I hope Senator Marco Rubio is pandering. People whose opinions I respect and who know the Senator tell me he is a good, honorable, caring man. I also hope that’s true. But I mostly hope that he is a clever, calculating, ambitious politician with his eyes on the White House. He could of course be both; the best politicians know that good policy can make good politics, and that the choice between doing what is right and what is popular is a false one. But I really hope he’s being shallow and clever in addition to whatever he happens to believe.
Last week the Florida Republican took to the Senate floor to appeal for respect in the name of democracy. The former (and perhaps future) Republican presidential candidate pointed out what has become a unfortunate truism: “We are becoming a society incapable of having debate anymore…In this country, if you watch the big policy debates that are going on in America, no one ever stops to say, ‘I think you’re wrong, I understand your point of view — I get it. You have some valid points, but let me tell you why I think my view is better’.”
Rubio’s speech followed Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) cutting off Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) while she was reading a letter written by Coretta Scott King about Senator Jeff Sessions (R-AL). Senator McConnell’s action was the hot political news of the day, and his statement “She was warned. She was given an explanation. Nevertheless she persisted.” launched a thousand memes and t-shirts. McConnell’s actions were seen on the left as a political blunder that handed Warren the Democratic nomination in 2020, and seen on the right as a deserved rebuke to an out-of-touch elitist liberal grand-stander. But as the Washington Post’s Chris Cilliizza points out, the kerfuffle was a win for both sides, another loss for the broader idea of democracy, “and the wheel just keeps spinning.”
It could be that Rubio, who left the Senate riding the HOV lane to the White House, who then quit politics after he quit the race for the presidency, who then decided he wanted his old job in Washington back, is wholly sincere. It could be that while wandering his post-political roads he had a Pauline conversion and has become an evangelist for the boring politics of respectful problem solving. It could be that he intends to spend the next six years quietly working with colleagues across the political spectrum to craft middle-ground policies on issues such as immigration, tax reform, and trade, while travelling the country speaking out for a more civil American political discourse, electoral consequences of his actions be damned.
But that seems unlikely. After all, Senator Rubio is a Senator because he is ambitious and strategic. Senator Rubio doesn’t give speeches on the Senator floor about everything he thinks. He gives speeches when he thinks he can advance his political agenda, an agenda that includes his own political future. In a perfect world, his speech last week was a calculated move and not a sudden outburst of respect that will be sent to the wings while the political circus resumes.
Hopefully Cillizza is right in speculating Rubio is betting the public wants their politicians to act less like contestants on Family Feud or American Gladiators and more like the leaders our democracy demands. And hopefully that bet is a good one.
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