We want allies who can defend themselves so that no adversary will ever be tempted to test our collective strength.
Imagine the outrage if the rest of NATO had shrugged after 9/11 and just told the US that they should have just been stronger…
We want allies who are proud of their culture and of their heritage, who understand that we are heirs to the same great and noble civilization
So, Lil'Marco wants allies who have no actual perspective on their culture and heritage, just jingoism and performative celebration of an imagined culture, like the US.
The US are not the heirs to European culture and civilisation. They had the start of a culture in the 19th century, with some impressive people, like Twain, Bierce or Poe, but it all went down the shitter after anti-intellectualism destroyed any reflection on what a culture actually is. The last few places in the US with a distinctive culture and consciousness of it are the places the administration he is a part of despise and try to bury. We are talking about black and First Nations communities, not the bastardised capitalistic christianity masquerading as American culture.
Rubio does not want to hear about guilt, because he wants to join the club who refuses to bear any guilt about the wholesale slaughter of the First Nations, the exploitation of whole communities who built the country and the oppression of the disenfranchised, as the final insult to the American dream. George Carlin was right: it is a dream, because you have to be asleep to believe it. Lil'Marco's wake-up call could be pretty brutal.