Finally free from the demands of being Chief Archivist of the United States, Secretary of State, National Security Advisor and unofficial Viceroy of Venezuela, Marco Rubio headed to the Munich Security Conference last weekend to deliver an important speech.
I shouldn't make fun. Rubio, unlike so many important figures in this administration, is a genuine and serious person. In fact, that's why President Trump continues to hold him accountable. Rubio knows what he's talking about and cares about politics. He is not a free agent; After all, Trump is still president. But in an administration full of people willing to act like social media trolls, Rubio stands out for being serious. And I appreciate that.
But just because Rubio made a serious argument doesn't mean it was entirely persuasive. Part of his goal was to repair some of the damage caused by his boss, who not long ago threatened to blow up the North Atlantic alliance by seizing Greenland from Denmark. Rubio's conciliatory language was welcome, but it hardly settled things.
Whether it was his intention or not, Rubio was more successful in offering a contrast to Vice President JD Vance, who used the Munich conference last year as a platform to insult allies and provide fan service to his followers in I put “vision” in quotes because it's not clear to me that Trump actually has one, but the broader MAGA crowd is desperate to construct a coherent theory of his case.
So what is that case? That Western civilization is a real thing, the United States is not only a part of it but also its leader, and will do the hard things necessary to fix it.
In Rubio's story, the United States and Europe adopted policies in the 1990s that amounted to the “controlled decline” of the West. European governments harnessed America's military power and allowed its defense capabilities to atrophy while funding bloated welfare states and inefficient regulatory regimes. Free trade, mass migration and the infatuation with “the rules-based global order” eroded national sovereignty, undermined the “cohesion of our societies” and fueled the “deindustrialization” of our economies. The remedy for these things? Reverse course on those policies and accept the harsh reality that force and power drive events on the world stage.
“The fundamental question we must answer from the beginning is what exactly are we defending,” Rubio said, “because armies do not fight for abstractions. Armies fight for a people; armies fight for a nation. Armies fight for a way of life.”
I agree with some of this, to a point. And honestly, given how comforting it is to hear an adult argument from this administration, it seems churlish to object.
But to begin with, the simple fact is that Western civilization is an abstraction, as are nations and peoples. And that's fine. Abstractions – like love, patriotism, moral principles, justice – are really important. Our “way of life” is largely defined and understood through abstractions: freedom, the American dream, democracy, etc. What is “great” in Make America Great Again, if not an abstraction?
This is important because defenders of the administration ridicule or dismiss any principled objection that critics raise as tiresome nonsense. Trump tramples on the rule of law, pardons his cronies, tries to steal an election, and violates free market principles whether he wants to or not. And if you complain it's because you're a fool.
As Stephen Miller, White House Deputy Chief of Staff saying Not long ago, “we live in a world… that is ruled by force, that is ruled by force, that is ruled by power. These are the iron laws of the world that have existed since the beginning of time.” Rubio said it better, but it's the same idea.
There are other problems with Rubio's story. In the early 1990s, the EU economy It was 9% larger than ours. In 2025 we were almost twice as rich as Europe. If Europe was “ripping us off,” they have a funny way of showing it. The United States has not “deindustrialized.” The manufacturing sector has grown throughout this decline, although not as much as the services sector, where we are a giant. We have eliminated manufacturing jobs, but that has more to do with automation than immigration. Furthermore, the trends Rubio describes are not exclusive to the United States. Manufacturing tends to contract as countries get richer.
That's an important point because Rubio, like his boss, blames all of our economic problems on bad politicians and pretends that good politicians can solve them through sheer force of will.
I think Rubio is wrong, but I commend him for making his case seriously.
UNKNOWN: @JonahDispatch
