Marco Rubio: 'I ask the American people: Do not give in to the fear' - LA Times

Marco Rubio's withdrawal speech.  He laments the politics of resentment - but he built his career on it, and it has been the foundation of Republican politics for the last fifty years.  He's still blaming the wrong people.  And seeks the wrong solutions. - gwc
Marco Rubio: 'I ask the American people: Do not give in to the fear' - LA Times

...So, from a political standpoint, the easiest thing to have done in this campaign is to jump on all those anxieties I just talked about, to make people angrier, make people more frustrated. But I chose a different route and I'm proud of that.

That would have been -- in a year like this, that would have been the easiest way to win. But that is not what's best for America. The politics of resentment against other people will not just leave us a fractured party, they are going to leave us a fractured nation.

They are going to leave us as a nation where people literally hate each other because they have different political opinions.

That we find ourselves at this point is not surprising, for the warning signs have been here for close to a decade. In 2010, the tea party wave carried me and others into office because not enough was happening and that tea party wave gave Republicans a majority in the House, but nothing changed. In 2014, those same voters gave Republicans a majority in the Senate and, still, nothing changed. And I blame some of that on the conservative movement, a movement that is supposed to be about our principles and our ideas. But I blame most of it on our political establishment.

A political establishment that for far too long has looked down at conservatives, looked down at conservatives, as simple-minded people. Looked down at conservatives as simply bomb-throwers. A political establishment that for far too long has taken the votes of conservatives for granted, and a political establishment that has grown to confuse cronyism for capitalism, and big business for free enterprise. 

I endeavored over the last 11 months to bridge this divide within our party and within our country because I know that after eight years of Barack Obama this nation needs a vibrant and growing conservative movement and it needs a strong Republican Party to change the direction now of this country or many of the things that are going wrong in America will become permanent, and many of the things makes us a special country will be gone. America needs a vibrant conservative movement, but one that’s built on principles and ideas, not on fear, not on anger, not on preying on people’s frustrations.