JONATHAN CHAIT AUGUST 10, 2010
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If you haven't seen it already, our Jason Zengerle has a report for GQ about Rand Paul's colorful college history:
The strangest episode of Paul's time at Baylor occurred one afternoon in 1983 (although memories about all of these events are understandably a bit hazy, so the date might be slightly off), when he and a NoZe brother paid a visit to a female student who was one of Paul's teammates on the Baylor swim team. According to this woman, who requested anonymity because of her current job as a clinical psychologist, "He and Randy came to my house, they knocked on my door, and then they blindfolded me, tied me up, and put me in their car. They took me to their apartment and tried to force me to take bong hits. They'd been smoking pot." After the woman refused to smoke with them, Paul and his friend put her back in their car and drove to the countryside outside of Waco, where they stopped near a creek. "They told me their god was 'Aqua Buddha' and that I needed to bow down and worship him," the woman recalls. "They blindfolded me and made me bow down to 'Aqua Buddha' in the creek. I had to say, 'I worship you Aqua Buddha, I worship you.' At Baylor, there were people actively going around trying to save you and we had to go to chapel, so worshiping idols was a big no-no."
I'm pretty sure idol worshipping is a no-no in Kentucky as well. This is really the dilemma of the libertarian -- or, to be precise, the paleolibertarian, as Jason explained in his great piece for TNR -- who enters electoral politics. There are districts in this country where voters can tolerate candidates with a history of kidnapping women and trying to make them smoke pot. And there are districts where people can tolerate candidates who oppose virtually the entire federal government, including the 1964 Civil Rights Act, on principle. But there aren't a lot of districts where people can tolerate both those things. That's you so rarely see libertarians trying to run for national office.
This is also why you see Paul's campaign wildly retreating on every front. (The campaign has a hilarious statement out attacking Jason, threatening legal action, but not denying the story at all. You can't sue if the story is true, you know.) Paul is desperately attempting to transform himself into a standard-issue Republican, running to stop the Obama-Reid-Pelosi agenda. If he wins, and he well might, it will be because he managed to define himself in opposition to what he and his father have always stood for. That he has to do this even in a very conservative state, in an overwhelmingly Republican year, tells you where paleolibertarianism stands in relation to American public opinion.
12 comments
New slogan for Rand - "There's something about an Aqua Buddha man."
- Geoff G
August 10, 2010 at 9:32am
Geoff - lol --brilliant!
- JackR
August 10, 2010 at 9:54am
Thanks Jack - I wasn't sure how many people were old enough to remember it, but hopefully the young 'uns have seen it on YouTube. Bonus Baptist joke - Why don't Baptists have sex standing up? Because people will think they're dancing.
- Geoff G
August 10, 2010 at 10:01am
I've experienced this before: libertarians believe the state is necessarily an instrument of tyranny, and take almost personal offense when the tools of state power are used for private ends. But they'll threaten to sue to protect their own interests faster than a trial lawyer who's been run over by an asbestos truck. It's like, dude, "doctor" Paul, if you don't like what someone said, don't go crying to the government to make him stop. Write your own damn story and publish it like a free man, and the truth will out in the marketplace, right?
- rhubarbs
August 10, 2010 at 10:20am
Other fun Baylor facts: *The new president is Kenneth Starr (Yes, that Kenneth Starr). Not the only special prosecutor with Baylor ties as, *Leon Jaworski, the Watergate special prosecutor, is a graduate of Baylor Law. The old law school building has a Leon Jaworsky wing. *Fellow marijuana enthusiast Willie Nelson also attended Baylor. Like Paul, he may have a beef with the IRS. *Baylor expelled "Hot-tub" Tom Delay for drunkenness and for an act of vandalism committed to a building at Texas A&M. Delay would later tell a parent's group in Houston that they should not send their kids to Baylor or A&M because they were too liberal. *Ex-HP CEO Mark Hurd is an alumni *The NoZe Brotherhood is not a fraternity nor really a secret society, they lampoon the school, but generally support it. They provide an outlet for pointing out the absurdities of such a place. They have a faculty sponsor that knows their identities, and if they go too far with a prank then they can be found out. They are a de facto official campus group, despite what they claim. Bonus Baptist jokes- How do you keep a Baptist from drinking all the beer on your fishing boat? Invite another Baptist. What is the difference between Methodists and Baptists? Methodists say hello to each other in the liquor store.
- hepneck
August 10, 2010 at 10:45am
Just how many shoes does this idiot have to drop before he loses the election?
- zardoz67
August 10, 2010 at 11:05am
Yeah, I'm confused. How libertarian is it to force someone to smoke pot? Love the "Aqua Buddha man" joke.
- cspencef
August 10, 2010 at 11:59am
Yes, Geoff, kudos to you for your superb joke. I have heard the Baptist one before. I am in awe of Rand. He pulled off this kidnapping and got away with it and he is now running for the Senate. Wow, barb is noisily educating himself. He has found hypocrisy among libertarians. This phenomenon also has been known to exist among liberals, leftists, and deconstructionists, too. The latter prattle on about the "death of the author" but some in this crowd have sued for authorial rights. If barb isn't breathless once a day, there is something amiss with life.
- liberal reformer
August 10, 2010 at 1:27pm
Well, cspencef, libertarians are concerned with maximizing THEIR OWN personal freedom. The ideology doesn't really have much room for respecting other people's personal freedom if that would interfere with your own. Libertarianism is a parasitic ideology, parasitic on organized societies. Too much of it, and it will kill the host. Libertarians can be amusing and charming, as long as they are kept far away from any possibility of wielding political power.
- JEFF FREY
August 10, 2010 at 1:48pm
"Libertarians can be amusing and charming, as long as they are kept far away from any possibility of wielding political power." Ha! I am not sure I would even grant that!
- MikeB.
August 10, 2010 at 4:39pm
Gosh, MikeB, I think we can afford the libertarians. And they are far less in number than they would like to believe. J. Chait had fun with Brink Lindsey's estimation of their numbers in an article he wrote four years ago, which I read then, and just reread last week when it was posted here. Any number of libertarians oppose police and prosecutorial overreach, they are more than a little skeptical about Pax America, many opposed the Bush/Cheney torture regime, etc. Reason magazine can be a very good read, though you need to read it selectively.
- liberal reformer
August 10, 2010 at 7:23pm
But surely the most serious question in all of this is: would a t-shirt that read "bong hits for aqua buddha" get you kicked out of Baylor?
- timteeter
August 10, 2010 at 10:25pm