Rand Paul is establishment, he is of the Romney/McConnell camp, not outside of it.
Paul is a consistent endorser and campaigner for the establishment, from Romney to McConnell, and even opposes the tea party in practice, in true libertarian style, he serves a political agenda that contradicts the image that he works to project to casual watchers.
March, 2013—”Rand Paul endorses Mitch McConnell in 2014 Senate race, won’t back tea party challenge”
“Sen. Rand Paul says he’s staying out of the Senate runoff this month in Mississippi, where tea party favorite Chris McDaniel is favored against long-time Republican Sen. Thad Cochran in Mississippi.
“We’re not going to get involved” in the June 24 election, the Kentucky Republican, a tea party favorite himself who’s likely going to run for president in 2016, told a handful of reporters in the Capitol.”
Ted Cruz took a pass on endorsements also. That’s not much of an argument.
Name all the senators who spoke up and fought for a clause in the NDAA that prohibited the arrest and indefinite detention of American citizens. 1. Rand Paul
Name all the senators who filibustered agains’t droning American citizens on US soil. 1. Rand Paul
Name all the senators that proposed ammendments to the Patriot Act to prohibit searches of private citizens gun records. 1. Rand Paul
Name the senator that was instrumental in killing the NSA reform bill because it didn’t go far enough. 1. Rand Paul
It goes on and on and on.