In a piece published at the American Conservative this week, U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., insisted “Today, led by a generation of leaders who feel no obligation to our nation, corporate America is the instrument of anti-American ideologies.”
Rubio was endorsed by the leadership of the business community when he first ran for the U.S. Senate in 2010 and when he ran for a second term in 2016, including winning the backing of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. But in recent months, Rubio has grown increasingly critical of business and corporations. Rubio sounded this theme at the end of last year in a piece for the Ripon Society, insisting the GOP was growing more friendly to workers and companies more focused on growing jobs in America instead of international operations.
Earlier this year, Rubio talked to the American Conservative about what he called “woke capitalism” and he followed that up in a pieces at the New York Post and at Fox Business that warned that Republicans should not back companies that do not support American values.
In the piece published this week at the American Conservative, Rubio insisted the “collapse of corporate patriotism opened the door for these companies to fall for anti-American ideologies we see in the news and our workplaces” and claimed that the “companies that control the vast majority of America’s economic resources and curate the information we see and hear on a daily basis now say that America is a racist or sexist country.”
Rubio expanded on that take in the new piece.
“These oligarchs believe the very existence of America is fatally flawed, and they are devoting hundreds of billions of dollars to advance corporate propaganda that reflects these beliefs. They aim to remake our society, our culture, and our country. They aim to redefine what constitutes a good life in America,” Rubio insisted before comparing the corporations’ actions to tactics used by Marxists. “For over a century these have been the tactics used by Marxists to take over countless nations and societies. If we do not fight back, we will lose America. This is not hyperbole. In fact, is it very familiar to the Americans I was raised by and those I still live among, who witnessed Marxist revolutions take over their homelands. But the battle against cultural Marxism will not be won by relying on an outdated ‘Wall Street Journal Conservatism’ that does not fully address the challenges faced by working Americans in our 21st century economy.
“Defining conservatism as just cutting regulations and taxes works well for the nationless companies headquartered in America. However, those companies have no incentive to reinvest in America’s families, communities, or future,” Rubio continued. “It is time we push companies to meet their obligations to America.”
Rubio is running for a third Senate term in 2022 and could opt for a second bid for the Republican presidential nomination in 2024.
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