Major and minor ideological and issue differences separate the 17 major candidates running for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination, but Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., cast the distinction between himself and his opponents more in generational terms when he visited Chattanooga on Thursday.
Some two decades younger than five of his primary opponents and more than a generation younger than the three top Democrats in most national polls, he told hundreds of supporters at Lindsay Street Hall that his would be the first generation in United States history worse off than their parents "if we keep doing what we're doing now."
"We have an opportunity to get off this path," said Rubio, 44, to a crowd that included scores of Millennials.
The country's current economic policies are failing the people who could most benefit by them, and should be modernized, he said.
By example, he mentioned the country's largest retailer, Amazon, has no bricks and mortar store, its largest taxi company, Uber, owns no cars, and its largest accommodations provider, Airbnb, owns no real estate.
"We're drawn by innovation and new ideas," he said of Generation X and Millennial entrepreneurs. But standing in the way, he said, are the world's highest corporate tax rate and burdensome regulations.
Similarly, Rubio said, the country's higher education system needs to be revolutionized. As it stands, he said, the "college system is a monopoly" which attempts to force students into a program that "doesn't work any more for everybody."
"The market for Greek philosophers has narrowed in the last 2,000 years," he said.
Technical education is more necessary than ever, Rubio said.
Better options also should exist for student loans, he said, enumerating several and noting that his personal student loan for more than $100,000 dogged him until several years ago when he published a book.
Rubio also cast Social Security and Medicare as generational challenges, vowing that they will be saved for people already retired, like his mother, but would need changes for people in his generation.
And, he said, eliciting perhaps his loudest applause line, he would "repeal and replace Obamacare" with a system where "you are in charge of your health care decisions."
Rubio, who elected to toss his name into the presidential field rather than run for what would likely be a safe Senate seat, was passionate in describing the importance of such change.
"Each generation does what it takes to get it done," he said. "Now it's just our turn. But it requires us to turn the page."
Without mentioning names (Democrats Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders, for instance), Rubio said "electing the same people, you get the same results. People who have been around long enough are the ones who got us in this mess to begin with."
Rubio is currently fifth in the Real Clear Politics national poll averages for Republican candidates but does the best of all GOP candidates in head-to-head polling with Clinton. If his generational message catches fire with more people in his generation and below, as he hopes, he could become the next president.