Many Americans struggle to explain American Exceptionalism. The concept hasn't been taught in public schools for decades. Europeans deliberately misinterpret the concept as American arrogance and nationalism.

Governor Bobby Jindal and Senator Ted Cruz both effectively weave their parents’ immigrant stories into compelling illustrations of why America is a place where anybody can succeed. Few if any can explain American Exceptionalism as well as  Senator Marco Rubio.

Rubio speaks with a passion and intensity, a fervor and conviction that leads many listeners to sit up straight as their chest swells with pride. He evokes a deep optimism and motivation to achieve greater goals as one listens to his explanation of how critical the United States is to the cause of liberty and how the American experiment in self-governance and freedom empowers ordinary citizens. Every American child, and every naturalized immigrant, should listen to Rubio explain how individual liberty makes this country special and fuels success for Americans regardless of background or family history. He knows. He grew up among men and women who lost their country, lost their liberty, and were forced to start over in a foreign land with only the clothes on their back.

Marco Rubio was the original Tea Party candidate. His speaking mesmerized conservatives and motivated them to mobilize, work, and make donations from across the country. There was never a question about purity -- nobody is pure -- purity is a straw man argument raised by opponents to paint conservatives as inflexible and extreme like puritan zealots. The issue was authenticity. Marco Rubio was authentic. He was a movement conservative. He really did share the beliefs and ideas of conservatives.

Even before he was elected to the Senate, conservatives were almost giddy at the prospects of a President Rubio. His optimism and personable style were infectious. He was serious and intense when appropriate, and then offered a quick jovial aside the way a school friend whispered a joke in your ear during a school assembly. Nobody would be able to paint him as uneducated or ill-informed. He did his homework and intelligently conversed on any subject. He would be unstoppable.

Movement conservatives should weep at the thought of what could have been; some probably do.

Through a series of bad decisions, Rubio systematically violated the trust his core supporters placed in him -- not just once -- but repeatedly, over the same issue, again and again.

During his senate campaign, Rubio was adamantly opposed to amnesty, "[I] never have and never will support any effort to grant blanket legalization amnesty to folks who have entered, or stayed in this country illegally," including a pathway to citizenship, "...[an] earned path to citizenship is basically code for amnesty."

Then, on January 29, 2013, Marco Rubio went on Rush Limbaugh's national radio program to push immigration reform. During the interview, he explained he would insist on enforcement first, "If, in fact, this bill does not have real triggers in there, if there is not language in this bill that guarantees that nothing else will happen unless these enforcement mechanisms are in place, I won't support it." Like many conservatives, Rush expressed doubts, but he trusted Rubio and applauded his optimism to try.

Rubio returned to Rush's national program on April 18, 2013 and reversed himself again, "We don't want to wait on legalizing, and I'll tell you why, and my original position was that we wanted to secure the border first and then legalize. The problem is we have millions of people here now, by some estimates 10, 11 million. We want to know who they are and freeze the problem in place."

The enforcement measures were never what Rubio promised. Rubio never walked away from the bill due to weak enforcement as he promised. After five broken promises and reversals, how much could supporters tolerate?

Conservatives are the only people more cheated on and betrayed than Hillary Clinton. Understandably, they are sensitive to duplicity, and many lost faith in Rubio. Others questioned his authenticity. The grand plans for conservatives uniting behind a Rubio presidential bid faded. Rubio's treachery opened the door for Cruz to run for president.

Instead of healing the wounds and working to earn back the trust of supporters, Rubio went on the offensive. In some bizarre alternate reality he invented, Rubio started claiming Cruz supported amnesty. When Cruz pointed out the incontrovertible fact they were on opposite sides of the amnesty battle, Rubio sunk to parroting Donald Trump's bitter personal attack and called Cruz a 'liar.'

Rubio isn't just calling Cruz a “liar,” he's calling Senator Jeff Sessions; Congressmen Steve King, Louie Gohmert, and Jim Bridenstine; radio hosts Rush Limbaugh and Mark Levin, and every American who opposed the Rubio amnesty bill a liar.

Not surprisingly, Rubio won the "media's favorite Republican" endorsement by attacking and vilifying conservatives. Greta Van Susteren gives prime time coverage to every minor Rubio endorsement. The mainstream media build him up by treating his losses as wins. Like McCain, they will turn on him in the general election.

How does Rubio think he will unite hundreds of thousands of Americans behind him after accusing those same voters of lying and being too stupid to know he repeatedly broke promises?

Far from uniting the party, Rubio is going to war against conservatives. After running 45 minutes late and organizers juggling time slots to accommodate him, Rubio finally cancelled an appearance at the Conservative Convention with only 5 minutes’ warning. If dissing those 6000 to 9000 conservative activists weren't enough, there are now reports Rubio won't make time to attend the Conservative Political Action Conference. The conservative leaders behind these conferences aren't disconnected politicos, these are the very people who backed Rubio's nascent senate campaign and raised money from across the country enabling Rubio to defeat Charlie Crist.

This isn't watching your prom date ditch you at the dance for the star jock; this is a date who begged and pleaded with you for an invitation when nobody else offered, ditching you for the star jock, and then publicly ridiculing and belittling you via the sound system, in front of the whole prom, because you were foolish enough to fall for their pity act.

Rubio took what he needed from conservatives. Now he's seized the throne of the establishment and he figures conservatives have nothing else to offer and nowhere else to go. Rubio has new friends. Wealthy interests intent on legalizing illegal aliens are pouring money into Rubio's campaign. He is over calculating.

If Mitt Romney and John McCain lost because the disaffected Republican base stayed home, then Rubio is looking at an embarrassing defeat against the weakest Democrat since George McGovern when the voters he conned, betrayed, and attacked as hypocritical puritans refuse to give him their imprimatur. 

Rubio says Cruz is "calculating, willing to say or do anything to get elected." Between Cruz and Rubio, which candidate said they would cancel the deferred action of illegal minors in English, and said the exact opposite on Spanish language TV? In their Senate races, both Rubio and Cruz promised to oppose amnesty, but which one wrote and pushed an amnesty bill?

Clearly, if someone is willing to say and do anything to get elected, that candidate is Marco Rubio.