The case for Rubio-ism

The distinctive feature of Rubio’s discussion of race is that it is non-adversarial. He prefaces a discussion like the one above with an expression of gratitude to the police, and he makes it part of a wider message about how “we’re all in this together.” Or he discusses whether he ever experienced racism as a child, but then says he “never saw it as a reflection on America” and that his parents “never raised us to feel like we were victims.”

This short-circuits the whole politics of racial resentment. The Democrats appeal to minorities by saying that America is at fault for all of their troubles and needs to be fundamentally transformed. Trump plays that game from the other end, asking blue-collar white voters, “Aren’t you angry at being blamed for everything when it’s really those Mexican immigrants who are ruining the country?” See for example, how Breitbart News (for all practical purposes, a wing of the Trump campaign), spins Rubio’s “sting of racism” response or how Ann Coulter describes Rubio as running an “anti-white-men” campaign. They’re running the same politics of racial resentment, just in reverse.

Instead, Rubio appeals to the idea that this is a great country because we can all pursue the American Dream together.

I’ve expressed my concern that Trump is a politician who will use up the Republican Party’s resources and credibility in the service of his own voracious need for celebrity while wrecking its agenda. And Cruz, in echoing Trump’s angry, confrontational style (and adopting too much of his anti-immigration, anti-trade agenda) is a leader who may fight for some important ideological goals, but who will not be good at broadening the appeal of those ideas. Cruz is the candidate for those who think this is as good as it gets for the spread of our ideas, that there’s nobody out there to be convinced, and there’s nothing but a pitched battle between irreconcilable camps. Rubio offers the hope of something more like the Reagan Revolution, which won over former Democrats and independents and noticeably moved the country to the right for decades.