{"id":1967324,"date":"2023-07-08T07:27:01","date_gmt":"2023-07-08T11:27:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/marco-rubios-decades-of-decadence-is-not-a-beach-read\/"},"modified":"2023-07-08T07:29:46","modified_gmt":"2023-07-08T11:29:46","slug":"marco-rubios-decades-of-decadence-is-not-a-beach-read","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/marco-rubios-decades-of-decadence-is-not-a-beach-read\/","title":{"rendered":"Rubio&#8217;s &#8216;Decades Of Decadence&#8217; isn&#8217;t a breezy beach read."},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">18<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fmarco-rubios-decades-of-decadence-is-not-a-beach-read%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1967324&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div class=\"article-content\">\n<p><strong>Marco Rubio begins at the end of history.<\/strong><\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u201cTheir personal valor remained, but they no longer possessed that public courage which is nourished by the love of independence, the sense of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/tiktok-sparks-outrage-for-censoring-intersex-hashtag-blames-mistake\/\" title=\"TikTok Sparks Outrage For Censoring \u2018Intersex\u2019 Hashtag, Blames \u2018Mistake\u2019\">national honor<\/a>, the presence of danger, and the habit of command,\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p> wrote Edward Gibbon in the first volume of his famed \u201cHistory of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.\u201d<\/p>\n<div class=\"fdrlst__b89e9-paragraph-2-long d-flex justify-content-center\" style=\"margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center; \" id=\"fdrlst__b89e9-783109529\">\n<div id=\"div-gpt-ad-1379703300879-0\" class=\"mb-30\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"fdrlst__b89e9-4cd22bc06e8211b32875007af4103081 fdrlst__b89e9-paragraph-2\" id=\"fdrlst__b89e9-4cd22bc06e8211b32875007af4103081\"><\/div>\n<p>Then: Fukuyama. Rubio\u2019s introduction recalls the <strong>\u201cThe End Of History\u201d<\/strong> hitting shelves right before he headed off to college in 1989. \u201cWithin a few years, the sense that history was over came to change the way US policymakers thought about our place in the world,\u201d he argues. \u201cRather than working to assure that the United States would maintain its internal strength and its position as the world\u2019s dominant superpower, our leaders enacted policies that put this country on a road of slow, inevitable decline.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Rubio takes readers on a tour of this decline, making thoughtful stops at some familiar locations. NAFTA and WTO are given due attention. Rubio reflects on the Great Recession, the Ferguson riots, and\u00a0<em>Obergefell<\/em>. There\u2019s talk of BlackRock and Apple, and citations of Michael Lind, Irving Kristol, and Wesley Yang. (The senator explores Yang\u2019s concept of \u201csuccessor ideology.\u201d)<\/p>\n<p>All that is to say, <strong>\u201cDecades of Decadence\u201d<\/strong> knits together familiar arguments from the last half-decade of realignment politics, rightfully evaluating our culture, economics, and foreign policy to build a comprehensive analysis of decline. The book could serve as a basic primer on the emergent conservative argument about American malaise.\u00a0What Donald Trump dubbed \u201cAmerican Carnage\u201d is brought to life by the other Florida Man he took on in a presidential primary.<\/p>\n<p>As Rubio concludes, he lands on <strong>\u201cthree main tasks\u201d<\/strong> for policymakers looking to reverse these trends: <strong>\u201cPutting Wall Street in its place,\u201d \u201cbring[ing] critical industry back,\u201d<\/strong> and <strong>\u201crebuild[ing] America\u2019s workforce.\u201d<\/strong> If there\u2019s a flaw in the book at all, it\u2019s this list\u2019s implication \u2014 intentional or otherwise \u2014 that the vast cultural problems Rubio spills so much ink addressing will be corrected downstream of economic healing.\u00a0<\/p>\n<div class=\"fdrlst__b89e9-44f798567e83dd986b25cbce55d78e78 fdrlst__b89e9-paragraph-6\" id=\"fdrlst__b89e9-44f798567e83dd986b25cbce55d78e78\"><\/div>\n<p>Where some may see tension between the Rubio of 2010 and the Rubio of 2023, the senator confronts head-on the idea that Reagan conservatism \u2014 revamped early in his career as Tea Party conservatism \u2014 is dead. If anything, Rubio argues, Reaganism is willfully misunderstood by the GOP\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/marco-rubios-decades-of-decadence-is-not-a-beach-read\/\" title=\"Rubio's 'Decades Of Decadence' isn't a breezy beach read.\">business-friendly permanent political class<\/a>.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The book\u2019s most interesting moments are actually observations pulled from 13 years in the upper chamber. Reflecting on the Reagan revolutionaries who later camped out in D.C., Rubio writes with unexpected aggression. <strong>\u201cI am struck now by just how well entrenched those former radicals had become in Washington by the time I arrived,\u201d<\/strong> he says. <strong>\u201cEvery policy meeting, every think tank, every lobbyist and interest group\u2014all of them seemed to be a decade behind, part of what some referred to as Conservative, Inc.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>\u201cRonald Reagan had long since left office,\u201d<\/strong> the senator adds, <strong>\u201cbut his legacy was being tarnished by those who claimed to be upholding it.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>At <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/french-president-macron-slapped-in-the-face-by-member-of-the-public-video-shows\/\" title=\"French President Macron Slapped In The Face By Member Of The Public, Video Shows\">presidential campaign stops<\/a> in 2016, Rubio says his staff <strong>\u201coften had to drag me off the rope line.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n<div class=\"fdrlst__b89e9-b797f676dd597c17c804e4f96638c91e fdrlst__b89e9-paragraph-10\" id=\"fdrlst__b89e9-b797f676dd597c17c804e4f96638c91e\"><\/div>\n<p><strong>\u201cOn our way to the airport, they would remind me of who cared about what in the room I was about to walk into,\u201d<\/strong> he remembers. <strong>\u201cThere is a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/fncs-carlson-gamestop-saga-shows-system-is-not-the-capitalism-we-were-promised-not-even-close\/\" title=\"FNC's Carlson: GameStop Saga Shows System Is 'Not the Capitalism We Were Promised -- Not Even Close'\">hedge fund manager<\/a> who has supported Democrats in the past, for instance, and he really wishes I wouldn\u2019t talk about abortion as much. There\u2019s a bank executive who\u2019s really worried about Trump\u2019s rhetoric on immigration and wishes I hadn\u2019t pulled the rug out from under the Gang of Eight bill a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/5-stars-who-stood-as-much-as-cancel-culture-and-5-who-bowed-down\/\" title=\"5 Stars Who Stood AS MUCH AS Cancel Culture, And 5 Who Bowed Down\">couple years earlier<\/a>.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>\u201cOne thing I rarely heard,\u201d<\/strong> says Rubio, <strong>\u201cwas that this Fortune 500 company CEO is really interested in moving supply chains back to America. Or that Wall Street guy is very concerned about China\u2019s exploitation of our capital markets.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>In an extended retrospective on the Gang of Eight fiasco, Rubio concludes, <strong>\u201cI\u2019ve learned the hard way that the national Democrat Party simply has no interest in being an honest partner in negotiating immigration laws that make sense and can be\u2014and will be\u2014enforced.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>As for the fate of civilization, Rubio argues the invasion of Ukraine could mark <strong>\u201cthe opening chapter in the return of history.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>There\u2019s a heavy post-Tea Party, post-Trump cynicism to the senator\u2019s writing. Those who\u2019ve followed his eager leadership on the New Right\u2019s policy front will hardly be surprised by <strong>\u201cDecades of Decadence.\u201d<\/strong> But at its most compelling, the book is personal and sharply disappointed in American elites. While few lawmakers are as candid and thoughtful, the cheery Rubio of 2010 is now something of a grizzled veteran, stern and grave and ever a reflection of the country he serves. <\/p>\n<div class=\"fdrlst__b89e9-8bce4fecb222f70f5d010cee78bf20c5 fdrlst__b89e9-after-post-content\" id=\"fdrlst__b89e9-8bce4fecb222f70f5d010cee78bf20c5\"><\/div>\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\">    \t\t\t\t\t   \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Marco Rubio&#8217;s book, &#8220;Decades of Decadence,&#8221; starts with an epigraph by Edward Gibbon, where he reflects on the decline of public courage due to the absence of love for independence, national honor, danger, and the habit of bravery. Rubio&#8217;s exploration delves into the end of history.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":554,"featured_media":1967325,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[546],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1967324","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-federalist"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1967324","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/554"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1967324"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1967324\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1967325"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1967324"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1967324"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1967324"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}