The New Republic

So what "party values" has Mr. Paul abandoned? From what I can tell, he's their dream candidate and they don't seem to be able to tolerate the idea.

- tnmats

May 27, 2010 at 8:42am

I'm not a libertarian by any measure, but I think that a candidate who wants to continue the criminalization of marijuana and other recreational drugs, prohibit abortion in almost all circumstances and keep Medicare in place (especially with its government-funded doctor payments) leaves something to be desired for a doctrinaire libertarian. And this is before he went all squishy on the Civil Rights Act.

- wildboy

May 27, 2010 at 9:49am

- 'I Want My Country Back' is beginning to sound like a concept for a reality TV show. Each week contestants take the stage and make their best case why they can provide a path back the last good year in the US. For added suspense, the host will spin a wheel with dates from 1776 to 1932. The goal is to persuade viewers why the country would be better without the policies adopted after the date where the wheel stopped on their spin. They could pick a date later than FDR but it would be tough to beat anyone who had to defend The New Deal and the growth of government under Roosevelt. This would allow us to see a vision of the past that isn't constrained by silly labels or members of a club. If less is more, those who landed on an early date would probably have an edge with voters. But it might also be problematic if a Texan lands on 1830 or someone from a western state has to make a case for no Transcontinental Railroad. But it would put an end to all the bickering about where we should end up, after we take the country back. The winner would be paid in gold, and the sponsoring network provide a year of town hall meetings and updates as the tour visited a state per week. Of course if it's a success, Season II would pit a new line up against each other and we might chose to go back to another date.

- michaelg

May 27, 2010 at 9:52am

The AP story Jon quotes includes a sentence that nicely encapsulates so much of what is wrong with American politics and media: "Despite his pedigree as the son of former Libertarian presidential candidate Ron Paul ..." What does "pedigree" have to do with anything? Why would anyone assume, as the reporter clearly does and as most American conservatives usually do, that a son holds his father's beliefs? Don't people realize that this kind of feudal thinking is how we wound up with the presidency of Bush the Lesser? As for KY Libertarians, Paul's GOP-friendly positions against marijuana, abortion, and gay rights are fundamental, substantive differences. From a Libertarian perspective, Chait's notion that Paul is "the most libertarian-friendly national politician in the country" is absurd. In the last six months, Paul has taken numerous campaign positions that align with doctrinaire conservative ideology and against the core of the Libertarian platform. So from the Libertarian perspective, Paul is willing to sell his soul, and sell it cheaply, to get a taste of power from big-government conservatives. If Libertarians really believe in their platform, they'd be fools or worse to endorse Paul at this point.

- rhubarbs

May 27, 2010 at 10:15am

You are so right, Jonathan. The Libertarian Party is blessed with brilliant tacticians. Given the people who steer this party, such as Joshua Koch, it is a wonder that they don't already have a dozen US Senate seats and maybe, four dozen House seats. I wish our side had such brilliant operatives. Wait, we do have Mark Penn.

- liberal reformer

May 27, 2010 at 10:21am

Oh, for the love of pita bread. Certainly Roger Alford of the AP knows that children don't always replicate their parent's political views but in the case of Rand Paul, and in many instances, that proposition is valid. So it is an empirical matter in Rand Paul's case; Mr. Alford therefore is just employing a truism when he utilizes the term "pedigree." And this one brief article - flawless in every way - is emblematic of what is wrong with the media and politics in America? What have you been smoking this morning, barb? As for your wacky statement about most American conservatives thinking that the son follows the father in matter of politics, where the hell is your evidence for that? I should think that is just the opposite. Conservatives are forever whining about media bias and liberal academia, et al. Why the hysteria if they have no fear that their progeny will not matriculate at Yale as wide-eyed devotee of the writings of William F. Buckley Jr. and depart clutching copies of The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism by the seductive leftist, Naomi Klein? I must say, though, barb, that you keep things entertaining out here.

- liberal reformer

May 27, 2010 at 10:58am

In my haste to move toward taking our dog Junior for his morning walk, I erroneously rendered"matters" and "devotees" in the singular in my above post.

- liberal reformer

May 27, 2010 at 11:02am

For the conspiracy theorists among you: what if this is a lovely ploy to make Rand Paul look all the more Republican mainstream? Hmmm.

- joquilavab

May 27, 2010 at 11:19am

libref, Rand Paul manifestly does not share his father's beliefs on a number core issues that divide libertarians and conservatives, at least as libertarians define those issues. If you'd read the article you describe as "flawless in every way" you'd know that. The words "despite" and "pedigree" speak of an expectation that the son should naturally share his father's beliefs. Anyone who paid attention to the Republican presidential primary process from 1998 to early 2000 would understand that attributing the virtues of the father to the son was precisely the basis of much of George W. Bush's critical early support. It's also true that this kind of nepotism is far too common among liberals as well; one has only to consider the many Democratic scions who turned out to be mediocrities, such as Humphrey, Dodd, most of the current crop of Kennedys. But the authoritarian mindset of movement conservatism makes it particularly susceptible to this sort of quasi-monarchical thinking. Look, for example, at the respect accorded on the right to Elizabeth Cheney, who has never won an election or held any substantive job outside of her father's purview that might demonstrate any characteristic or ability that would make her worth listening to. All that she has is her father's last name and an inheritance of deference. This pattern repeats time and again among conservatives, from the junior Kristol to the junior Bush. As to the right's fear of leftist radicalization of their children, that's no paradox at all. Conservatives don't worry the Yale is going to turn George H.W. Bush's son into a bleeding-heart liberal. They're afraid that Yale is going to turn their son into a bleeding-heart liberal. And to the extent that this is a paradox, it's one that defines conservative thinking on many issues: conservatives believe both in the absolute righteousness and the terrifying fragility of all goods. Thus marriage is the foundation of society, the rock on which all human life stands, but marriage is also so fragile that the mere sight of two men holding hands could destroy it forever. It's perfectly within the norms of conservative thought to believe both that the sons of great families are to be trusted and to believe that children are one proffered joint or NPR report away from decadent ruin.

- rhubarbs

May 27, 2010 at 12:05pm

And William F. Buckley Jr. differed from his father on certain matters, race, in particular. He wrote that it was painful to say, but his father was a racist. Alexander Cockburn is not a Jean-Antoine Houdon knockoff of Claude but he certainly is of the far left. Ontogeny does not always recapitulate phylogeny, but in these cases, it is close enough. Similarly. Rand Paul surely does not burn the midnight oil beavering through articles and books by our own John Judis. He has not strayed very far from the old man.

- liberal reformer

May 27, 2010 at 12:20pm

Most people I know who claim to be "libertarian" are actually just grumpy old men whose resentments are piled so high they cannot imagine government having any obligations to the public welfare other than national security (and that they narrowly define). From such people should one really be shocked that they would be so unforgiving of Paul's departure from their preferred script? These are people who have much in common with the religious right -- remember how they howled at the proposed nomination of Harriet Miers? We have some of these folks in the Democratic Party too, to be sure, but ideological purity seems to be a bigger hangup on the right. Let's hope it costs them at the polls. Neil

- purcellneil

May 27, 2010 at 1:19pm

Actually, libertarians tend to attract the young and are overwhelmingly male. It is not hard to see why. Simon Baron-Cohen, the brother of Sasha (Borat), has famously written that autism is the extreme male brain. It is no surprise that geeky, youngish, socially non-adept males would be drawn to an atomistic political philosophy.

- liberal reformer

May 27, 2010 at 2:16pm

This description of the mental aging process brings to mind a Russian proverb. "Those under 30 who don't believe they can revolutionize the world have no heart. Those over 40 who still believe they can revolutionize the world have no brain."

- NR114746

May 27, 2010 at 3:54pm

So...you can only be Libertarian if you strictly adhere to a far-right party line agenda of the not-so-mainstream GOP. You must first take a purity test of "Libertarian" questions in which the only correct answer is the Right answer then pledge never to deviate from said doctrine set forth in the unprinted 'bible' called the Libertarian party manual. Any independent thought or action which results in you deviating from the Libertarian purity test results in you being purged from the party proper by blogging brownshirts and retired, grumpy old white folks acting as volkspolizei. The Libertarian party is starting to resemble the Stasi's Main Administration for Struggle Against Suspicious Persons.

- singlspeed

May 27, 2010 at 6:04pm

Which libertarian philosophy would Jesus teach? is the only real question in Kentucky!

- ironyroad

May 27, 2010 at 10:44pm