By Howard Foster -
Would anyone be interested in Marco Rubio if here weren’t’ Hispanic? The question answers itself. In this age of identity politics, the Republican Party does what it tells the country it deplores: judging people by their ethnicity, rather than what they believe.
Condoleezza Rice made an impassioned speech at the last national convention about her choice to become a Republican as a teenager. The gist was that the Democrats saw her as a member of a racial group that needed entitlements. The Republicans supposedly saw her as an individual.
This sounds good, but the Republicans are, in reality, just as wedded to group think and racial spoils as the Democrats. Marco Rubio’s Senate candidacy was boosted because he was a young Hispanic conservative with a bright future. All true, but which of those adjectives most appealed to the party leaders, particularly Jeb Bush, in boosting him?
Rubio is an undistinguished Senator. He has been given public speaking engagements because of his name and ethnicity. He is most remembered for reaching for a bottle of water during a televised response to President Obama’s State of the Union, not for the content of anything he said. He is not associated with anything particular that has been done in Washington since he’s been there. He mouths Republican talking points, and like Barack Obama, spends his time speaking around the country in preparation for a presidential bid. This doesn’t impress me at all.
Nor does his son of immigrants' story. The problem with our economy today is too many immigrants competing with American high school graduates for scarce, low-end jobs. Rubio’s father was a bartender in Miami. We didn’t need more bartenders then or now, and the fact his son grew up to be a U.S. Senator sends a mixed message.
Did Rubio attain his office because of merit, which would speak well of our country, or because he joined an organization, the Florida Republican Party, that was looking to boost the careers of young Hispanics, a form of affirmative action?
Affirmative action can be justified in organizations which has a history of discrimination. The Republican Party of Florida did not, but it chose to make Rubio Speaker of the state House for crass political gain among an ethnic group which doesn’t usually vote for its candidates. The party’s official position is against affirmative action, unless there is a compelling need for it.
Absent Rubio's race, who would be supporting him for President? He lacks experience, gravitas, a unique point of view, wit or any other particular skill. It would be most refreshing if his candidacy flopped like the untalented and embarrassing Herman Cain did last time.
That would be a nice rejection of tokenism.
