Marco Rubio Accidentally Makes the Case Against Common-Good Conservatism at CPAC

At a conference marked by MAGA caps and periodic chants of “Let’s go, Brandon!” Sen. Marco Rubio (R–Fla.) this morning opted for an earnest appeal.

“The American Revolution—what was revolutionary about it was it had this audacious idea that rights were from God, not from a government,” he said from the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) main stage in Orlando. “The founders of this nation understood that human nature was, if they ever got power, there would always be people that would want to make everybody else live, think, say the things they wanted them to say, and do the things they wanted them to do. And they built protections against it. Because none of us are immune from it.”

The 10-minute speech was intended as a warning against cancel culture and COVID-related mandates from the left. Deliberate or not, it was effectively also a case against the self-proclaimed “Common-Good Conservatives” who have spent the last few years demanding that the right support “muscular” government with the power to reorient society to their liking.

I summarized that view in 2020:

All societies have rulers, the Will-to-Power Conservatives seem to be saying; what matters above all else is ensuring that our tribe is dominant.

Don’t take my word for it. In a recent symposium published by The American Conservative, editor of Ame