We need to talk about Marco
TetleysTLDR: The Summary
What can we say about Marco Rubio. Marco Rubio is the perfect mascot for America’s corporate-right rot: a slick, donor-groomed chancer who sells ‘freedom’ while serving the billionaire class. He waves the Bible when attacking minority rights, yet falls silent when the doctrines of Christianity clash with oil money or defence contracts. He backs Wall Street deregulation, cheerleads ICE’s terrorising of immigrants, and weaponises state power to silence pro-Palestinian voices. All while pretending he’s some plucky son of immigrants. He’s not a public servant; he’s a polished errand boy for capital and empire, propped up by culture wars and paid for in blood.
TetleysTLDR: The Article
When it comes to bottom-of-the-barrel politicians that make Lee Anderson look like the voice of reason, enter stage right Marco Rubio: a careerist chancer in a tailored suit, polished enough for the Sunday shows but rotten to the core. He’s the political lovechild of a hedge fund and a televangelist, peddling corporate dogma wrapped in flag-waving piety. He’ll thump the Bible to bash women, immigrants, and queer people, then turn it face-down when war or Wall Street come calling. In the shit-stained grubby marketplace of American politics, Rubio’s the bloke selling snake oil at premium prices, and grinning while he does it.
Marco Antonio Rubio, born Miami 1971 to Cuban immigrant parents, is the self-styled poster boy for the American Dream. In his own telling, he’s the plucky lad from West Miami who worked his way up from humble roots to the US Senate and not one but two failed presidential runs. In reality? He’s a career politician steeped in the GOP’s swampiest habits: grovelling to corporate donors, shouting 'freedom' while passing laws that strip it away and binning his so-called principles the moment the polling turns sour. The Bible comes out for the cameras, the Stars and Stripes gets a good waving, and all the while he’s greasing the skids for policies that gag dissent, deport critics, and stuff public wealth into private pockets.
If Marco Rubio stands for anything, it’s Marco Rubio.
Rubio loves to remind America he’s a devout Christian: Catholic with a dash of evangelical theatre, often quoting Scripture on the Senate floor. His faith of course, is as bendy as his political record. Compassion for the poor? That bit of the Bible somehow gets lost between the steakhouse fundraisers and the closed-door AIPAC meetings. Turning the other cheek? Not when there’s a culture war to inflame or a migrant family to kick out. He’ll thump the Good Book when railing against abortion or same-sex marriage, but go deafeningly quiet when his own party tramples over the Sermon on the Mount. It’s not religion, it’s stagecraft: a shiny cross on the lapel of a man whose moral compass points only towards the next election.
Rubio’s turned into Washington’s head bouncer for the pro-Israel lobby, and he’s not shy about throwing people out, literally. Under the Trump-Rubio regime, immigration law has been weaponised to punish anyone, especially foreign nationals who dare to criticise Israel. Deporting lawful residents for nothing more than holding a banner.
Mahmoud Khalil, a Columbia student, attended peaceful pro-Palestinian protests. No crime, no violence, just placards and chants. Rubio still lobbied to boot him out of the country, citing 'serious adverse foreign policy consequences' (Politico, AP News). Apparently 'land of the free' now has an asterisk.
There there’s the mass visa revocations for wrongthink. More than 300 visas have been cancelled under this purge, hitting academics, students, and campaigners whose crime was holding the 'wrong' view on Israel–Palestine.
Rumeysa Öztürk, a Turkish Fulbright PhD student, was sent packing for online posts supporting Palestinians (The Guardian).
AI thought-policing: yes, really! An AI-driven programme trawled social media for 'antisemitic' patterns (read: political dissent), flagging almost 2,000 students for deportation review, most were later restored by the courts (Wikipedia).
Courts and campuses fight back: The Stanford Daily, with FIRE backing, has sued the administration for chilling free speech (SF Chronicle, SFGate). FIRE’s separate lawsuit challenges the legality of deporting people for speech alone (The Fire). But that’s the point: the chill isn’t a side effect, it’s the policy.
Rubio’s Role in ICE Actions: Political Power Meets Enforcement
And then there's ICE. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. This is a blunt instrument of America's border paranoia: a sprawling militarised bureaucracy that treats migrant families like enemy combatants, stalks workplaces and turn communities into surveillance zones. Its raids rip parents from children, its detention centres are festering warehouses of misery and its agents operate with all the subtlety of a sledgehammer in a greenhouse.
Officially its about 'homeland security'. In reality it's a political cudgel for whichever hardliner is holding the reins. And right now it's Marco Rubio swinging it at anyone whose politics he doesn't like.
As Secretary of State, Rubio invoked rarely used federal authority to classify Columbia student Mahmoud Khalil’s political activism as a foreign policy concern, providing the justification for ICE to arrest, detain, and initiate deportation of a lawful permanent resident despite no criminal wrongdoing. This demonstrates his explicit influence over ICE enforcement actions. Politicising USCIS and ICE enforcement
A letter from Senator Peter Welch and others to Rubio and DHS Secretary Kristi Noem outlined how ICE’s detention of Khalil appeared politically motivated. DHS officials reportedly misidentified his immigration status initially, and then ICE proceeded to revoke his green card without due process, based solely on Rubio’s determination. According to the letter, Rubio’s actions effectively served as a precedent, signalling a playbook for targeting student protesters. Defending ICE policies publicly
In press appearances, Rubio defended ICE’s stance, supporting deportations more broadly as necessary enforcement even when the targets are US residents or lawful residents involved in protests.
Ten reason Rubio’s a wrong ’Un
1) The state party AmEx, As Florida House Speaker, Rubio used the Republican Party credit card like it was his own wallet, paying it back only after journalists started poking around. Some charges remain a mystery.
2) Immigration flip-flop: Co-writes 2013’s bipartisan 'Gang of Eight' immigration bill, then legs it when the hard right growls.
3) NRA stooge: After the Parkland school massacre, refuses to stop taking NRA cheques and opposes an assault-weapons ban to the faces of grieving parents.
4) Anti-abortion extremism: Personally backs a total ban, supported a federal 15-week ban with token exceptions.
5) Climate ostrich: In 2014, denied humans were causing climate change 'the way scientists portray it,' in a state already losing bits to the sea.
6) January 6 apologist: Called the Jan. 6 commission a 'partisan joke,' voted against it, and acquitted Trump.
7) Strongman cosplay: Posted a gore-soaked Gaddafi photo to troll Venezuela’s Maduro, the diplomatic subtlety of a pub brawl.
8) Marriage equality sneer: Called the Respect for Marriage Act 'a stupid waste of time' and voted against it.
9) Trump boot-licking: Went from mocking Trump’s 'small hands' to fetching his slippers once it suited him.
10) TikTok grandstanding: Championed a ban that civil-liberties groups say tramples free speech. Loves the headline, shrugs at the Constitution.
So Marco, strip away the flag-waving and Bible-thumping, and Rubio is a hollow operator, the political equivalent of a second-hand car salesman who’s just rolled back the mileage. His Israel crackdown is pure authoritarianism in a suit: deportations, visa cancellations, and AI-driven witch-hunts against people for what they say. His religion is just another bit of costume drama, rolled out for the right audience. The rest of his record is a highlight reel of grift, cowardice, and cultural-war pantomime. The man’s not a patriot; he’s a careerist who’s learnt that in today’s GOP, the quickest way up the ladder is to step on whoever’s below.
Another one we’d love to see standing in a Dock at the Hague with the rest of the Genocide enablers.
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