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Open Letter to Marco Rubio: Run for President
Dear Senator Rubio:
I’m writing to ask you to run for President of the United States against Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump.
I understand that in doing so, you would be breaking a promise you made during the campaign. But such promises are never absolute. Franklin Roosevelt ran in 1940 on a promise not to send American boys to fight in any foreign wars. He broke that promise. After the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, he would have been betraying his oath of office not to do so.
More generally, consider a situation in which you agreed to take your family on a road trip with a friend, who you promised to let drive the car. But then you discovered that he insisted on drinking and playing chicken with oncoming traffic. Would you keep your promise to let him drive, putting your children’s lives at risk? I don’t think so, and no sane person would fault you for breaking your word to keep your family safe. Well, we now face an analogous situation, and it is the country that is at risk.
Consider the crisis we face in the present election. On the one hand, we have Hillary Clinton, a corrupt social democrat who would continue the disastrous policies of Barack Obama for another four or more years, notably including the cancerous expansion of the hyper-regulatory state that is strangling our economy and imperiling our freedom. On the other, we have Donald Trump, a vicious con artist who is engaging in xenophobic demagoguery to mobilize mob support behind an agenda of unlimited government, socialist policy, and unconstitutional one-man rule, and who moreover is committed to gutting the Western alliance and the global system of free trade, the two principal pillars supporting the security and prosperity of the civilized world since 1945. As if that were not enough, Mr. Trump also evidences clear symptoms of megalomania and mental instability, so much so that you yourself publicly stated that you would fear to have his finger on the nuclear button. Indeed, having a crazy person in charge of our nuclear arsenal would place every human being on this planet at risk, including your children and mine. So campaign promise or not, the only moral course of action for you is to try to seize the wheel.
It would be a fight against the odds, certainly, but there is a chance you could win. Here is why.
- Both Clinton and Trump are widely detested. Indeed, their principal appeal in the coming campaign would be that, in a two-person race, each is the sole alternative to the unspeakable other. Furthermore, they will both be spending hundreds of millions of dollars to amplify this situation by running torrents of powerful negative campaign ads to demonize each other. They would not start directing fire against you until after you became a clear threat, and by then it could be too late for them to stop you.
- You are no doubt aware of the large numbers of anti-Trump Republicans who would seize the opportunity to vote for you, but you should also consider the anti-Clinton Democrats who might go your way as well. Almost half the Democratic Party base is so distressed with Clinton that they are still holding out for the hopeless Bernie Sanders campaign. Many of these people desperately want someplace else to go after Hillary gets the nomination. The smell of xenophobia from the Trump campaign is likely to be so repellent to them that they couldn’t support him, regardless. But many of them might be willing to support you.
- The real Republicans want someone who will defend the Constitution and the principle of limited government. The sincere Democrats want someone who will stand for the weak against the powerful, the ordinary citizens against the privileged. Everyone wants a chance to vote for a decent person. Neither Trump nor Clinton represents any of those ideals. You represent all of them.
- It may be that you might be too late to get on the ballot in every state, but this would not be a show stopper. In the three-way race, you don’t need to contest every state, or even most of them. If you were to win even a handful of states (and I think you could do much better than that) you could stalemate the Electoral College and throw the decision into the House of Representatives, where your winning chances would be excellent.
There are those who say you should not do this, because if you were to fail, you would increase the prospects of a victory by Clinton. But this makes no sense, because while Trump might possibly nominate Supreme Court Justices less destructive than those that would be recommended by Hillary, this is very small beer compared to the catastrophic potential for global depression and large scale conflict that would be unleashed by Trump’s program of trade war and the abandonment of Western collective security. So, though the collection of camp followers and careerists now seeking sinecures in a Trump administration might find your frustration of their ambitions very upsetting, one way or another the mad Don must be put down. If not by you, then by Hillary; if it is not be by Hillary, then it will have to be done by you.
Furthermore, whether it is you or Hillary who gets to take Trump’s scalp as a trophy to the White House, by running you will greatly increase the chance that Republicans will hold onto the Senate, the House, and innumerable state and local offices that now stand to be lost as millions of Republicans choose to stay home rather than soil themselves by pulling the lever for Trump or Clinton. So there is nothing to be lost and everything to be gained by giving it a try.
So sir, I ask you to take heart, raise the flag and sound the battle cry of freedom. There are millions of us who will rally to your standard. The fate of the republic is at stake. You know it, and we know it. Don’t desert us, and we won’t desert you. Lead and we will follow. Charge and we will fight. Together, we can prevail.
Fortune favors the brave.
Published in General
Yes, 1000 times yes.
Do you actually expect Rubio to read this? What’s up with the open schtick to people who are more than unlikely to read your letter to them? Not to be too critical it just seems to be a lame gimmick. Sorry to rain on your little Rubio fantasy. Carry on.
Well, 1000 times yes to this, but honestly I’d take anyone–anyone who did not seem to be certifiably insane at this point. Dear God, please won’t someone run?
Lunched with a lefty friend today who said she’s going to cry when she has to pull the lever for Hillary. They’re almost as unhappy as we are.
Hey you could have held off a little longer couldn’t you?? :)
Wrong addressee
Sorry. The whole Open Letter thing is a pet peeve of mine. If this were the pit I’d have a certain response to your comment that wouldn’t be appropriate for this forum. Nothing insulting just inappropriate.
Rubio was considered and rejected.
Salvation from a third party run will have to be a fresh face, not one of the recent losers that didn’t make it.
Two things:
But do carry on with your fantasy.
Oh brother, the derangement. Why do people even go through the pretense of “open letters” to people who will never read them?
And why does this go immediately to the front page? Do you have a special deal on your membership?
Thank you Robert. I would like to see a “write in Rubio” campaign. It’s what I plan to do.
Read up on these laws on Ballotpedia the other day. Apparently the only two states where the Sore Loser Laws clearly apply in presidential elections are Texas and South Dakota. Just wanted to clarify.
If your grapes get any more sour you will have vinegar.
Yes I agree with this. The first part is unfortunate in my opinion but it does need to be a new name I think
From Wikipedia: In most states, these laws do not apply to presidential candidates. Many states accomplish the same requirement by having simultaneous registration dates for the primary and the general election. Only the states of Connecticut, Iowa, New York, and Vermont have neither a sore-loser law nor simultaneous registration deadlines.[2]
So, yes, Rubio could run as an independent. In those 4 states mentioned.
Hell no.
I want this too but in partnership with Cruz. The two of them need to run as a team with the intent of building a new conservative party.
We tried playing their game. They are too corrupt. They are too entrenched. We’re starting from scratch.
That may mean neither ever becomes president. But it may also mean they are remembered as the statesmen who saved the country.
To be fair, Rubio could run in my state of Colorado, as the state GOP did not have a preference caucus this year (and believe you me, we’re quite grateful for the momentary peace and quiet from all the ads!).
At the same time, though, I keep hearing that this 3rd party savior doesn’t have to run in every state; he only has to run in a few just to gum up the works and throw the election into the House of Representatives. Do you really think the American public would be MORE accepting of whatever decision the House came up with than a Trump-Clinton general election?
Ask yourself this: Would the American people in 1968 have accepted a House-decided election if Nixon was denied a majority of electoral votes (this very nearly happened)? As odious (to some!) as the 2000 election was, can’t we all agree that the House deciding between Dubya and Gore would have been considerably worse?
As much as I dislike Trump, any elected Republican official needs to support the party’s nominee or quit the party entirely.
Also, Rubio made an oath to not run a third party campaign if he lost the nomination.
And I also want big themes from them. I want the country to feel it is sitting in on a Hillsdale class. No nickel and dime promises. No games. Straight big shots. These two are uniquely equipped to make a big splash.
It’s the privilege of being a contributor.
Now I know it’s a good idea.
Political suicide for Rubio if he wants to run in 2020.
That’s what makes it so powerful. A political suicide bomber. It would disrupt the whole thing.
I’m sorry, we’ve already lived through a cold college professor these last 8 years. And you really don’t want to find out what happens if Hillsdale College should ever find itself with the same sort of public mindshare as, say, the University of Texas or the University of Colorado.
Best for Hillsdale to be thought of as a nice little secret, or at least a conservative Oberlin College.
Huh, what a waste. He really is interesting and not at all deranged-sounding when writing about his many specialties.
Rubio couldn’t even win his own state. Also, he was part of the Gang of Eight.
It wouldn’t surprise me in the slightest if Rubio read this letter. There aren’t that many top conservative websites and this is one of them. I’d love it if he’d run, oath notwithstanding. Other suggestions–Mitch Daniels, Tim Pawlenty or Mitt Romney. At first I thought Romney was a bad idea, but the more I think the about it the better I like it. Those who disliked him last time around are mostly Trumpists now, and he has name recognition, money, a donor base, a few nearly guaranteed states (Idaho and Utah) and he just seems so sane and sensible next to the rest of them, who I like to call Nope, Noper and Nopest. Though to be honest, I don’t know which of the to assign which iteration of Nope.
The #NeverTrump movement is dead.
So Trump is now officially part of the GOPe?
So Trump is establishment now. The man is a chameleon.