Recently Jake Tapper interviewed Marco Rubio. Prior to the interview there was a petition floating in social media asking Jake Tapper to ask Rubio if he would accept the nomination if it is offered.
Jake Tapper didn't ask that question- media bias has its rules- which does not include representing the 60% of Americans opposed to both of the establishment's presumed candidates. Rubio was asked only how supportive he will be of the presumed nominee of the Republican party.
Rubio answers questions he is asked. The media frequently distorts his answers by imputing meaning that isn't there. If the media were to be fair and balanced to all factions of its audience, including the 60% of Americans who want a third option, it would also ask Rubio if he would accept the nominee in addition to asking if Rubio will support the presumed nominee pursuant to the pledge that Rubio took as a candidate in the Republican primary. Technically Rubio never pledged to support the presumed nominee. Rubio pledged to support the actual nominee and that is still to be determined. The delegates hold the fate of conservatism, the USA, and the free world in their hands.
Nothing changes about the "presumed " status until the delegates make their decision at the convention but the media largely reports the presumed nominee is already the chosen nominee as if the delegate process were merely a theatrical device.
It remains true that the delegates can vote for rules that allow all delegates to vote their individual conscience. In America we have a finely tuned balance between the individual conscience of the public servant and that individual's role in representing the will of the people. The public elects individuals to represent their interests. In a political system based on the natural rights and freedoms of the individual, every representative is first and foremost an individual entrusted to honor their own conscience and to select their priorities according to their unique knowledge and understanding of the parameters of a political context designed as a check and balance against totalitarian power. The public servant does not decide the configuration of power which is the context within which he must seek to represent the causes and promises upon which he campaigned. The electorate determines the configuration of power.
Individual conscience is primary because America is not a collectivist political philosophy. The United States Constitution is based in the freedom and rights of the individual. The role of a public servant is to serve the interests the people and the party channeled through the individual's own conscience. The American political philosophy is distinct from all other political philosophies in that it is based in individualism and protects individual rights and freedoms and so the public servant is as much responsible to be true to his own individual conscience as he is to serving the public or a party.
Rubio Republicans are such because Rubio is perceived to be the most articulate voice for American exceptionalism in today's political landscape. Rubio's integrity is another primary reason why Rubio Republicans are Rubio Republicans. Rubio is putting forth his best effort to balance his individual conscience and his pledge to support Republican Party nominee. Rubio answered in a previous interview with Jake Tapper that those who did not take the pledge are in a different position than himself and still avoids framing his support as going directly to the presumed nominee but instead to supporting the party always placing the emphasis on stopping Hillary's bid for power while continuing to stand behind everything he formerly said about the presumed nominee.
Rubio's diligence in trying to find that balance between serving others while remaining true to his individual conscience is a mark of a character widely divergent from that of the presumed nominee, who recently turned against his presumed party to take down Republican Governor Martinez after she refused to endorse the presumed nominee. The presumed nominee is not affected by hints from Republican Party leaders that he needs to show an ability to unite the Republican Party, but rather by the tenderness of his ego. The presumed nominee attacked Governor Martinez's professional performance by selectively picking out issues to criticize based on his own lack of experience in working in a system of checks and balances of power. He lifted his selections out of context and treated them something that can be judged in isolation from historical and political context- all to get Governor Martinez for failing to endorse the presumed candidate. At least the presumed candidate didn't attack a female public servant on the basis of her looks as is the typical line of attack reserved for the feminine gender by the presumed candidate.
Let us not forget that the presumed candidate is not yet the actual candidate and that the delegates can decide on rules to allow voting by individual conscience. That is the reason why the delegate system exists. The delegate system is not merely a dramatic prop, it exists for precisely the circumstance that the Republican Party finds itself in today. The progressive establishment, which advances collectivism, is poised to take over both major parties, via a Trump nomination. It is said that Trump brought many "new Republicans" into the party but Trump himself has defined the new Republican Party as "not the conservative party" and so Trump brings new "Republicans" into the Republican party at the cost of driving out its conservative base. Early on Trump's delegate wins were centered in states with open primaries, while states with closed primaries favored other candidates. In the event of a Trump nomination "Republican" is the new "Democrat" and "R" stands for "Renegade" , the new conservative party started by Bill Kristol and friends.
Now is the hour when individual conscience should once again be granted the authority and power it was originally intended to have within the Republican Party. This too would be serving the interests of the Party which will surely lose its conservative base should a progressive, who has already deemed that the Republican party is not the conservative party, be given the nominee. In such a case the Republican party betrays its base for a new set of "Republicans" who may or may not remain loyal to the Party In Name Only.
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