist IRS agents, leftist schemers in every dark bureaucratic corner of the Obama administration. Nothing dear to conservatives is worth it.
It is however worth risking an election by offending the conservative base; it is worth risking an election to keep faith with crony capitalists; it is worth risking an election to keep the border open whether in the Oval Office or out; it is worth losing an election by serving K St. at the expense of Main Street; it is worth risking an election to presume on the faithfulness of the conservative base while betraying it to billionaire campaign contributors. Is worth risking an election by cutting secret deals with Obama to betray conservative constituents.
It is even worth risking the security of the nation to abandon the constitutional mandate to advise and consent to Obama's secret dealings enabling Iran getting the bomb.
When Marco Rubio slipped in between the sheets with a Gang of Eight on immigration he did nothing more than reveal shortly after his arrival in Washington that he was a quick study. Now the pundits Krauthammer and Lowry nudge unwary conservatives in the direction of Marco Rubio. Soon every establishment Republicans will argue that winning the election is everything. Implied: principle is expendable.
Principled informed conservatives reply, winning with cynics and opportunists is worth nothing. Winning with establishment Republicans is the equivalent of losing.
If demographics is destiny in politics, conservatism has perhaps only this election cycle before it is swept away by a cynically contrived flood of Democrat voting immigrants. Now the very people who caused this, especially the Bush family, and those who at least condoned the Democrats practicing immigration politics, raise their own misfeasance as reason to continue them in power. Properly translated into honest English the GOPe is saying, we have created an immigrant population that must be appeased, we have created a monster which must be fed.
Informed conservatives know this is our last chance.
