Being part of the millennial generation, I've heard many criticisms and complaints from those part of the older generations. Mainly, those criticisms and complaints usually rim around the belief that millennials are narcissistic, self-entitled hipsters who spend half of their lives absorbing stupid content through an illuminated touchscreen. Personally, I do not agree with such criticisms, but that is aside from the point. I'm mentioning those particular thoughts that screamed into mental prominence because of some stupid content that showed up on my Facebook feed.
The latest GOP debate took place in Iowa and I did not watch it because I value my time here on Earth. I did, however, hear several things about it. I heard that the Republican frontrunner, Donald Trump, pulled out of the debate due to his ongoing feud with Fox News commentator, Megyn Kelly. When I first heard that Trump was pulling out because of a woman, I immediately wondered about the quality of contraceptives back in the day. I must have been fantasizing a world with one less half-wit celebrity with a knack for lampooning a particular fascist who, coincidentally, also had attained iconic hair status for the wrong reasons. However, this isn't what I want to talk about.
One of the other highlights of the GOP debate came from Florida Senator, Marco Rubio, when he spoke upon two of the DNC's candidates, Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders. Rubio's comments against the two Democratic candidates seemed to fill the void left by an absent Trump, especially when he decided to call Clinton a liar and Sanders a good president... for Sweden. It was nothing short of a good ole' Republican mudslinging that's grown in popularity nowadays.
First of all, before I proceed to stoke more roasting flames, I ought to acknowledge that I am, in no way, a political scientist or expert of any sort. I, like many others in my age range, have suddenly been paying attention thanks to several eye-catching politicians running and several other, more farcical "dignitaries" running as well. So, with that said, allow me to continue.
Rubio's claims of Clinton being a liar are... probably true, but for a completely different reason. Of course, some time ago, Secretary Clinton announced that she would be releasing her emails which caused quite a stir from late last year, which Rubio brushed upon. However, to garner a bit more of that patriotic sympathy from the audience in Iowa, he had to bring up the 2012 Benghazi attacks in Libya which involved the unfortunate deaths of four American soldiers. Now, I do not know much about the Benghazi situation, but I do know that any type of fatality within this type of context is unfortunate and deserves the correctly due amount of respect towards the families of the fallen. I should also note that I'm not defending Clinton either because of obvious reasons that go off tangent from this topic (*cough*...Wall Street connections...*cough, cough*). With that said, how dare Rubio try to milk an applause break and manipulate the emotions of the audience in order to save some sort of face in his campaign? Regardless of your current position and your desire to run the United States- does Rubio have any form of respect (true respect) for those soldiers who lost their lives in Benghazi? Why stoop to such lows, even when you're down in the polls? There is no shame in actually swallowing your pride and going down with some dignity rather than exploiting traumatic events for some damn claps in the crowd who, like me, know almost nothing about.
As for the whole "Bernie for Sweden" comment (#SwedenLovesBernie): really? At this point, the whole presidential nominee campaign is just a daytime soap opera constantly spewing out drama from both political parties to say the least. And like other dramas, someone completely uninvolved gets dragged in.
According to an article by the Washington Post, Rubio's comment was followed by clap-back from the Scandinavian country. Roger Lundgren, an editor for Kungliga magazine and a leading commentator on Sweden's royal family, had this to say, "The thing with some American politicians... is--I don’t want to use the word stupid, but I do. They are. They are so ignorant about the rest of the world." As a legal native of the United States, all I have to say is this: damn.
But, in all honesty, I agree with Lundgren. The United States tries hard to be the land of opportunity and diversity, but then you get ignorant comments coming from presidential candidates that don't even try to be offensive and still succeed in coming off as uninformed and unprofessional. At this point, I'm sure the rest of the world just sighs and lets our country do our own thing. It's like the U.S. became an estranged uncle at a kid's party who's always had too much to drink and always rambles on about how "radical terrorism can't be solved by intellect" and complaining that Asians are always saying, "We want deal!" Meanwhile, the rest of the rational world is gradually shuffling over to a quiet corner to talk about how the U.S. is setting a terrible example for the younger nations at the party and how the U.S. is making an ass of himself.
I mean, it should somewhat be common knowledge that European nations aren't particularly represented by presidential leaders. If Rubio had said that "Bernie would be a good prime minister" or "Bernie would be a good king," then I'm sure that there would be sighs instead of actual comments coming from the country expressing their disdain. I'm surprised that Rubio didn't remember that Sweden was a constitutional monarchy, along with fellow Scandinavian country, Norway (another country Rubio managed to mention previously and probably tick off.) Sweden is within the area where Frozen took place (you know, the one that your little cousins made you play everyday for several weeks.) Regardless, it's safe to say that Rubio received quite the cold shoulder, clichéd as it may be. Rubio ought to watch his back the next time he tries to look for curtains at his local IKEA store while fantasizing about a pipe dream of him in the White House.
