For Obama’s part, destroying the potential for Republicans to have a rising star capable of attracting Hispanic voters seems to be a worthwhile goal. With a relatively weak bench, it wouldn’t exactly do for Democrats to have to compete with an eloquent Hispanic U.S. Senator who is the son of immigrants, fluent in Spanish, speaks about the American Dream, and just happens to be a Republican.

In order to be an existential threat to Democrats, Rubio would need two bases — conservatives and Hispanics. And so, Democrats would have to find a way to make these two things mutually exclusive. They would have to make him pick.

They have largely done so. And, ironically, conservatives were complicit.