This wasn't directed towards me, but I'll answer it anyway as someone who supported Rubio.
I think the single most important quality this country needs in a candidate is the ability to change the way people think about conservatism -- to do what Reagan did and convince people that the principles of limited government are the only correct ones for governance. And a healthy dose of non-preachy but traditional religious/moral values wouldn't hurt either.
You are asking for a deus ex machina. The problem is not that conservative ideas are bad, or that the public is not amenable to them.
The problem is that the United States people cannot hear anything on news or entertainment that isn't filtered through Liberal Democrat Union members who live in Urban environments.
We are suffering from an equal speech problem, and this cannot be overcome by any except a most exceptionally talented man.
We can close off the borders, but that doesn't change the mindset of people who are already in the country, nor the inevitable demographic shifts that are occurring. And if we cannot find a way to reach young people, and minorities, and get them to rethink Bernie-style socialism as the answer to our problems, nothing else will matter.
The answer to all of the above is the same. We have to knock that media weapon out of the hands of the left, and we have to get our own media weapon. The reason the demographic shifts in attitude are occurring is because there has been a decades long constant stream of propaganda tampering with the American mind while masquerading as "news" and "entertainment."
We are being Goebbeled to death. Literally everything you see on television nowadays has bits and pieces of propaganda in it, and it has been biting into the public consciousness now for decades. It's moving the public left. Government money is also pushing it that way.
In other words, I think of this in the exact opposite way that Trump does -- I believe that ideology/principle is the single most important fight to be won, because in the end, it is the only thing that distinguishes us from other nations, and the only thing that will keep us on the right path. Absent that, any policy changes will be temporary at best.
Politics is downstream from culture. Get control of the culture and you will be able to steer the politics in the direction you want later.
So, though I thought Cruz was better on the issues than Rubio, and though I didn't like Rubio's position on amnesty, I saw him as the only candidate in the race with the communications skills/charisma to actually change the debate in the country, and actually change some minds. He was mocked by some with "well, he's good looking, and he's got a nice speech, and a nice story, but what else"?
But I think that nice story, and particularly that nice speech, really mattered. My 19 year old daughter is relatively uninterested in politics, though she thinks both Hillary and Trump are weird. But the one time she caught Rubio on TV, she sat and listened to his whole speech, and said "Wow, I really like him - is he running for President too?" That came without any prompting or comment from me, and it struck me as important because she isn't someone who is very aware politically. And he was mouthing traditional conservative principles the entire time. Had he gotten out of the primaries, I think his message would have absolutely crushed Hillary's. He'd have been the perfect guy to make a conservative pitch to those disappointed Bernie supporters who are looking for something different. Literally a chance to influence/swing an entire generation.
I'm more of a "what are you saying" sort of fella rather than a "how you are saying it" sort of one. Yes, pretty words and speeches are always nice, but I prefer to ask
"what exactly are you saying?" Where is it that you stand? I don't think that's something Trump will even try because he's not a principled conservative, and though Cruz would have tried it, he's kind of an unappealing lizard-looking guy much better at preaching to the converted than actually converting anyone.
I thought Rubio was actually a chance to break through to people who might otherwise never give conservatism a second thought.
I never thought of it that way because I never saw him as being effective in that way. As much as I don't like it, Trump seems to be the one that's converting people. He's actually appealing to a lot of Democrat supporters. This is why I think he will win in a landslide. Blue Collar Democrats like his punch-back approach.
Most people are not ideological. They don't really keep up with politics. To most people, the election is nothing more than a popularity contest.
