By Barry B. Perlman, MD, retired psychiatrist
If Senators had been able to see Marco Rubio as a Fidel Castro doppelgänger, would it have made a difference?
Unlike virtually all of Trump’s controversial nominees, Senator Marco Rubio was confirmed by a 99 – 0 vote by the Senate. His overwhelming approval reflected the fact that he was thought to be a known quantity, one of their own, and their expectation that his tenure would reflect his work in the Senate where he largely fit the mold of a traditional Republican.
Rubio was both a China and Russia hawk and a strong defender of Ukraine’s fight to defend its territorial integrity. As a Cuban American he was staunchly anticommunist and anti-Castro. He had a record of working across the aisle and had voted to certify the 2020 election. He condemned the January 6 riots as, “3rd world-style anti-American anarchy.”
How then to explain the harsh ideological about face by this son of naturalized Americans? Since becoming the nation’s 72nd Secretary of State Rubio has alienated allies, harangued the president of Ukraine, withdrawn funding for the hungry, trashed immigrants and foreign students. What had his Senate colleagues missed during the years he worked among them and at his confirmation hearings? Had they any intimation that deep in Rubio’s heart resided an autocratic clone of his despised Fidel? It now seems that while Rubio hated Castro’s agenda, he longed to embrace Fidel’s authoritarian modus operandi.
Trying to understand the unanimous vote for Rubio presents a conundrum. Of course, Republicans gave a free pass to Trump’s least qualified nominees, including Hegseth, Kennedy and Patel, who had garnered almost no Democratic votes. I wondered, “Could the answer lay in Secretary Rubio’s Dorian Gray doppelgänger?”
In Oscar Wilde’s gothic horror novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray, the handsome but debauched protagonist retains his youthful good looks while a portrait which has been locked away in a closet reflects the progressing deterioration of his character. I speculated about whether the handsome Rubio we see might have hidden portraits which more truly reflect what the Secretary of State was becoming? What happened along the way to the proud Cuban American college football player who was later humiliated by Trump, his now boss, as “Little Marco”? His bullying and miserly approach to foreign affairs suggests that he is morphing into a mini-Trump. And, that his soul is withering!
With the help of ChatGPT, I entered “Little Marco” Castro’s closet and found the evidence. What was revealed was that even as a teen there existed in the deep recesses of his heart a Fidel wannabe.
Yes, there was a picture of a sinister stripling already drawing on a stogy. That picture was a far cry from the open, smiling one taken at the time of his high school graduation. Unlike the transmutation of a single painting in Dorian Gray, exploration of Rubio’s closet revealed a sequence of character disclosing portrayals which permitted those viewing these hidden representations to grasp the shocking consistency of belief across his lifetime which would be ruthlessly inflicted upon his acquisition of power.
I’d guess that Rubio doesn’t differ from most who aspire to political power in that he articulated a belief in the importance of limiting power until he himself possessed it. Then they detest the idea that others might limit theirs. Rubio’s path illuminates how American democracy may be malformed into illiberal MAGA pseudo democracy, by political leaders mutating into that which they professed to abhor.
Dispiritingly, the question is, even if Senators had been able to look into Rubio’s heart and closet and seen the imago of Fidel living there, would it have made a difference? Given the pusillanimous behavior of Republican Senators, I think it is clear that Rubio would still have been confirmed just by a narrower margin, closer to that of Trump’s other sycophant nominees. Such is the sad state of affairs that neither competence, knowledge, nor character seem to hold weight at this time in our country.
Dr. Barry B. Perlman, a retired psychiatrist, is a past president of the New York State Psychiatric Association and past chair of the New York State Mental Health Services Council. “Rearview: A Psychiatrist Reflects on Practice and Advocacy In a Time of Healthcare System Change,” his memoir, was published in 2021. Perlman lives in New York.
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