Marco Rubio, the next Vice-President of the United States, is a rising star in American politics because he can see the important issues of the day with clarity and talk about them with conviction.  His clarity of thought and power of oratory are nothing like we’ve seen since Ronald Reagan.

On the floor of the US Senate, he laid out the terms of the debate that will dominate the years ahead.  It’s a debate between two very different visions for America’s future:

1. The job of government is to deliver economic “justice”, where the government makes sure that everyone does well.
2. The job of government is to protect economic opportunity, where the government doesn’t guarantee the outcome, but preserves your opportunity to fulfill your dreams and hopes.

He makes one mistake in his analysis.  He says that neither vision is more moral than the other.  He is mistaken about this.  Where is the morality in the government deciding who gets what?  More to the point, where is the morality in professional politicians and bureacrats deciding who gets what?  Here’s what politicians and bureaucrats do: they take money away from the people who won’t vote for them and give it to the people who will.  Where is the morality in organized thievery?

Other than that, Senator Rubio is right on target:

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D-nj2H7ALzg

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A people free to choose will always choose peace.

Facts are stubborn things.

Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn’t pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same.

Freedom prospers when religion is vibrant and the rule of law under God is acknowledged.

Each generation goes further than the generation preceding it because it stands on the shoulders of that generation. You will have opportunities beyond anything we’ve ever known.

Government’s first duty is to protect the people, not run their lives.

Government’s view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it.

I have wondered at times what the Ten Commandments would have looked like if Moses had run them through the US Congress.