Sure, Let's Talk About Rubio's Content

The GOP savior du jour.  I mean, del dia.

Senator Marco Rubio of Florida was dubbed the "Republican Savior" by Time magazine.  Here, after all, is a Latino Republican who can reach beyond the party's Anglo base and attract new voters.  He's already being hyped as a 2016 presidential contender, and it's no surprise that he was chosen to give the "official" GOP response to the State of the Union address (Senator Rand Paul sort-of defected and delivered the Tea Party response, giving us perhaps the strongest indication yet that things aren't so rosy in elephant-land).  So when Rubio took the Swig Heard Round the World, Twitter exploded with mockery and liberals had a good laugh.  Cue Republican outrage about refusing to discuss the content of Rubio's speech.  Well, fine, I'm game.  It was the same old crap, so it's really not that hard.

But first, the water bottle incident is worth briefly discussing.  Yeah, it's pretty dumb and doesn't disqualify him to be president or anything.  But like it or not, image is important in politics.  It's been important on a mass scale since Nixon stood next to JFK in 1960, and the explosion of social media means public responses to how politicians present themselves are now instantaneous and create a first impression that impacts any meaningful discussion of policy content.  That's just reality.  And Rubio's entire presentation showed that the GOP has apparently learned nothing since the mess of the Republican National Convention.  The lighting was weird and the set was overdone and kinda cheesy.  And then the water.  If you gotta take a drink, fine.  But if it's apparent that thirst may be an issue, why didn't anyone think to have it in a glass at easily reachable height?  Instead you had Rubio doing calisthenics to bend down and reach a tacky plastic water bottle.  Nobody thought of that?  As a result, for apolitical people, the biggest speech in Rubio's career will only be remembered for a big slobbery moment of fail.  That's not good.  It seriously impedes whatever message he was trying to deliver.  Moreover, Republicans certainly never miss an opportunity to pile on Democrat image-gaffes - Michael Dukakis in a tank, Al Gore sighing, Howard Dean screaming, John Kerry eating a cheesesteak, Barack Obama's debate boredom - the list goes on.

But let's move on to Rubio's message.  Essentially, it was the same BS GOP talking points that Romney and Ryan tried to use last year - and we saw where that got them.  Apparently they really believe having an "ethnic" face deliver the same drivel will make a difference.  It was the sort of "government bad" generics, lacking in any evidence or much details, that a bad high school debater might have offered.  He responded to very little of what Obama actually said.  Now, I understand the speech has to be prepared in advance, but Rubio and his staff should have received an advance copy of at least part of the speech and had an hour-long State of the Union and several minutes thereafter during which to tweak and adjust his response accordingly.  It's called extemporaneous speaking, and if I could do it in high school forensics, you would think a U.S. Senator should be able to.  But apparently in their thought-bubble hive mind they just know what Obama is going to say, so they don't need to listen.  As a result he beat up on the same Straw Man Obama that Republicans have been hating on for the past five years.  Fortunately, it appears that more and more Americans are realizing that the un-American, Socialist, totalitarian Obama that the GOP loves to portray doesn't actually exist.

That was the general theme; it's not worth plodding through the whole thing, but here are a few choice excerpts and my reaction:

"This idea – that our problems were caused by a government that was too small – it’s just not true. In fact, a major cause of our recent downturn was a housing crisis created by reckless government policies."

This is a regurgitation of the conservative assertion that government lending agencies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac caused the housing crisis.  Of course, never mind that the idea's been debunked by pretty much every economist who's cared to look at it, and it's common knowledge that risky lending by private lenders was a huge cause of the housing bubble bursting.  But to Rubio and his ilk, government must be a problem, liberals must always want more of it, and any data that shows otherwise is either ignorable or faked.

"Mr. President, I still live in the same working-class neighborhood I grew up in. My neighbors aren’t millionaires. They’re retirees who depend on Social Security and Medicare."

Guess what?  Turns out Rubio is trying to sell his house in that working-class Miami neighborhood...for $675,000.  Apparently this fits the Republican definition of "working class."  To be fair, though, it appears that Rubio and about five neighbors live in a ritzy cul-de-sac ostentatiously plopped down in the middle of what might be an actual middle-class area.  Which, of course, Rubio seemingly wants to escape as soon as possible.

"And the idea that more taxes and more government spending is the best way to help hardworking middle class taxpayers – that's an old idea that's failed every time it's been tried."

Um, nope.  See: Great Depression, Social Security, interstate highway system and other internal improvements, mass public education, GI Bill, federal student loans, investment in research and technology, Medicare, etc etc etc.  It's worked a lot more often than "NO GUVMINT EVAR."

"When we point out that no matter how many job-killing laws we pass, our government can't control the weather – he accuses us of wanting dirty water and dirty air."

Senator Rubio, please point to the transcript of President Obama saying Republicans want dirty water and air.  I can gladly point to many people in your party saying much worse things about him.  On climate change, he makes the same tired fallacy of conflating weather and climate (not to mention controlling the weather is not the same as controlling pollution).  There are plenty of market-based ideas to combat climate change, like cap-and-trade systems, that many Republicans once supported.  Then they got hijacked by the John Birch Society.

"Of course solar and wind energy should be a part of our energy portfolio. But God also blessed America with abundant coal, oil and natural gas. Instead of wasting more taxpayer money on so-called "clean energy" companies like Solyndra, let's open up more federal lands for safe and responsible exploration."

Man, I can't stand the religious self-righteousness of "God gave us all this cool stuff to exploit."  Well, maybe God wanted us to be good stewards of the planet too, and try to find sources of energy that won't run out in a hundred years while destroying our environment.

Ugh, it goes on and on.  He praises certain government programs and acknowledges he needed loans to go to college and that his parents have depended on Medicare.  He claims not to want to change these programs in a way that would harm people that need it (now, that is - future generations are out of luck), but he also supports a balanced budget amendment - which would devastate these and other programs, no way around it.  It's just the underlying message of "I got mine, now screw you" that offends me so much.  If Rubio is the best "savior" the Republicans have to offer, they might have more dark days ahead.