When your opponents disparages you with a detailed inventory of your shortcomings and failures, it is no big surprise. But when your ardent supporter finds himself struggling to speak of your accomplishments, it is probably time to worry. It is emphatically cause for serious concern if this supporter is attempting to make the case that you are qualified to be the next President of the United States. This is exactly what happened when Sen. Rick Santorum was asked by Joe Scarborough to name Rubio’s achievements upon his endorsement of the Senator from Florida. Normally never short of words Santorum found himself struggling, the following was said in an attempt to salvage pride. Seeing there was no way the Santorum was going to answer the question the following was asked “Jeb Bush ran Florida, Trump build a massive company….Marco Rubio….finish the sentence”
Santorum managed to say the following “If you look at being in the minority in the United States Senate in a year when nothing got — four years where nothing got done, I guess it’s hard to say there are accomplishments...Republicans have been in the majority for one year and one month of which, as you know he was running for president primarily. The first four years he was in the minority and nothing got done.”
This has been Marco Rubio’s problem, he doesn’t
have much of a record and whatever record he does have is not exactly awash with success. Here’s
look at some of the milestones of Rubio's tenure in the senate.
In 2011, Rubio supported President Obama's
decision to participate in allied military action in Libya to topple Gadhafi following a popular uprising. Upon the collapse of the Libyan government, after the
intervention, the situation became volatile, various Islamic extremist groups
took over. It was these Islamic extremists that attacked the US mission in Ben
Ghazi that cost the lives of Ambassador Stevens and three other US citizens. The
expensive and prolonged war in Iraq had taught everybody that US participation
in overthrowing foreign regimes was a futile exercise. The wiser move would
have to compel Gadhafi to change course. It has to be noted that he had surrendered
his nuclear program and was co-operating with the international community in
fighting Islamic extremism. Today Libya finds itself in a perpetual Civil War with ISIS
having a strong presence. The situation in Libya is almost identical to that of
Iraq after the fall of Saddam Hussein.
In 2013, Rubio was a member of the bipartisan Gang of Eight who authored the comprehensive immigration legislation. This granted a pathway to citizenship for illegal immigrants after background checks, payment of fines and back taxes. The very basic problem with amnesty is that is rewards bad behavior and encourages more. An individual who shows disregard for the law of the land has to be punished, it is a simple principle of civilized society. If you start by giving illegal immigrants citizenship, where does it end? Do we pardon murders, rapists and drug dealers? They too have violated a law.
In 2015, he supported, the Campus Accountability and Safety Act, introduced by Democratic Senator Claire McCaskill, the goal of which was to combat sexual violence on university campuses. It was severely criticized for allowing campus authorities to function above law enforcement and the criminal justice system. It also failed to protect the rights of the accused, by presuming guilty until proven innocent and preventing the accused from cross-question their accusers. It could result in tarnishing the reputation of the accused and could probably be used to settle scores. This would be a dangerous trend when verdicts are passed via extra judicial authorities.
His record in the Senate on voting is far from stellar either, Rubio is said to have missed 23 of the 29 votes in the senate due to his Presidential campaign. Also, according to GovTrack.us, he is said to have missed 99 of 291 votes during 2015.
In 2015, he supported, the Campus Accountability and Safety Act, introduced by Democratic Senator Claire McCaskill, the goal of which was to combat sexual violence on university campuses. It was severely criticized for allowing campus authorities to function above law enforcement and the criminal justice system. It also failed to protect the rights of the accused, by presuming guilty until proven innocent and preventing the accused from cross-question their accusers. It could result in tarnishing the reputation of the accused and could probably be used to settle scores. This would be a dangerous trend when verdicts are passed via extra judicial authorities.
His record in the Senate on voting is far from stellar either, Rubio is said to have missed 23 of the 29 votes in the senate due to his Presidential campaign. Also, according to GovTrack.us, he is said to have missed 99 of 291 votes during 2015.
This dereliction from duty led many ask for
his resignation. It also shows a questionable work ethic.
His campaign for the White House has also been a bumpy ride, so far he has not won any states and is not leading in the polls in any state either. In fact he has not managed to seek a lead in his home state of Florida, with GOP front runner Donald Trump is leading by a wide margin. But the moment that probably destroyed his chances for this election cycle and perhaps future chances as well when he found himself utterly discombobulated when challenged by Christ Christie on his record. The audiences were utterly perplexed to see Rubio parrot identically worded sentence several times.
His campaign for the White House has also been a bumpy ride, so far he has not won any states and is not leading in the polls in any state either. In fact he has not managed to seek a lead in his home state of Florida, with GOP front runner Donald Trump is leading by a wide margin. But the moment that probably destroyed his chances for this election cycle and perhaps future chances as well when he found himself utterly discombobulated when challenged by Christ Christie on his record. The audiences were utterly perplexed to see Rubio parrot identically worded sentence several times.
Clearly Rubio has a proclivity for ill-judged endeavors. He erred gravely in matters of importance such as national security, immigration and civil liberties. It is not wrong to work with the opposite side to get things done but all Rubio's activities show a clear lack of core principles and that he could be coddled into doing anything without much reason. The US has already tried with a Senator of limited experience before and today it finds itself in quite a mess. Can the US afford to take another chance?
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