While Sen. Rubio’s announcement was overshadowed by ex-Sen. Clinton’s, the senator from Florida’s worries me more.  His party has practiced Orwell’s doublespeak for decades and he continues to do so—nothing new or surprising there—the party of Lincoln’s modern pols aren’t Honest Abes.  But my worry is about the double-image—the good-looking pol with that baby face and shock of perfect hair pretending to speak to a young generation as the prophet leading them into the promised land of upward mobility.  Instead of Moses, he’s the Pied Piper, of course.  He’s suave, sophisticate, and smooth-talking, but the false image of a caring progressive and “man of the people.”

As a writer, I search for the mot juste.  Let’s analyze the word “conservative” and what it means in current American politics.  It used to be that conservative meant someone who believed in the status quo and expressed a reluctance to try untested solutions to society’s problems, especially ones not thought through and analyzed for negative impact.  I recognize that there’s a place for that kind of conservatism—even the most flaming liberal practices some of that in her or his daily life.  The current GOP, especially ultra-conservatives aka Tea Partiers, in their disservice to the middle class and poor and their sycophant service to the one-percenters, has twisted that definition into something ugly, retrograde, and elitist.  That’s Marco Rubio’s true image that he’s trying to hide.  He’s no man of the people; he’s a mouthpiece for the rich elites in America.

The GOP has distorted the credo of the party of Lincoln so much that they not only use doublespeak, a word Orwell invented to describe the mind control of the fascists in the classic dystopian novel 1984 (for him, and for me, communism and Nazi socialism are the same thing, i.e. totalitarianism in the service of a rigid and tyrannical ruling class), they now are using double-imagery.  They’re cleverly hedging their bets.  Having lost with the race with their old warhorses like Dole and Romney (who’s an older version of Rubio, so much so I thought Romney would choose little Marco as his running mate to become the “hair pair”), and with the prospect of yet another Bush from a tired, irrelevant dynasty, they’re offering Scott Walker, Rand Paul, and Marco Rubio, all younger faces that supposedly will play well against the old and tired Hillary Clinton.  The double-imagery: any PR and marketing analysis that says Americans, especially young ones and minorities, will be fooled into equating young with progressive ideas, believing that the GOP really cares about them, and redefining progressive to mean conservative.

If it weren’t so dangerous and sadly untruthful, it would be comical.  In fact, Rubio and the other young’uns among the GOP faithful, are so puffed and powdered with the good-boy haircuts and well-trimmed nose hairs that they might as well head for Hollywood.  Tom Cruise, look out!  The Tea Partiers are coming to an IMAX screen near you, paid for by the Koch brothers…with all proceeds going to them as well.  If elections are won on good looks (Madison Avenue’s idea of political chic is what the GOP obviously buys into), Marco Rubio will win over Hillary Clinton in a landslide.  We shouldn’t measure a candidate by their stage presence, of course, especially a woman, but that’s what voters often do in this great country of ours.  “He (or she) just looks more presidential” is a line I often hear across the American political spectrum.  Elections are won via thirty-second TV blurbs by bloviating pols who “look presidential.”  Just look at the British royals.  Americans want a president who looks as good as that future king.

Rubio has that great double-image, and he clearly handles the doublespeak well.  He’s the perfect candidate to bamboozle Americans into thinking the GOP gives a rat’s ass about average Americans.  I mean, let’s face it—Hillary had her chance and lost the primaries to a brash, young, new face in American politics, and the voters ate it up.  The first black president!  The first woman president?  No, by the end of the 500+ days we’ve decided are necessary to run this presidential gauntlet now, Hillary will look more old and tired than she is, have bags under her eyes, and be a candidate for a nursing home, don’t you know.  That will be the crux of the anti-Clinton campaign from the GOP candidates and their one-percenter handlers.  The rest of the campaign?  Turning the anti-dynasty tirades against Jeb Bush against Hillary: After all, she’s just another Clinton, and we’d have Billy boy as first man determining her social agenda in the White House.  Aren’t we tired of dynasties?

That’s where the double-imagery of the GOP is a Machiavelli/Goebbels stroke of genius.  Progressives, even middle-of-roaders, will think that dapper Don Marco must be in tune with their goal of boldly moving into the 21^st century and solving the social problems that still face our country.  The doublespeak, of course, is that Don Marco says, “Yep, that’s me, I’m moving us into the 21^st century by applying 21^st techniques to 21^st century problems, not Hillary’s old and debunked 20^th century methods” (of course, that’s a paraphrase of his platform so far).  If you swallow that, the GOP National Committee has a bridge in Brooklyn they’ll sell you too.  The Koch brothers probably will say they own it—just sign on the dotted line.

There’s nothing progressive about today’s GOP.  In fact, it’s not even conservative.  My mots justes are “21^st century techno-fascist-feudalism.”  Modern methods are just being used to ensure the continuance of the ruling elites and the destruction of the middle class and upward mobility.  The one-percenters are no different than feudal lords; their weapons are just technically honed to attack the middle class, addicted to their Netflix, HBO, and iPhones and android phones.  However, unlike ISIS and many other retrograde movements in the world, their only gods are money and power.  Like the Machiavellian masters of propaganda in the Third Reich and the old Soviet Union, they know doublespeak and double-imagery are the techniques to use to achieve their nefarious control of the rabble masses through modern media.  That’s us, folks.  They see us as dangerous to their well-being.  Let’s make that true.

Hillary is old.  However, her ideas aren’t.  They’re progressive and a fresh look at the problems of income disparity; rampant, fascistic capitalism; immigration; education, and the plight of the poor and middle class.  I’m old enough to think that age brings wisdom.  Right now she’s the best Yoda to stop Sen. Marco Rubio and his GOP masters from the Evil Empire.  Unless we find another young Jedi knight like Barack Obama waiting in the wings (Elizabeth Warren, anyone?), Hillary is still the only true progressive in this race and definitely the only person who cares about ordinary Americans, those many who are struggling against tough odds just to make ends meet, educate their kids, and to live and die in dignity.  Marco Rubio might look young and solid, but to me, he’s already turned by the dark side of the Force, but just as transparent as an ice cube on a hot Florida day.

And so it goes….

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