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Shocking Revelations: Rubio Favors Cuba Embargo, Opposes “Isolationism”

Republicans have high hopes for Rubio as a future leader. In part, that expectation is based on the realization that no conservative since Ronald Reagan has better articulated the connection between American values and a forward-leaning foreign policy. ~Jennifer Rubin That’s almost certainly not true, but if it were it wouldn’t say much for conservatives […]

Republicans have high hopes for Rubio as a future leader. In part, that expectation is based on the realization that no conservative since Ronald Reagan has better articulated the connection between American values and a forward-leaning foreign policy. ~Jennifer Rubin

That’s almost certainly not true, but if it were it wouldn’t say much for conservatives since Reagan. I take it for granted that Rubin is going to build up Rubio. His foreign policy views align with hers. Couldn’t she manage this without quite so much embarrassing hyperbole? He is a freshman Senator who has taken a number of standard hawkish positions in the last four and a half months that make him virtually indistinguishable from his other hawkish colleagues. No “conservative” in the last twenty-two years has articulated these ideas better than Rubio?

Reviewing Rubio’s remarks makes this very hard to believe. The second part of Rubin’s interview with Rubio is just an underwhelming as the first part, and like the first part it contains many of the same stock phrases that he used in his interview with National Review‘s Robert Costa.

What do we learn from all of this? We find out that he is against a Palestinian declaration of statehood, he favors tighter Cuba sanctions than the administration wants, and he doesn’t like “isolationism” or “neo-isolationism.” This is all perfectly consistent with the hawkish interventionism Rubio has embraced, and there is nothing about it that is especially insightful or unique. That isn’t entirely Rubio’s fault. Normally, no one expects freshmen Senators to have much insightful or unique to offer once they have adopted the conventional party line, but Rubio’s admirers are busily promoting him as the next great militarist hope. It isn’t enough to applaud him for taking the positions they like. He has to be made into a heroic figure when he has done and said nothing requiring the least bit of imagination or courage. Rubin concludes with this bit of egregious flattery:

Republicans, as Rubio points out, run the risk of becoming narrow-minded and inward-looking. If Rubio, through his actions and words, can stymie that impulse he will be well on his way to ascending to the leadership of his party — and perhaps of the country.

Here is another Rubio insight:

In the last century the U.S. has been a force for good. If you talk to people around the world, they’ll tell you the same thing [bold mine-DL].

In some cases, it is true that the U.S. has been a force for good, and in others it doesn’t apply at all. One of the chief failings of Rubio’s foreign policy view and his triumphalist form of American exceptionalism is that as far as he is concerned these other, unfortunate episodes have apparently never occurred. When asking “people around the world” about this, it rather depends on the people being asked and what we’re asking them. The annoying thing about Rubio is that I doubt that he would know what to ask.

Update: Josh Rogin has the details about the Syria resolution Rubio has co-sponsored.

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