The Most Laughable & Insolent Speech I Ever Heard.

Where to begin?

There's an old saying that claims women are what men make them. There's also an old saying that asserts behind every great man stands a woman. Can both be true?

Men do have the power to make a woman, and throughout history men have made women into diminished creatures, hiding their contributions to the world and often taking credit for them.

In 1907, Mitchell Carroll, Ph. D. in Classical Philology at George Washington University, sought to correct men's dismissal of women's achievements in his book, "Woman, in all ages and in all countries."

In it he writes, "It was the influence of women that brought about the outgrowths of civilization in the dawn of Christianity that have survived until now. It was the influence, if not the actual activity, of women that was responsible for the birth of chivalry and the rise of the spirit of purity. It was the influence of women that made possible such characters as those of Bayard and Sir Philip Sydney. It was the influence of women that softened the roughness and licentiousness of a past day into the refinement and virtue which are the possessions of the present age."

The present age Mitchell Carroll spoke of has long passed, and those old possessions of refinement and virtue are now pretensions of our current age. The most disturbing example can be found in the pompous, insolent speech given by Marco Rubio at Greece's famed Acropolis.

I read his rambling, 3500-word oratorio that spun a nonsensical yarn that twisted into an imaginary world where "The greatest Americans of every generation have carried the unmistakable features of their forefathers – born in Athens, formed by Rome, baptized in Christendom, hardened in the furnace of medieval Europe, endowed with the English genius for liberty, and then carried across the Atlantic to be reborn on the shores of a new world."  

I wasn't born in Athens, but my forebears were definitely 100% Greek. But this speech, with all its heft, left me with the impression that women were not part of, and did not exist in, the ancient world at all.

Here's part of Rubio's speech that erases women from the full spectrum of Greece's history: "For the Greeks of antiquity, the pursuit of excellence was the very principle of man’s existence.  They organized all of civic life around contest, ambition, competition: in philosophy and poetry, in sculpture and drama, in athletics and art, in war and statecraft.  The classical Greek city was an arena for great men to test and prove themselves, to hone their potential through perpetual struggle—to be the best, the strongest, the most beautiful, straining to inch ever closer to perfection."

In Rubio's mind, Hypatia, Sappho, Artemisia, Aspasia, Olympias, Pythias, and the Oracle of Delphi must have all been mythical creatures.

Rubio's speech also attempted to persuade current Greeks that America was getting back to its origins of greatness where it mimicked the virtues and values of the Greek empire that preceded Christianity—a time of wonder when men were bold and daring, fierce and curious, yearning for risk and glory. Mentioning women, of course, would be too woke and run counter to the more muscular, beefy masculinity the Trump administration is laughably trying to project.

Rubio also harped on the Western mindset that originated in the Greece of antiquity and followed us to America—but made no mention of the rule of law which sustains our democracy. If this didn't surprise his audience, this statement likely did: "We believe that Europe can awaken from its long slumber and rekindle the fire that was lit here millennia ago."

He warned that if we and our European allies fail to reclaim that preferred fiery mindset, we might as well all resign ourselves "to a future of atrophy and servitude and decline."

He might as well have told them they were low-T and insufficiently militaristic and needed to get a pair the size of their great ancestors.

And then he spoke at length about such decline here in the U.S., essentially saying:

1. We ruined the nation by letting immigrants in.

And yet, it was Greek immigrants who built our railroads, excavated our mines, and worked in textile mills. And let's give more credit where it's due: they also opened some of the best burger joints in the country, infusing their work ethic and passing their Christian values down from the first Christian churches.

2. We ruined our country by outsourcing our industries.

And yet, global free trade is precisely how billionaires have enriched themselves, and no one is planning on disrupting that supply chain any time soon.

3. We ruined our greatness by allowing our military to wither and decay.

And yet, we claim to have the most advanced military in the world, and reap more profits from our technologies than any other nation in the world.

4. We ruined our nation by allowing the word "nationalism" to become a dirty word.

And yet, the self-proclaimed Christian nationalists (who include far-right militia groups such as Oath Keepers and Proud Boys) rolled out a guillotine on January 6 for Mike Pence. Likewise, the National Policy Institute Chairman and white supremacist Richard Spencer gathered torch-bearing men into a nighttime march in Charlottesville where they shouted, "Jews will not replace us!"

Rubio's speech then called for more military spending: "Across this continent, we are witnessing what we hope will be the beginnings of a generational shift: skyrocketing defense spending, a flurry of new partnerships and programs, expanded manufacturing and production, following on the historic defense commitments made last year in The Hague."

Europe's not on board, but Greece's new assignment is to use its more peaceful manners, and maybe some ouzo, to convince its European allies to cooperate with America's demand for more military bases across the region.

If using Greece, the cradle of Democracy, as a cudgel for military expansion was not insulting enough, using its Acropolis to perform a morality play about our great democracy went beyond, insulting every Greek's intelligence, including the women who Rubio was apparently blind to.

The Greeks are anything but dumb. They know this administration has persevered in actively pulling out all the stops to undermine our democracy. For instance, for the first time in over two decades, election observers from the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe won't be allowed to witness our midterms.

The Greeks understand better than anyone that Trump's decision to suddenly disinvite the OSCE from observing our elections means Washington now joins only Russia and Belarus in such a decision. They also know it means he's not interested in complying with democratic norms that are characterized by equality, transparency, and accountability—or holding himself to the same standards we'd expect from other democracies.

The word "hypocrite" also descends to us from Greece. Originally, it referred to the practice of wearing a mask in ancient Greek theatre. Today, it refers to a person who falsely proclaims to hold noble beliefs, ideals, and virtues they actually don't possess, using their words to deceive others.