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Washington, D.C. — U.S. Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) spoke at Faith & Freedom Coalition’s Road to Majority conference last week in Orlando, Florida. See below for a transcript of his remarks.
 
“A mistake we make is thinking that Marxism is dead. That Marxism is now something that crazy people at the faculty club at the university talk about, but isn’t really alive anymore. The other mistake we make is that Marxism is some sort of economic theory. Neither one of those things is true. Marxism is not dead and it’s not an economic theory. 
 
“What’s happened is that Marxists realize what the track record of Marxism is around the world, so they don’t want to call themselves Marxists anymore.They have found new titles. Things that, frankly, sound benign, and you almost feel guilty being against. Social justice — who can be against social justice? But that’s the terminology they come up with. Equity — who can be against equity? 
 
“But the truth of the matter is that — and this is not about economics, solely — the old Marxism was the argument that the capitalist system, the whole system, was flawed and rigged, and it divided people. It said the world, and society, and capitalist societies are divided between two groups. You have one group, which owns the businesses — they are the oppressors. And you have the workers, everybody else, that group, are the victims. 
 
“And that’s how communism works. It creates a victim class, it creates an oppressor class, and then it says the only way to fix this is we have to overthrow the system. We need a revolution. We need a government to take over and make everything fair. And we need a government that goes to the former oppressors and makes them apologize for being an oppressor, be reeducated into responsible people, and pay a penance for what they’ve done. That’s the old Marxism, and it sounds familiar. 
 
“Because today we are being asked to divide. First of all, we are being told that America in and of itself was founded on racism, prejudice, and evil. Not that we have a history of racism and prejudice, but that we were founded on it. That that is the foundation of our society. That we are irredeemably broken in our history. That the system is rigged. 
 
“[It’s] not about capitalism — the system is set up to benefit the oppressor versus the victim. And who is the oppressor? The oppressor basically, if you listen to some of these people, is anyone who is a white male heterosexual. And everybody else — I guess myself included, being a Cuban American — is a victim. And the only answer is for government to step forward, and create equity, and make things fair, and tear the system down. And by the way, the oppressors — you need to acknowledge your oppression. And you need to apologize for it. And then you need to pay a penance. 
 
“See people ask, ‘What does that have to do with Marxism?’ Marxism is about control. The old Marxism used economics to gain control. The new Marxism uses identity politics. The result is something that looks nothing like America. 
 
“Now, I guarantee you right now this will be put online and someone will write an article [saying,] ‘This is crazy talk, none of this is happening.’ What I just described to you is the orthodoxy of American institutions. What I just described to you is orthodoxy in corporate America. Where today workers in corporate America.. .are required to go to retraining courses where some of them are told, ‘You must accept your inherent privilege. You must accept your inherent role as an oppressor.’ 
 
“It’s infected our schools, where children on the first day of school — first graders — are told, ‘You must choose a pronoun, and you need to now divide up between whether you’re an oppressor class or victim class member.’
 
“You’ve heard a lot about this critical race theory and stuff that’s wound up in our schools. It’s certainly the prevalent ideology in the media, Hollywood, music, and in government. We have federal employees =- federal employees, including people in charge of keeping this country safe — who are forced to go to two- or three-day training courses where they have to choose where they are in the oppression matrix. Just think about that. 
 
“But what is the ultimate goal of all this? The ultimate goal of all this is we need a government and government policies to make things right and equalize it. Equity. Not equality of opportunity. Equity, the word they now use. 
 
“And I’m telling you, this is an incredible danger to the American country. There is no reason to believe that this new Marxism will result in anything but what the old Marxism resulted in. Because the next step is going to be economic… If, in fact, the country is divided between an oppressor class and a victim class based on your identity, be it your sexual identity, be it your gender, be it your race. If that’s true, then the next step is we need economic policies that make things right, and we need social policies, we need laws, we need government agencies, we need requirements. That’s the next step. 
 
“I’m telling you, if we do not confront this now — call it for what it is and defeat it — it will destroy this country and everything that has made it special. And what do Marxists count on? They count on fear. They count on fear.
 
“We know this firsthand from our experiences and the people that I know from Nicaragua, Venezuela, obviously Cuba. Marxists don’t tolerate dissent. They do not tolerate dissent. If you speak out in Marxist societies, you go to jail, you go into exile, some were executed. In new Marxism, if you speak out, you get banned, you get canceled, you get fired, your business gets boycotted, and you get called all sorts of names. So I understand why some people decide, “You know what, it’s just easier to pretend I agree, and stay quiet, I don’t need those hassles.’ That’s what they’re counting on. 
 
“I know it’s hard to speak out. It’s easy for someone in public office to speak out because in some ways, you know you’re already in the fight. But you go to someone who’s just trying to get ahead or run a business, they just don’t need the hassle or the headache. 
 
“But we have to speak out. And we can’t just speak out against the crazy things they stand for, we have to point people to the logical outcome, the consequences of doing what they want us to do. The consequences of what they’re asking us to accept. What they’re asking us to accept is something that runs counter to what this nation was founded on and what we have worked 240 years to try to get better at each generation. 
 
“Ours is the story of perpetual improvement. I have never claimed, and neither have any of you, that American history is perfect. What I have claimed is that American history is better than anyone else’s history.
 
“What I have claimed is that each generation of Americans has brought us closer to fulfilling our founding principles, based on the belief that all men, all women, all people are created equal, and that their rights come from God, not from government.
 
“And every great cause in American history, every single one of them… has been an appeal to, and a fulfillment of, those principles, not a rejection of them. Today, June 19^th, they commemorate the end of slavery. What was that? That was a fulfillment of our founding principle, that all men are created equal. The Civil Rights Movement was an appeal to live up to the words of those founding documents. The Women’s Suffrage Movement was an appeal to the constitutional principles and the Declaration of Independence. All of our great causes in our history have been a fulfillment of our founding, not a rejection of it. And if we abandon that, which is what they’re asking us to do, we won’t be America anymore.
 
“I know that politics today has a lot of hyperbole. And maybe I’m a little passionate about things involving Marxism for obvious reasons. I think we should all be. Marxism is the single most evil and destructive ideology that mankind has ever known.
 
“It divides countrymen against each other by design, it divides people against each other by design, and whether that divide is between rich and poor, or on the basis of gender and race and religion or who you voted for. It is divisive and destructive nonetheless. 
 
“And so if we have one mission, if we have one goal, it isn’t liberal versus conservative, or Republican versus Democrat. It’s America versus this Marxist ideology, which is what it is. Call it for what it is, defeat it! Or it will destroy our country. Defeat it, and we will save our country, and our children will inherit what we inherited: the single greatest nation in all of human history. Thank you, God Bless you all. Thank you.”