{"id":1366,"date":"2015-08-19T10:03:12","date_gmt":"2015-08-19T14:03:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/?p=1366"},"modified":"2015-08-19T10:03:12","modified_gmt":"2015-08-19T14:03:12","slug":"trump-is-no-conservative-but-neither-is-marco-rubio","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/2015\/08\/trump-is-no-conservative-but-neither-is-marco-rubio.html","title":{"rendered":"Trump is No Conservative, But Neither Is….Marco Rubio!"},"content":{"rendered":"

On its face, few things on the contemporary American political scene are as puzzling as Marco Rubio fans blasting Donald Trump for not being a true \u201cconservative.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

As I\u2019ve argued recently<\/a>, given his track record, the unprejudiced observer can only conclude that Trump is not<\/em> a conservative.<\/p>\n

However, his GOP critics generally, and Marco Rubio admirers specifically, are at once intellectually dishonest and disingenuous when they level this charge against Trump, for their implication is clear: He<\/em> is not a conservative, but Jeb, Marco, and anyone else who the Republican Trump bashers on Fox News and other places favor is <\/em>a conservative.<\/p>\n

Nothing in the world could be further from the truth.<\/p>\n

Consider Senator Marco Rubio.<\/p>\n

Though a one-time darling of the Tea Party\u2014Americans who believed that on both <\/em>the domestic and <\/em>foreign fronts, our government has grown too large in scope\u2014Rubio clings to the same adventurous, democratizing foreign policy vision shared by George W. Bush and the Republicans who were ejected from power in 2006 and 2008 largely because of it. It is \u201cessential\u201d for America to \u201cspend money and risk lives on foreign policy,\u201d<\/a> Rubio has said.<\/p>\n

While \u201cwe don\u2019t always agree with other democracies<\/a>,\u201d Rubio stated, \u201cvery rarely do we find ourselves fighting them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rubio also told the (liberal) Brookings Institution that he took issue<\/a> with the members of his own party who choose to heed John Quincy Adams\u2019 advice to avoid going \u201cabroad, in search of monsters to destroy.\u201d<\/p>\n

And yes, Rubio is no less a proponent of socialized medicine than is his Republican and Democratic peers inasmuch he is a fan of Medicare and Medicaid.<\/p>\n

In 2014, Rubio complained<\/em> that Obamacare would essentially bankrupt<\/em> Medicaid<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In 2013, he called for expanding <\/em>mental health centers<\/a>. This, he insured those who may object to pouring more tax monies into the health care system, is what \u201ccompassion\u201d demands.<\/p>\n

And Rubio called for expanding <\/em>prescription benefits<\/a> to lower-income senior citizens. Republicans who objected, Rubio remarked, \u201chaven\u2019t been paying attention.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yet the one issue on which Rubio really betrays his true political identity is that issue that Ann Coulter (among others) quite plausibly refers to as the single greatest issue<\/a> facing America: immigration.<\/p>\n

Three years ago, while Republicans, independents, and conservatives were mourning over the reelection of Barack Obama, Rubio rubbed salt in the wounds when he joined the Gang of Eight and allied with the President and his party in order to secure amnesty for millions of illegal immigrants.<\/p>\n

This was horrible enough. But when the members of the base of his own party rebelled, Rubio alternated between insulting their intelligence<\/em> by packaging this sweetheart deal to the Democrats as \u201cconservative\u201d and insulting them.<\/em><\/p>\n

Some years ago, when Arizonans passed Senate Bill 1070\u2014which would allow state authorities to enforce the federal immigration laws that the federal government refused to enforce\u2014Rubio opposed it. Furthermore, he accused Arizonans of favoring a \u201cpolice state.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

In 2013, while busily marketing his designs for amnesty, <\/em>Rubio claimed<\/a> that there were but two alternatives to his plan. Some of his critics favored making \u201cthe lives\u201d of immigrants\u201d so \u201cmiserable\u201d that they would self-deport. Others want \u201cto basically ignore the problem [.]\u201d Thus, they support a \u201cde facto amnesty.\u201d<\/p>\n

Notice, from Rubio\u2019s perspective, everyone who disagrees with him is either heartless or apathetic.<\/p>\n

Yet this was not the only time that Rubio attempted to prove that he was more compassionate and concerned than other icky conservatives.<\/p>\n

In a speech to the National Association of Latino Elected & Appointed Officials in 2013, Rubio characterized his opponents (who were all <\/em>on the right) as wrongly viewing illegal immigration \u201conly<\/em> as a law and order issue\u201d (emphasis added). It is <\/em>this, he admitted. \u201cBut we know it\u2019s much more than that.\u201d<\/p>\n

So what else is it? It\u2019s \u201calso a human<\/em> issue,\u201d<\/a> Rubio told his audience (emphasis added).<\/p>\n

\u201cThese [illegal immigrants] are real people. These are human beings who have children, and hopes, and dreams. These are people that are doing what virtually any of us would do if our children were hungry, if their countries were dangerous, if they had no hope for the future.\u201d<\/p>\n

So, illegal immigration is a \u201chuman issue.\u201d But for Rubio, the only humans who seem to matter are the illegal immigrants<\/em>. Those human beings who make up the families of the Kate Steinles<\/a> of America\u2014Americans who have had their lives and communities destroyed by illegal immigrants\u2014evidently don\u2019t register in Rubio\u2019s humanitarian calculus.<\/p>\n

When Rubio was Speaker of the House in Florida, there were multiple bills that promised stiff penalties for illegal immigrants and their employers that Rubio lifted not a finger to move along. He also endorsed measures that would grant illegals the opportunity to pursue a college education while paying in-state tuition fees<\/a>!<\/p>\n

In 2012, Rubio promoted his own version of the much despised DREAM Act. While the original act supplied illegal youth with a \u201cpath to citizenship<\/em>\u201d under the condition that they enter either college or the military, Rubio\u2019s rendition promised a path to \u201cnon-immigrant visas.\u201d<\/a> Obviously, Rubio\u2019s DREAM Act no less than the original legalizes illegals.<\/p>\n

As of this moment, Rubio rejects<\/a> Trump\u2019s proposal to repeal \u201cbirthright citizenship.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now, the fearless Colin Flaherty, author of the much praised, White Girl Bleed A lot<\/em><\/a>, <\/em>and the equally respected, Don\u2019t Make the Black Kids Angry<\/em><\/a>,<\/em> reveals that Marco Rubio is the latest presidential candidate, after Bernie Sanders, to legitimize the sham that is the \u201cBlack Lives Matter\u201d movement<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Rubio recently described the BLM movement as \u201clegitimate.\u201d In making his point, he referred to a black friend who (allegedly) was pulled over by police nine<\/em> times over an 18 month period.<\/p>\n

And not once did Rubio\u2019s friend even get ticketed.<\/p>\n

Flaherty quotes Rubio as saying that \u201cfor a number of years\u201d members of \u201cthe African-American community\u201d have experienced \u201ca growing resentment\u201d over \u201cthe way\u201d they\u2019ve been treated by \u201ccriminal justice and law enforcement.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 He adds that it is \u201cendemic\u201d that \u201cin some communities in this country\u201d young black males are more likely to have some involvement with \u201ccriminal justice than higher education.\u201d<\/p>\n

A \u201csignificant percentage of our population\u2026feels they are locked out of the promise of this country.\u201d This <\/em>is what accounts for the \u201canxiety and frustration\u201d that \u201cwe are now seeing expressed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Flaherty dispatches Rubio\u2019s argument easily enough. \u201cIf Rubio thinks robbing causes anxiety for the robber,\u201d he comments, \u201che should ask a victim about their anxiety after they \u2018interact\u2019 with a perpetrator of black crime.\u201d<\/p>\n

Again, as in the case of illegal immigration, we see Rubio sympathizing with the \u201cillegals\u201d\u2014not the victims.<\/p>\n

Trump may not be a conservative. But Marco Rubio definitely is not.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On its face, few things on the contemporary American political scene are as puzzling as Marco Rubio fans blasting Donald Trump for not being a true \u201cconservative.\u201d As I\u2019ve argued recently, given his track record, the unprejudiced observer can only conclude that Trump is not a conservative. However, his GOP critics generally, and Marco Rubio…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":399,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1366","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nTrump is No Conservative, But Neither Is....Marco Rubio!<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/2015\/08\/trump-is-no-conservative-but-neither-is-marco-rubio.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Trump is No Conservative, But Neither Is....Marco Rubio!\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"On its face, few things on the contemporary American political scene are as puzzling as Marco Rubio fans blasting Donald Trump for not being a true \u201cconservative.\u201d As I\u2019ve argued recently, given his track record, the unprejudiced observer can only conclude that Trump is not a conservative. 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