On April 13, Florida Senator Marco Rubio shocked the nation when he announced his presidential campaign. After his speech at Freedom Tower, only one thought echoed throughout country: Who the hell is Marco Rubio?
A young 45-year-old Republican candidate, Marco Rubio serves as a Senator in Florida and previously served as Speaker of the Florida House of Representatives, and that’s where his political history ends.
He is a largely inexperienced and unknown candidate, so there really isn’t much to talk about. Uhmmm, this is awkward, but not as awkward as Rubio running for President.
In his speech, Rubio said, “Just yesterday, a leader from yesterday began a campaign for President (Hillary Clinton) by promising to take us back to yesterday. But yesterday is over, and we are never going back.”
What exactly does that mean, “take us back to yesterday?”
A survey conducted by the Pew Research Center shows that 60 percent of those surveyed who are 30 years-old or younger support gay marriage, while 35 percent oppose it. Rubio believes in a traditional marriage (i.e. one man, one woman), voted yes to ban homosexuals in the military, and opposed the Employment Non-Discrimination Act.
Rubio travels against the current in a stream that flows towards gay marriage and gay rights, making Rubio himself a candidate of the past.
Rubio also stated, “Family – not government – is the most important institution of society” and believes that no gay couples should be allowed to be foster parents. Yet, Rubio seems to believe that family is only important as long as it falls in line with his own beliefs.
Those who side with Rubio on this issue believe that gay parents will confuse the adopted child and formulate an awkward home situation. Well, I believe that having no parents at all is pretty awkward, and that no home can confuse a child even more.
In a 2012 census, 110,000 adopted children lived with gay parents. If Rubio had his way, those 110,000 adopted children would still be left in a foster home without the love and nurture of parents, a home, and as Rubio so glorifies, a family.
Speaking about his opponents, Rubio said, “I have heard some suggest that I should step aside and wait my turn. But I cannot.”
Rubio should’ve taken their advice. The country has no clue who he is, barely any idea what he believes in, and he has hardly any national experience to lead a national campaign, much less a country.
Yet he continued to clarify his commitment to the bid, stating that he would not run for the Senate reelection for the presidency. Well, it looks like 2016 will be the end of Rubio’s political career. No one is mourning this uneventful loss.
Marco Rubio told the Associated Press that he is “uniquely qualified” for the presidency. His Republican opponents vying for the presidency are also uniquely qualified, emphasis on qualified. If by uniquely qualified, Rubio means he has a theoretical chance of winning the 2016 election, then yes he is uniquely qualified.
When interviewers asked Rubio penetrating questions that made him appear like a candidate with archaic beliefs, he responded with the easy answer “let states decide.”
Rubio concluded his announcement, “The final verdict on our generation will be written by Americans not yet born. Let us make sure they record that we made the right choice.”
When Americans not yet born are born, they will remember the choice that we made the right choice. That choice is to not vote for Marco Rubio, a self-proclaimed candidate for the future with beliefs stuck in the past.
