Rubio Attempts to Reunite Bush Republicans at CPAC 2016

Rubio Represents the Last Hope for GOP of the Past

by Josh Guckert

In his speech to CPAC on Saturday, Marco Rubio did his best to sound the same notes that President George W. Bush did in 2004. He expressed that the world is safest when the US has the strongest military in the world, that tactics like waterboarding are necessary to prevent terrorist attacks and that suspected terrorists should be sent to Guantanamo Bay without receiving lawyers or trials.

Rubio also lined his speech with rhetoric about his Christian beliefs, asserting that his religion will play a strong role in his presidency.

In response to a question about “uniting” the country during these tumultuous times in regard to race and other classifications, he skirted the question, merely stating that police do a great service and that free enterprise helps to unite the country.

Like all of the other presidential candidates, Rubio reminisced on Ronald Reagan, repeatedly alluding to Reagan’s “Morning in America” ad.

In general, Rubio represents the last stand for the “Establishment” Republicans who nominated John McCain and Mitt Romney. These so-called “conservatives” wish to violate civil liberties and increase spending on an already-bloated defense bureaucracy, all while speaking of the perils of “big government” and lauding the free market.

Needless to say, this wing of the Republican Party is rightfully dying. The supposed Reagan coalition has been receding since 1984, and electoral results have shown as much. The Republican Party’s message has remained much the same since 1980 and has received the votes of Americans who believe in such ideas, but these voters are becoming fewer and fewer. The more that Republicans try to create nostalgia about a president whom most don’t remember, the more that they miss out on opportunities to rebuild the party in an image more fitting to 2016.

This is all one of the most under-covered aspects of the 2016 campaign: whereas criticizing the Bush Administration and the many follies it committed were once considered heresy, Donald Trump was able to win a landslide victory in Bush stronghold in South Carolina while bashing the former president. Even though Trump’s success may not be because of these stances, the fact that they did not amount to political suicide within the Republican Party speaks more volumes than can be explained.

Of course, no candidate’s trajectory can epitomize this phenomenon within the party more than Jeb Bush. Bush was considered to be easily the front-runner for the nomination once he decided that he would run. He received donations from Wall Street and nearly every major “Establishment” donor, all while building a world-class infrastructure consisting of former staffers from his father’s and brother’s campaigns.

Even though Bush failed, Rubio very much carries on the banner of this past iteration of the Republican Party. Even concerning one of the few promising positions which the two men share, on immigration, Rubio has effectively retreated in the face of Trump. He now supports the building of a wall on the border and excessive regulations only exacerbating the bureaucracy of immigration.

One position remains consistent among these Bush Republicans: their love for foreign interventionism and the sacrifice of liberty for security. While so many other positions (including those preserving the free market) are fungible, the desire for warfare and endless nation-building is not negotiable. They can explain away any compromises on capitalism by citing compassion over dogma, but this empathy seemingly does not extend to the victims of military entanglement.

Marco Rubio will do his best to wrangle the Republican nomination away from Donald Trump and Ted Cruz, though his success will be contingent on the March 15 Florida primary. Time will tell, but lovers of liberty can only hope that this past brand of the Republican Party is on its way out.