The Rude Pundit: Someone Should Smack Marco Rubio with a History Stick

[meegbear]

So yesterday, Florida Senator Marco Rubio was speaking at the Reagan Library (motto: "What? No pudding?") and he said a truly ignorant, stupid fucking thing about Social Security, Medicare, and other safety net programs: "These programs actually weakened us as a people. You see, almost forever, it was institutions in society that assumed the role of taking care of one another. If someone was sick in your family, you took care of them. If a neighbor met misfortune, you took care of them. You saved for your retirement and your future because you had to. We took these things upon ourselves in our communities, our families, and our homes, and our churches and our synagogues. But all that changed when the government began to assume those responsibilities. All of a sudden, for an increasing number of people in our nation, it was no longer necessary to worry about saving for security because that was the government’s job."

You gotta love the fantasy America that Republicans conjure all the time, where the little people live decent lives, helping one another, sharing cups of sugar and loaning each other a few bucks when little Tommy breaks his leg in a bicycle accident; where you could save your money in a little local bank where you knew the tellers and the president and know that the money would be there, security, yes, but private, not social, which is also in the word "socialism." Ahh, fantasy America is quite a place. Who wouldn't want to live there?

Of course, real America is filled with unscrupulous cocksucker capitalists who would stab your children in their eyes to take their money. It's one reason we have recessions and, oh, hell, a Great Depression that destroyed the pleasant little nest eggs that all those little people saved in their little banks so they could help their little neighbors and their little selves. That'd be why we have safety nets. Because people are people, and everyone is not on board with the whole "compassion" thing.

Oh, and Ronald Reagan? Bastard loved him some Social Security (after initially thinking he could dismantle it). Here he is in 1983, understanding history in a way Rubio never could, after signing the act that raised taxes, brought federal workers into the system, and added tens of billions of dollars to its coffers: "It was nearly 50 years ago when, under the leadership of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the American people reached a great turning point, setting up the Social Security system. F.D.R. spoke then of an era of startling industrial changes that tended more and more to make life insecure. It was his belief that the system can furnish only a base upon which each one of our citizens may build his individual security through his own individual efforts. Today we reaffirm Franklin Roosevelt's commitment that Social Security must always provide a secure and stable base so that older Americans may live in dignity."

You got that? Saint Ronnie raised taxes to save Social Security. And he taxed the benefits of the wealthy because that's what you do if you're not a totally dumb, pandering, ape-faced motherfucker like Rubio. Instead, Rubio thinks that the people of the past were numbskulls who willingly gave up their right to privately help themselves and others and that an insidious government set up these corrupting programs in order to weaken the public so as to make the populace dependent on it. It's the mad endgame of anti-Washington rhetoric. And it's factually wrong. Which means it's just wrong. Which means that anyone who takes what Rubio said seriously is objectively wrong. Which means there aren't two sides to this story. There's one: the actual events of history, not the convenient lie of fantasy.

Bonus points: Rubio's speech inspired what is surely one of the most vile posts ever over at the National Review Online's "The Corner" (motto: "A good 90% of what we write is vile; most of the rest is about our pop culture boners").

Note: The Rude Pundit always feels disgusting after he writes something that includes even mild praise for Reagan, who set us on this path of doom. But that's how filthy our discourse has become. You have to give credit to a cannibal serial killer when he doesn't eat all of his victims.

http://rudepundit.blogspot.com/

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

1. K & R. nt

[krispos42]

2. !

:rofl: :thumbsup:

[hifiguy]

3. Marco Rubio should be whacked with this:

Repeatedly. For a couple of hours.

"a totally dumb, pandering, ape-faced motherfucker like Rubio" :rofl: Gotta love the Rude One.

[malaise]

4. Love me some Rudie!!

Rec

[chelsea0011]

5. Much of what he says is either a myth or just false and short-sighted

"if someone was sick in your family, you took care of them"? well, uhmmm, we still do. Thing is we age much longer than in the past and thus have greater opportunity to get sick and I mean very sick. And because medicine has come a long way there are means to treat disease. And, surprise, it ain't cheap. Maybe he would like the elderly to stay home and just die an agonizing death because he thinks Medicare is too costly. You see, we lose our health care insurance when we stop working or maybe we never had it to begin with. So, we have no out of pocket money to pay a doctor or hospital. And if a neighbor is sick we would help out? Well. uhmmm, we still do. Great. Here is a meal and I will run errands for you. But. I'm sorry, i can't do that by-pass surgery. What an idiot. And I am sick of hearing about the good ole days.

I wonder how he feels about the polio vaccination school program in the 50's and 60's. Dumb government run program I guess.

[phantom power]

6. The modern Dems are now governing to the right of Reagan.

Perhaps we should all pause to reflect on how this situation came to be, and how the GOP won the war of ideas so thoroughly.

[hifiguy]

7. Unlimited money to catapult

shameless lies and propaganda is the answer to your question.

[phantom power]

8. That is a large portion of the answer, but I don't think it is the whole story.

Another part of the story is that the Dems made a choice to pursue a strategy of triangulation, and they stuck to that strategy in the face of ever-increasing evidence that the Right Wing would just continue moving the goalpost further-rightward. No matter what.

And so, here we are. Very, very far to the right. And still moving rightward.

[truebrit71]

10. If you would have told me that during the Raygun 80's I would have told you that you were....

...out of your tiny mind, now I can only sit here and try and come to terms with just how deeply, deeply screwed we are...

[MilesColtrane]

9. K&R for "ape-faced motherfucker"

The Uncivil One shoots....scores!

[pacalo]

11. I love the Rude Pundit!

[spanone]

12. k&r

[Quantess]

13. The Rude Pundit!

K & R

[lunatica]

14. He like other Republicans pine for the Norman Rockwell America

You can hear the yearning in his voice as he talks in hallowed reverence and and hushed tones of the days of yore when life was a community fairy tale. When women knew their place and devoted their lives to their husbands and children. A life of such perfect balance that neighbors never feuded and policemen and firefighters were the envy of all little boys. The days when little girls just wanted to grow up and get married to a fireman or a policeman so they could start their true calling of nurturing their families. The days when the enemy was clear to see because of the color of their skin and America was, well America, majestic amber waves shining sea to sea. God's favorite place and people.