Nicole Wallace Quote

Hip Hop Has Finally Come to the GOP

Hip Hop has finally come to the GOP, but not at the behest of Michael Steele.

Here’s Nicole Wallace on Marco Rubio during ABC’s This Week panel.

“He’s everything we need and more. He’s modern. He knows who Tupac is. He is on social media,” Wallace said. “I mean, he’s got the policy. He’s in touch with, I think, the lives of ordinary people. And he’s a very accessible guy. He talks about being a working dad and juggling his own priorities.”

Rubio is modern because he’s “on social media” and he “knows who Tupac is?” I suppose he’s aware of the emails and the intertubes, too.

There’s a lot more to being modern than being aware of social media or being aware of Tupac (who, by the way, is still relevant to modern culture but has been dead since 1996).

Rubio’s policies are not modern. He believes the jury is still out on climate change and he isn’t necessarily on board with comprehensive immigration reform unless it comes with a host of conservative, face-saving gestures that water it down. And policy is what truly matters.

To say he “knows who Tupac is” is no more a testament to your ability to reach out to a different demographic of voters than is delivering your conservative manifesto in Spanish. Either way, you’re speaking another language to people who simply do not share in your value of small government, austerity, discrimination, and conspiracy mongering.