Source: CVDaily Feed
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“As a general rule, things don’t end well if the sentence starts with, ‘Let me tell you something about the Negro.’ You don’t really need to know the rest of it, just a tip for you.”
—President Barack Obama, referring to Cliven Bundy.
Every time a new poll shows Rand Paul as a solid front runner for the Republican nomination for the 2016 presidential election, Democratic operatives become as giddy as Veruca Salt being gifted a battalion of Oompa-Loompa servants.
Rand Paul? Why?!?!
No organized group in the history of history has ever fielded a track record of screwing up imminent victory more profoundly than the Republican party. And with the Tea Party being beaten back by “established” Republicans in primaries for this year’s midterms, a new pariah of anti-pragmatism is spreading like a contagion throughout the tea party movement.
Lock your doors. Bolt your windows. The Libertarians are coming!
American Libertarians: a skeptical, quasi-intellectual motley crew of unbending weirdos bent on becoming heard…no matter how nutty they might come off to just about everyone else; a group that believes in limited government to the point of quiescence; personal freedom to the point of allowing tyranny; and, a group that scoffs at practical political reality if it goes against the textbook definition of their philosophy.
Rand Paul is now their unquestioned leader. Paul, whose father Ron is revered within the Libertarian community with a cultish fervor, is a U.S Senator representing Kentucky. A man who never met a television camera he didn’t like, Paul has openly courted the support of some whacky, daffy extremists that will taint him and the GOP should he succeed with his lustful desire to rule the world via the American presidency.
I know what some Libertarians are saying right now. They would tell me that Rand Paul is not a true member of the Faith. That he has gone against many of the basic tenets of Libertarianism. This is most assuredly true. But they know deep down in their hearts that Paul needs to exude some differences from the lunacy of Libertarianism in order to not be branded a complete loon.
But when looking at the destructive, corrosive force Libertarians will have within the GOP, political extremism and the belief that they are wackadoos takes 2nd place to a much more potent dilemma: racism.
Rand Paul, along with his father, has an unfortunate history of letting racists have a seat at his table. Starting with the elder Paul, who once produced a newsletter with notoriously racists columns, up to recent years when the younger Paul, who had a social media guru as an aide with the disturbing moniker of the “Southern Avenger”, the Family Paul just can’t get enough of racist white guys. Given the GOP’s unfortunate history with minorities, they minus well give themselves a hemlock colonic if they think Paul is the man that will win mass appeal in a presidential election.
The elder Paul removed himself from the racist scribes that appeared in the newsletter that bore his name. And he refused to return money from noted supremacist groups that donated to his various campaigns. The younger Paul has listed a plethora of shady characters as major influences on his political and philosophical understanding of the world—most notable is Murray Rothbard, a Libertarian economist whose vile racism and misogyny should not be considered an influence for anyone running for dog catcher, no less the presidency.
Not enough for you? Rand Paul has also been the darling of Stormfront, a white supremacist group founded by former Klansmen—a group that has openly solicited donations to Rand Paul’s coffers. Recently it has been suggested that Stormfront leader Don Black has cooled to Paul because the senator is an ardent supporter of Israel. Even if that is true, the previous headlines regarding the past lovefest is strong enough to bury Paul with most minority voters.
What made all of this worse was Paul’s open support for freeloading rancher Cliven Bundy. Paul held up Bundy as an American patriot fighting the oppressive forces of totalitarian government. Then Bundy talked about “the Negro” and Paul ran from him like he owed Bundy money.
Good call, Rand. Stay hot!
Are all libertarians adherents of a racist philosophy? Of course not. But the one quasi-libertarian who has a good shot at being president of the United States has too many ties to such loathsome people to not notice. If you walk into my house soaking wet, I don’t need to ask you if it is raining.
Libertarians can’t win major elections. They just can’t allow themselves to understand that even the most limited government is necessary to ensure freedoms for all Americans. And much like the uneasy partnership between unions and environmentalists in the Democratic camp, the festering animosity between true libertarians and social conservatives in the Republican party will only rip the party apart.
The GOP flirted with libertarian ideals a long time ago. 1964. Barry Goldwater was the nominee that year. He lost…badly. Maybe no Republican had a chance to beat Lyndon Johnson with the death of John Kennedy still fresh in the American psyche. But Goldwater was so wrong for America that he lost Utah—the last Republican to not carry the Beehive state.
Goldwater’s slogan was, “In your heart, you know he’s right.” Rand Paul’s slogan should be, “In your gut, you know he’ll lose.”
Libertarians are losers. The Democrats can tolerate the impending doom that is coming to them in November of 2014 knowing that if Rand Paul and his band of murky men are their opponents in November of 2016 that they will walk to victory.
That is no guarantee. There is a talented pool of candidates that will seek the Republican nomination. And Paul recently flexed his muscle by strongly supporting a Tea Party candidate in the North Carolina GOP senate primary. He lost decidedly.
But Paul will be a force. And if he wins the nomination he will be emboldened to share his libertarian ideas. On that day, the GOP dies a humiliatingly painful death. Those Libertarians who thought Rand Paul was their path to legitimacy can watch their worst fears come true when Empress Hillary with her aide-de-camps Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor forcibly implant NSA tracking devices up their paranoid butts.