Imagine spending decades designing a building – raising the walls, wiring every floor – only to return one day and find the locks changed, the tenants hostile, and your name scraped off the door. That’s the story of America and the international order it built after World War II. The institutions meant to keep the peace have been quietly repurposed by people who despise the nation that made them possible.

For generations, leaders of both parties defended the “rules-based international order” as a triumph of American vision. The United Nations, the International Criminal Court, the web of treaties and norms – all bore an American signature. But somewhere along the way, the system stopped serving its creator and started serving its critics.

Newly elected Sen. Abdul El-Sayed offered a preview of the new talking points last week, declaring America the “chief violator” of the very international law it authored. “We built the United Nations and the World Health Organization and the International Criminal Court, so that we could uphold the ideals of democracy,” El-Sayed said. “And then we proceeded to be the chief violator of exactly those same ideals.”

It’s a tidy little argument – and Secretary of State Marco Rubio just took a hammer to it. Frankly, it was overdue.

The spirit that wouldn’t die

Speaking Friday at the Federalist Society’s National Lawyers Convention, Rubio named the real force behind the campaign to subordinate American sovereignty to foreign tribunals and unelected bureaucrats.

From Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s address to the Federalist Society:

“Even as we defeated the institution of Soviet communism, we did not triumph over the spirit of Marx. It lives on, in these new forms and doctrines, which would subordinate the national will to the menial consensus of the world. Marxism, in its traditional expression, sought to abolish the distinctions between men; the radicals of our time seek to abolish the distinctions between nations themselves.”

Rubio didn’t stop at diagnosis. Defending the administration’s sanctions against the ICC – which he called “an unelected world tribunal” – he borrowed from the Roman general Pompey: “Stop quoting laws to men with swords.” Not exactly diplomatic boilerplate, is it? But then again, the moment doesn’t call for diplomacy.

The machine behind the message

The ideological threat Rubio described has a financial backbone – and it traces straight to Shanghai. Fox News Digital investigations uncovered $285 million funneled by tech tycoon Neville Roy Singham to a web of nonprofits pushing Cuba solidarity campaigns, anti-NATO activism, and pro-China programming. Singham lives in Shanghai with his wife, CodePink co-founder Jodie Evans. You genuinely cannot make this up.

The People’s Forum in Manhattan received $22.4 million of that money and runs a bookstore selling “socialist literature and revolutionary theory” – including Marx coloring books for children. Meanwhile, Singham himself called for a “new world order” based on the multilateralism of Xi Jinping.

What the numbers don’t capture

Here’s what gets under my skin. The Soviet Union collapsed, and we celebrated. We thought we’d won. But did we? Marxism didn’t die – it filed for tax-exempt status. It moved into nonprofits and bookstores and children’s coloring pages. It learned to speak the language of “international law” and “human rights” while quietly working to dismantle the country that gave those words meaning.

How did we let a Shanghai-based tycoon bankroll the ideological corruption of American institutions while we weren’t looking? Rubio, to his credit, sees it clearly. The question is whether enough Americans still do – before the architect loses the building for good.

Key Takeaways

• Rubio argues the international order America built is now being weaponized against it.
• The spirit of Marx didn’t die with the Soviet Union – it migrated into nonprofits and NGOs.
• A Shanghai-based tycoon funneled $285 million into anti-American activist networks.
• Unelected global bureaucrats should never override the will of the American people.

Sources: Fox News, Yahoo News