Rubio Campaign Press Release - This is Why Hillary Clinton's Vision is Just the Lazy Politics of Yesterday

An Op-Ed by Marco Rubio

Originally published on Seacoastonline.com

When Hillary Clinton arrives in New Hampshire today, her plan will be to play it safe. With no serious challengers in her party, she will feel no pressure to explain her vision, offer new ideas, respond to the concerns of voters, or even answer questions from reporters. Her approach will be to avoid high risk appearances, do the bare minimum required of a candidate, and continue coasting to her party's nomination. Those who lose under this strategy, unfortunately, are the people of New Hampshire.

A campaign for president should not be seen as an inconvenient formality on one's long-planned journey to higher office. A campaign should be a vibrant contest of ideas in which voters run the show, ask the questions, weigh the proposals, and test the mettle of those who ask for the privilege of leading them. The trouble that comes when every interaction with voters is limited and carefully stage managed, and when every public event is rigidly scripted and rehearsed, is that the spirited discussions that should mark every campaign simply never happen.

As a result, Hillary Clinton's ideas aren't just bad; they suffer from a dangerous lack of imagination and inspiration. Her reluctance to have meaningful interactions with the people she hopes to lead manifests itself in a vision that is tired, unoriginal and unresponsive to the concerns of the middle class or those hoping to reach it. Her ideas, to the extent she has even presented them, recycle old themes and old approaches from a century that is long over. They make no effort to grapple with the complexity of the modern challenges facing the American people.

For example, rather than dream up exciting new ideas for revolutionizing higher education in this century — ideas that would bring a degree within reach of busy single moms, struggling young Americans, and everyone in search of a better job — she proposes pumping more money into the current unaffordable and inaccessible system. And rather than create fresh 21st century economic solutions that will empower every American with opportunity, she falls back on big government policies that will limit growth and stifle job creation. This is the lazy politics of yesterday, and it isn't leadership.

Yesterday is over. As she visits New Hampshire today, I challenge Hillary Clinton to start having candid discussions with voters and the media. I challenge her to accept questions from the public about her ideas, and to explain how those ideas would confront the unique challenges of our globalized, post-industrial economy. I challenge her to answer to the widespread concerns regarding her tenure as Secretary of State and her cozy financial relationship with foreign leaders. If she believes that these are not issues voters should be concerned about, I challenge her to explain why.

And as I spend more time in New Hampshire, I encourage everyone reading this to hold me to the same standard. Continue engaging me on my ideas and how they would apply to the challenges in your life. Come to our town hall meetings and roundtables and ask me tough questions on issues that concern you. That's what this campaign is all about. Only through dialogue, discussion and debate can we, together, decide on the future we want for our nation. I am confident that my vision will make a positive difference in the lives of Granite Staters and all Americans, and I am eager to make that case to everyone who will listen. I hope, for the sake of voters in New Hampshire and across America, that Hillary Clinton will adopt a similar outlook sooner rather than later. New Hampshire expects and deserves better.

View article as it originally appeared here .