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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsLeonard Pitts Jr.: What, exactly, do you stand for, Sen. Rubio? Its hard to tell.
http://www.miamiherald.com/opinion/opn-columns-blogs/leonard-pitts-jr/article209844134.htmlWhat, exactly, do you stand for, Sen. Rubio? Its hard to tell.
By LEONARD PITTS JR.
April 25, 2018 06:21 PM
Dear Sen. Marco Rubio:
So I see where you came after me on Twitter. Im flattered. Never knew you cared.
This well known national writer, you tweeted about my last column, states very clearly that the 63 million Americans who voted for Trump are haters who should not be heard from or engaged in dialogue. Its a view widely held by many elites on left, but very few of them so openly admit to it.
It fascinates me how you Republicans have repurposed elites, which means well above average, into an all-purpose pejorative. I mean, sure, call me an elite, if you insist. But Id point out that as a U.S. senator, hobnobbing with presidents and potentates while pulling down $174,000 per annum, you are hardly Joe Lunchbucket yourself.
As to your claim that I said Trump voters should not be heard from, while I know distortion and exaggeration are tools of your trade, I cant allow them to stand unchallenged here. What I actually said is that I, personally, will not engage with Trump supporters. Reasoning with them is like reasoning with rocks.
Lets cut to the chase, Senator. Donald Trump is unfit to be president, period, full stop.
Presidents dont condemn continents and countries as shitholes.
Presidents dont undermine their own cabinet officers.
Presidents dont give aid and comfort to neo-Nazis.
Presidents dont give aid and comfort to geopolitical foes.
Presidents dont spill classified secrets to geopolitical foes.
Presidents dont support accused child molesters.
Presidents dont put themselves above the country they serve.
Ordinarily, that is. This guy has done all that and more.
And heres the thing: You know this. Youre not an idiot, so you absolutely know what a dangerous outlier Trump is. Yet because it is politically expedient, you, who once called him dangerous and a con man unqualified to have access to the nuclear codes, now ask us to believe that you believe he has somehow magically become fit for the job. All while he scales new heights of incompetence every day.
It leaves me wondering: Who are you, really? What, if anything, do you stand for or believe? Because you exhibit a spinal flexibility only Plastic Man could love.
Meantime, America faces a season of division and acrimony almost unparalleled in its history. And it is largely because people of your political ilk chose to embrace alternative facts upon which to build an alternative reality, because you taught people to embrace homophobia, Islamophobia, xenophobia, racism and ignorance and to call them righteousness.
I am not unmindful of the troubling implications of writing off Trump supporters. When we can no longer talk to each other, whats left? How can we be a country? But the point is, were already there. Indeed, given our prolonged and worsening state of estrangement, it would not surprise me if, within the next decade or two, the United States as we know it ceased to exist. Yes, Im serious. I dont predict it, and surely dont desire it, but no, I would not be shocked.
And if that fate is averted, it will not be because the rest of us continued trying to reason with people who have neither the capacity nor the interest. It will be, rather, because we resisted and voted as if our national life depended on it. Which it does.
History is watching us, Senator. It will not remember kindly those who failed to look beyond their own ambition and self interest in this fraught moment. Some of us are fighting for our country here.
You should try it sometime.
So I see where you came after me on Twitter. Im flattered. Never knew you cared.
This well known national writer, you tweeted about my last column, states very clearly that the 63 million Americans who voted for Trump are haters who should not be heard from or engaged in dialogue. Its a view widely held by many elites on left, but very few of them so openly admit to it.
It fascinates me how you Republicans have repurposed elites, which means well above average, into an all-purpose pejorative. I mean, sure, call me an elite, if you insist. But Id point out that as a U.S. senator, hobnobbing with presidents and potentates while pulling down $174,000 per annum, you are hardly Joe Lunchbucket yourself.
As to your claim that I said Trump voters should not be heard from, while I know distortion and exaggeration are tools of your trade, I cant allow them to stand unchallenged here. What I actually said is that I, personally, will not engage with Trump supporters. Reasoning with them is like reasoning with rocks.
Lets cut to the chase, Senator. Donald Trump is unfit to be president, period, full stop.
Presidents dont condemn continents and countries as shitholes.
Presidents dont undermine their own cabinet officers.
Presidents dont give aid and comfort to neo-Nazis.
Presidents dont give aid and comfort to geopolitical foes.
Presidents dont spill classified secrets to geopolitical foes.
Presidents dont support accused child molesters.
Presidents dont put themselves above the country they serve.
Ordinarily, that is. This guy has done all that and more.
And heres the thing: You know this. Youre not an idiot, so you absolutely know what a dangerous outlier Trump is. Yet because it is politically expedient, you, who once called him dangerous and a con man unqualified to have access to the nuclear codes, now ask us to believe that you believe he has somehow magically become fit for the job. All while he scales new heights of incompetence every day.
It leaves me wondering: Who are you, really? What, if anything, do you stand for or believe? Because you exhibit a spinal flexibility only Plastic Man could love.
Meantime, America faces a season of division and acrimony almost unparalleled in its history. And it is largely because people of your political ilk chose to embrace alternative facts upon which to build an alternative reality, because you taught people to embrace homophobia, Islamophobia, xenophobia, racism and ignorance and to call them righteousness.
I am not unmindful of the troubling implications of writing off Trump supporters. When we can no longer talk to each other, whats left? How can we be a country? But the point is, were already there. Indeed, given our prolonged and worsening state of estrangement, it would not surprise me if, within the next decade or two, the United States as we know it ceased to exist. Yes, Im serious. I dont predict it, and surely dont desire it, but no, I would not be shocked.
And if that fate is averted, it will not be because the rest of us continued trying to reason with people who have neither the capacity nor the interest. It will be, rather, because we resisted and voted as if our national life depended on it. Which it does.
History is watching us, Senator. It will not remember kindly those who failed to look beyond their own ambition and self interest in this fraught moment. Some of us are fighting for our country here.
You should try it sometime.
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Leonard Pitts Jr.: What, exactly, do you stand for, Sen. Rubio? Its hard to tell. (Original Post)
babylonsister
Apr 2018
OP
Rubio was the perfect dandidate chosen by the people behind the demographic curtain.
dameatball
Apr 2018
#2
RainCaster
(10,908 posts)1. K & R
Must see
dameatball
(7,399 posts)2. Rubio was the perfect dandidate chosen by the people behind the demographic curtain.
He plays well in his home but falls apart on the national stage. He is young and still has a chance to grow a spine.....but.....don't bet on that.
babylonsister
(171,079 posts)3. He doesn't play well with everyone; I am in FL
and I can't stand the slimey, flip-flopping, hypocritical bastid.
dameatball
(7,399 posts)4. Me either. What is your take....is he on the downslide? Just your opinion, not trying to argue.
Any legitimate challengers coming up?
babylonsister
(171,079 posts)5. He's not up for reelection until 2022.
I wouldn't be surprised if he ran for prez though.
Marie Marie
(9,999 posts)6. Excellent response. Too bad it will fall on deaf ears.
Scurrilous
(38,687 posts)7. Marco Rubio is a worthless POS with delusions of grandeur.
He actually thinks he'll be POTUS someday.