Friday, April 01, 2011

Marco Rubio, perfect Republican?


I've described Haley Barbour as the perfect Republican, given his corpulence (he's got the right Republican look), his racism, his anti-abortion extremism, his fealty to corporate profiteering, his corporate lobbying (and even his lobbying for Mexico, more proof that like a good Republican he puts money before all else, including nativist xenophobia), his reality-denying corporatism, his pro-Confederacy views, and his white Southern roots.

But, you know, he's only the perfect Republican in reality.

And, let's face it, Republicans don't really live in reality but rather in a world of their own self-aggrandizing delusions.

And in that world, the perfect Republican may well be Marco Rubio, who in a Wall Street Journal op-ed the other day wrote this drivel:

Whether they admit it or not, everyone in Washington knows how to solve these [fiscal] problems. What is missing is the political will to do it. I ran for the U.S. Senate because I want my children to inherit what I inherited: the greatest nation in human history. It's not too late. The 21st century can also be the American Century. Our people are ready. Now it's time for their leaders to join them.

As Jon Chait wonders:

Do you get the feeling that "Marco Rubio" is not an actual human being at all but some kind of computer program designed by the Republican Party? Imagine they had the technical know-how to create a candidate like this. What would they come up with? They'd come up with Marco Rubio, a cinematically handsome Latino from Florida who hews to the Tea Party line while spitting out patriotic cliches that sound as if they were programmed like a computer.

Yes, I suspect they would, which is why Rubio has already been tagged as their primary up-and-coming star, a certain presidential candidate (if not president) of the future.

Republicans apparently hope they can pull a fast one on the American people, putting before them a guy who doesn't look Republican (i.e., like Haley Barbour) but who is ideologically in line with the new right-wing mainstream of the GOP, that is, who is ideologically the perfect Republican.

Don't let them fool you.

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posted by Michael J.W. Stickings at 12:15 PM

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3 Comments:

  • How can one "look Republican"? What a ridiculously racist statement.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 1:10 PM  

  • Oh please. Grow up.

    And pay attention. The GOP is overwhelmingly white. Or did you pay no attention to the '10 election results? And Barbour clearly looks like a caricature of your standard Republican. (Jon Chait likens him to Boss Hogg.) And everyone knows that race is part of politics, and the GOP often tries to present itself as more racially diverse than it really is. Are you really so naive that you don't think Republicans see Rubio as a gateway to the Latino vote?

    By Blogger Michael J.W. Stickings, at 10:45 PM  

  • Hell, I thought for years that Senator Byrd of WV was wired with transistors and kept in a closet when he wasn't needed to mouth his "congressional aides" comments when they had decided on who to rip off next.

    Apparently the connections rotted and he finally "died."

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 3:26 AM  

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