What does a hater rising young GOP star have to do to get a little respect? Marco Rubio, best known as the waterboy to the Republican party has apparently been struggling with that very question. In a speech to the Conservative Action Committee, Rubio lamented that Democrats don’t respect him because of his anti-marriage equality stance and his anti-choice views. Transcript and video from Think Progress:

RUBIO: I respect people who disagree with me on certain things, but that means they have to respect me too. Just because I believe states should have the right to define marriage in a traditional way does not make me a bigot. Just because we believe that life, all human life, all life, all human life is worth of protection in every stage of its development doesn’t make you a chauvinist. In fact, the people who are actually close minded in American politics are people who love to preach about the certainty of science in regard to our climate, but ignore the absolute fact that life begins at conception.

Okay, but I’ll bite. Maybe a little mutual respect is called for. Perhaps Rubio should start with addressing comments like this:

For those who aspire to live in a high cost, high tax, big government place, our nation and the world offers plenty of options. Vermont, Canada and Venezuela all offer you the opportunity to live in the socialist, big government paradise you long for.

How come liberals never admit that they’re liberal? They’ve now come up with a new word called ‘progressive,’ which I thought was an insurance company but apparently it’s a label. Unlike any other leader in modern American history, we are led today by a president that has decided to pit Americans against each other. People have a right to be a Democrat. People have a right to be wrong. I know they’re the same thing. Source

Oh, but I forgot. The First Amendment specifically grants tea partiers the right to hate, without the risk of criticism. And because Rubio defines marriage in a way that applies to his marriage, he should be able to pass laws that guarantee that his type of marriage is the only acceptable type of marriage. Because he believes that life begins at that relatively arbitrary point called conception (Is a sperm not life? Is an ovum not life?), women should lose their reproductive rights.

I’m losing sight of the bigger picture here, though. Marco Rubio is being picked on. LGBT people can’t begin to know what he is going through. Women have no right to complain when the Republican party treats them as fetus vessels. It’s about respect and in Rubio’s world, respect is a one-way street.