It's tough being Marco Rubio these days. The former Tea Party pinup is now feeling a blunt blowback from his former hard-right constituency. The fresh wounds are from the Florida senator's stance on the immigration bill.
In the eyes of those supporters, the senator's openness to amnesty is tantamount to an Et Tu Marco backstabbing; now, Rubio has to do what all Republicans must whenever they flex a little common sense: duck for cover under the most Neanderthaloid conservative position available.
And for Rubio, abortion is looking good. But the senator's defensive maneuver has put him on the shitlist of another vocal interest group.
Pro-life groups have been courting Rubio to take up the football on a Senate version of a controversial 20-week abortion ban -- the same legislation that inspired Texas State Sen. Wendy Davis' 13-hour filibuster.
Although he hasn't committed to the issue, the Tampa Bay Times reported over the weekend that the senator is expected to throw in his support this week. By sponsoring the legislation, the thinking goes, Rubio might take his chances as a potential GOP presidential candidate off life support.
But women's rights groups are well aware that Rubio's decision is coming this week. In response, they've organized a social-media blitz starting today. UniteWomen.org is urging supporters to blast Rubio's accounts and phone lines all month as part of the "Need Your Permission" campaign.
"Women across the country unite and tell Senator Marco Rubio, who is introducing a comparable bill to the House bill in the Senate, that if he wants to make decisions about my uterus and my reproductive life, he gets to make all the decisions about my life. You don't get to cherry pick," the event's organizers explained on Facebook. "If he want to control our bodies, let's try to give him our need for decisions for one month."
The idea is to flood Rubio's account with hilariously small-caliber life decisions, each hashtagged as "#needyourpermission," "#NYP,: or "#nypmarcorubio."
By early Monday, the results were already starting to trickle in to the senator's account, @marcorubio. Ah, snark.
@marcorubio Not sure if I should wear flats or heels to go shopping. I usually trip in heels. Need your help to make my choice. Thanks!
— Annette Gross (@Annette144) July 8, 2013
@marcorubio I'm just a silly woman and I need your help. Should floss before I brush or after I brush. #needyourpermission #NYP
— Myra Joyce (@MyraJoyceBx) July 8, 2013
@marcorubio Should my girlfriend stay up and watch Ray Donovan or just watch a recorded version of it tomorrow? #needyourpermission
— Bradley (@Barawlins) July 8, 2013
@marcorubio : need your permission. My wife had a long, busy weekend. Should she choose to take a nap or not? She needs your permission
— Randy Inskeep (@Randy262) July 7, 2013
@marcorubio Should I answer my emails or clean my studio? Or should I wedge clay? #needyourpermission #NYP
— Ihavesmallfeet (@ihavesmallfeet) July 8, 2013
But does Rubio really care about this kind of response -- from a constituency that would never toss him a vote in the first place? No. Absolutely not. If anyone even tells him about the #needyourpermission campaign, he'll probably forget about it by the time he's finished with his latest guzzle of bottled water.
But these voices do add to the heated rhetoric building around the senator. And his Twitter feed is a scary window into that. Right now, the account is a ground zero for the web at its most tasteless, vile, and racist.
You can go digging yourself for the worst of the worst, but below are just a few of the angry comments people are making to the senator behind the cover of a Twitter avatar. It shows how playing with extreme policies sandwiches you between heat from both sides.
I had high hopes for Marco Rubio until he kicked me and most Americans in the nuts by this backdoor amnesty deal
— Rusty Shackleford (@WVBikes) July 7, 2013
.@marcorubio You misled the people, please step down and go away
— Truth Gunner (@TruthGunner) July 8, 2013
@marcorubio when can I expect a refund from my donation to ur campaign since u have been bought and paid for? I did that while unemployed!
— Barry Choom (@rapidcraft) July 8, 2013
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