By JAVIER MANJARRES
Senator Marco Rubio is probably adrift on his boat somewhere down in the Florida Keys, as he is vacationing with his ‘familia’ before hitting the road again to make his case to defund President Obama’s Obamacare law.Rubio, along with Senators Mike Lee, Ted Cruz, and others, is pushing to exclude funding for Obamacare in the upcoming short-term budget negotiations.
Rubio’s road trip could also be perceived as an immigration reform damage control play, as many Floridians took issue with him over his amnesty-lite policy shift on the immigration issue. It is fair to say that Rubio sustained a self-inflicted near-death blow to his reputation and political career when he embraced liberal Democratic Senators Charles Schumer, Dick Durbin, and John McCain, in co-sponsoring the Senate ‘Gang of 8’ immigration reform bill.
Do you think the 2nd Amendment will be destroyed by the Biden Administration?(2)
But is Rubio’s reputation completely shot with conservatives? Many conservatives believe that he is still the same ole’ “Marquito” they have always known, and also believe that he is still the same pro-life, anti-tax, and anti-big government person they voted into office in 2010.
Rubio has stated that aside from immigration reform, he is as conservative as always. And in defense of Rubio, he does have the voting record in the Senate to prove his conservative bona fides, but the immigration issue still looms large with many conservatives that feel he betrayed them.
Can Rubio win back his Tea Party support?A few weeks ago, Rubio was asked whether he supported Common Core and all of the bells and whistles that go along with it, including the data mining of student information.
Rubio firmly stated that he was completely against Common Core, putting himself at odds with his political mentor, former Florida Governor Jeb Bush.
And I am very concerned, and quite frankly opposed to any effort to try to create some sort of national curriculum standard and then try to leverage the power of the federal government’s funding to force states to adopt a certain curriculum standard. State and local levels are the best places to come up with curriculum reform, and its something the federal government shouldn’t be deeply involved in.-Senator Marco Rubio
Common Core is a huge issue for grassroots activists and pundits across the nation, by Rubio coming out against these education standards, conservative activists and Tea Party folks are cautiously giving him a second chance.
If Rubio continues to stay the course of opposing big government and tax increases, not to mention Common Core, it will only be a matter of time before grassroots activists completely warm back up to him. Remember, Rubio needs the grassroots in order to have any chance of winning the 2016 Republican Presidential nomination.Related: Marco Rubio Opposes Common Core
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