The Rubio paradox is that he wants to sell Republicans on a profound change in image without meaningfully rethinking many of the party’s core positions—or even directly resisting Trump’s radical redefinition of them. In South Carolina, Rubio assembled a Republican rainbow coalition of supporters led by Asian American Governor Nikki Haley, African American Senator Tim Scott, and white male Representative Trey Gowdy, all 51 or younger. Against that backdrop, the 44-year-old Cuban American senator delivered a compelling message (and visual representation) of generational and demographic change. “The children of the Reagan revolution are ready to assume the mantle of leadership,” Rubio buoyantly declared.

But Rubio has wrapped that dynamic message around an agenda that, with only a few innovative exceptions, mostly embraces conventional conservative positions. These include big tax cuts that primarily benefit top earners; skepticism about climate change; and some of the field’s most unbending social views, including opposition to abortion even in cases of rape and incest and clear suggestions he wants to reverse the Supreme Court decision legalizing gay marriage nationwide. And rather than confront Trump’s nativist and protectionist agenda, Rubio has mostly bent to it, tacking right on both immigration and trade.

While Rubio offers the GOP a different face, it’s Trump who actually presents a different direction. He would steer the party toward a confrontational European-style racial nationalism revolving around hostility to foreign influences (from Mexican immigrants to Chinese manufacturers) and domestic elites. That represents not only a fundamental assault on the party’s existing leadership, but a huge gamble with its electoral future.