U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., paused during a lengthy speech Thursday to reassure his audience: “I’m optimistic about America.”

Why the disclaimer? Most of the hour-plus of remarks and answers to questions was an extremely gloomy assessment of America’s challenges, both economically and in society, in a world increasingly dominated by China.

Rubio was more like a college lecturer than a politician looking for votes during his appearance at the Forum Club of the Palm Beaches. Having won reelection last year, with 57.7% of the vote, he’s at the beginning of his third, six-year term in the Senate. When Republicans next take control of the Senate, he’ll be in a position to wield increased influence in Washington, D.C.

And, unlike eight years ago, when he was a candidate for his party’s presidential nomination, Rubio’s every word isn’t dissected by reporters and pundits and spun by a cadre of aides. That gives him some freedom to think out loud and at length.

In fact, he said during the speech and in a brief comment afterward, he didn’t watch Wednesday’s debate among Republican presidential candidates.

He wasn’t home, he said, and when he got home he streamed “Swamp Kings,” the Netflix documentary released this week about Urban Meyer’s time coaching University of Florida Gators football.

Rubio, who said he watched some debate clips but not enough to offer an assessment, has not endorsed either Floridian in the race, former President Donald Trump or Gov. Ron DeSantis. He said he’s staying out.

Rubio is a champion of conservative policies and social causes. But his speech wasn’t presented as a partisan screed. He said both parties share blame for fundamental problems, and he didn’t go after Democrats or praise Republicans.

Powerful forces are reshaping society at a rapid pace, stemming largely from decisions made after the fall of the Soviet Union, Rubio said.

But he also said that directly relates to everyday people today who don’t follow the ins and outs of foreign policy, and major impacts on American lives.

As policymakers thought the post-Soviet world would be better off with international economic cooperation, world economies became much more integrated.

Companies found it far cheaper to produce goods in China, resulting in a loss of good paying jobs for American workers. Reliance on China left us “industrially vulnerable but also left us societally vulnerable,” he said. And it left the U.S. without the ability to produce vital goods for itself.

Loss of institutions and feelings of community, along with people feeling they’re farther behind, has produced anxiety and social discord, he said.

“I believe in capitalism. I think socialism has been a disaster everywhere in the world it has been tried,” Rubio said. “I believe the free market and the market outcome is generally the right outcome.”

But, he said, the results of the kind of devotion to free markets and companies seeking out the most “efficient” places, such as China, to produce their goods, pose a threat, especially when things go wrong, as shown by the supply-chain problems during the COVID pandemic.

“What happens when the market outcome is not good for your country because the market outcome says the most efficient thing to do is to rely on China for 88% of the active ingredients in your medicines? That’s not good for America.”

The same thing is true of China’s drive to scoop up rights outside its borders for supplies of lithium required to make batteries and rare earth metals required for tech products.

He wants a “fundamental and significant reordering” of how people are educated. And he said able-bodied people should have an obligation to work.

But, he said, it also means society has an obligation to have an economy that creates good jobs. Success should not be based solely on whether Wall Street had a good year. “It can’t just be that.”

It’s possible for a company based in the U.S, “to do exceedingly well in a way that’s bad for the United States of America,” he said. “That doesn’t make them evil. That doesn’t make them a cocaine cartel.”

He said the government shouldn’t be in charge of key industries, but he said it should create policies and incentives for industry to thrive in the U.S.

Rubio related it to an answer — that agriculture is a national security issue — he gave during his presidential campaign. He said that’s been proven true.

“Imagine the most apocalyptic thing you could imagine,” such as a pandemic and the shutdown of the global economy. He said people should consider what will matter most in a crisis: “How innovative our banking products are or your ability to produce food and feed yourself. What will matter more? China knows the answer to that.”

Failure to act means the U.S. is closer to something Rubio has spoken about repeatedly over the years — becoming a nation in which the next generation is not as well off as their parents.

Rubio lamented “the destruction of the community” in recent decades.

As recently as 10 to 20 years ago, he said, “you and your neighbor or you and someone else may have very different political views. But had to moderate that and modulate that with the fact that your kids played on the same team, or you work together, or you were in business, or you lived next door to each other,” he said.

Those kinds of interactions also had a moderating impact on politics.

“Increasingly, people literally don’t know anything about each other than how they voted,” he said, and people are deciding where to live, where to go to college, where to send their kids to school, based on voting.

If the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks happened today, Rubio wondered, “would the reaction of the nation be the same as it was in 2001. I doubt it. I  hope I’m wrong. But I doubt it. I think the reaction would immediately be who can we blame on the other side for this having happened?”

Rubio also spoke about a subject he’s raised before: the way conflict and bad news gets so much attention on 24-hour cable channels and on news websites.

“That’s what drives clicks,” while stories “about how a Democrat and a Republican got together and passed this really responsible bill, nobody cares, nobody reads that stuff.”

That creates an incentive for people to do and say more outlandish things so they can get attention.

“The fastest route to relevance in politics today is to say things that are abrasive, aggressive, provocative. It happens over and over again,” Rubio said.

Perhaps conscious of the venue — the Kravis Center for Performing Arts in West Palm Beach, about 15 minutes away from the Mar-a-Lago Club in Palm Beach where former President Donald Trump lives in cooler months — Rubio said he was not talking “about anyone in particular.”

Rubio was relaxed before the audience of 700 members of the business, political and legal establishments in Palm Beach County, and he had the audience’s rapt attention. There was little background noise as he spoke, only occasional clicking of dessert forks.

There was some applause, and at times laughter when he offered a good line.

Thanking Caroline Villanueva, president of the Forum Club for the introduction, Rubio said: “At least you got to be president, Caroline. I’m sure there’s a condo board out there that one day I can be president of. That’s real power.”

Anthony Man can be reached at aman@sunsentinel.com, on Twitter @browardpolitics and on Post.news/@browardpolitics