Rand Paul and the Politics of Parts

News Virginian ^ | 5-7-14 | Ken Adams

[Oak Grove]

Rand Paul and the Politics of Parts

Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky spoke at Harvard University on Friday, April 25th. In his address, Senator Paul repeated a theme he has used in several recent speeches. He said that the Republican Party needs to be the party of parts. Body parts.

Rand Paul stated, “The Republican Party needs to look like the rest of America to have a chance. That means with tattoos and without tattoos, with earrings and without earrings, black, white and brown.”

Let’s examine this assertion in detail. First, Paul told the assembled students at Harvard that the Republican Party needs to look like America. The key word in the sentence is “look.” Senator Paul said Republicans must have a specific appearance, visible to the eye.

Now, things get difficult. Does appearance mean averages for the entire country, or an entire State, or an entire county? For example, six percent of the US population is Asian. Should the Waynesboro Virginia Republican Committee have six percent of its members of Asian lineage? Does that make sense to you?

Remember what we are talking about here. It is physical appearance.

Rand Paul’s second sentence provides more specifics, “with tattoos and without tattoos.” This delineation poses an even a greater problem than determining what ethnic quotas to use. Implicit to the issue of tattoos is the method of finding the tattoos, as many of them are hidden. Regretfully, Paul does not tell us where to look. Does that make sense to you?

Next comes “with earrings and without earrings.” Another problem. Do we average earrings, meaning we add up all the earrings and divide that number by the number of Committee members? If the Waynesboro Republicans have many female members who wear earrings, then do we look like America? Or, do we need some quota of men who wear earrings? If we need men who wear earrings, how many? Does that make sense to you?

And finally, “black, white and brown.” Rand Paul wants you to look at a person’s skin color. To him, the hue of a man or woman is important. And now, I am getting very angry. I would remind Mr. Paul of these words, “I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.”

Rand Paul has told you the body parts that he values: tattoos, earrings and skin color. I submit to you that those are surface and superficial observations that tell you nothing about the man or the woman. I say that the body parts that count are the heart, the mind and the spine.

I do not want a Republican Party based on outward appearance. No, I want a Republican Party with a heart like Patrick Henry, a mind like Thomas Jefferson and a spine like George Washington.

It was not tattoos, earrings and skin color that made America a great nation; it was heart, mind and spine. Now, does that make sense to you?

Ken Adams is the Chairman of the Waynesboro Virginia Republican Committee.

[Dilbert San Diego]

I want a Republican party which represents conservative values. And I want the GOP to work to persuade those with earrings and tattoos that there are big issues on which they would agree with conservatism.

Too often, the GOP and conservatism is caricatured by the liberals in the media, and the liberal late night comedians on TV such as Jon Stewart.

I think that lots of people would embrace conservatism if they knew what conservatism, theories of limited government, personal freedom, etc. were all about.

[ex-snook]

All Rand Paul has to figure out is how to make this new group go for exporting jobs, tax cuts but not for them, dumping Obamacare without replacement, war trip wires all over the world and Benghazi investigations in lieu of what the GOP intends to do. Tough going for all with similar ambitions to win without the middle class.