Posted on 06/21/2013 5:51:03 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
You wont find him on any Federal Election Commission disclosure forms, but Director of National Intelligence James Clapper is the biggest in-kind donor to the incipient Rand Paulfor president campaign.
Whatever its merits, the National Security Agency metadata program couldnt be better fashioned to play into fears of the government. Is it vast? Yes. Secret? Check. Raise profound questions about privacy? Uh-huh.
This is the kind of issue Rand Paul was born and (literally) raised to raise holy hell over. The NSA leak came on the heels of revelations that the Internal Revenue Service was singling out tea-party groups for extra scrutiny, and on the heels of the Associated Press and James Rosen investigations.
Add in the gun-control fight earlier this year, and Paul is nearly four-for-four in fights sticking up, in his view, for the first four amendments of the Bill of Rights. The only thing missing is the third, because no one has proposed quartering of troops in our homes yet.
It is a Rand Paul moment in the GOP not just because the headlines reinforce his core critique of leviathan as too big, too unaccountable, and too threatening, but because he is smart and imaginative enough to capitalize on those headlines.
Paul has that quality that cant be learned or bought: Hes interesting. How many potential Republican presidential candidates have helped shepherd a new verb into the English language? The hoopla around Pauls filibuster gave us to drone, in the sense of dont drone me, bro.
Paul taps into an American tradition of dissent not usually invoked by Republicans. At the Time magazine gala this year honoring the 100 most influential people in the world (he was one), he raised a glass to Henry David Thoreau. In his inaugural Senate address, he contrasted his Kentucky hero, the irascible abolitionist Cassius Clay, with the more conventional Kentucky political legend, the Great Compromiser, Henry Clay.
His cultural affect is different, too, a little more Utne Reader than National Review. At a packed event at the Reagan Library, he explained: Im a libertarian conservative who spends most of my free time outdoors. I bike and hike and kayak, and I compost. It might be the first positive reference to composting in the history of that fine institution.
Not too long ago, Pauls foreign-policy views would have been an insuperable obstacle to a serious presidential run. No more. The evolution in the partys foreign policy is captured in the story of the Pauls. In 2008, Ron Pauls noninterventionism made him a punching bag in the Republican-primary debates. In 2012, it got a respectful hearing. In 2016, his sons (less toxic) version of the same policy will be much closer to the partys mainstream.
At least for some stretch of 2015, Rand Paul could well be the Republican front-runner, tapping into grass-roots enthusiasm on the model of Howard Dean in 2003. And its not inconceivable that he could go further than that famous representative of the Democratic wing of the Democratic Party.
Paul has a built-in online and grass-roots network of the sort it takes years to build. In fact, it did. His father built it, and now hes working to expand it in his extensive travels. During those years, his father welcomed into his fold cranks and haters, and one of Rand Pauls quiet messages is that he has his fathers core convictions, without the loathsome baggage.
Im far from a Rand Paulite. I dont think there was ever any threat of Americans being droned sitting at cafes, nor do I think drones are the scariest invention in the history of flight. Im not where Paul is on foreign or national-security policy, and I doubt his libertarianism has as much crossover appeal in blue states as he hopes.
But libertarianism is a significant strand on the right. It should be represented, and represented well. By and large, Rand Paul does that. Underestimate him at your peril.
Rich Lowry is the editor of National Review. He is also the author of the recently released book Lincoln Unbound.
That’s an important point that people should really consider in thinking about Libertartians.
Conservatism is the opposing force to Liberalism/Progressivism. Libertarianism is the opposing force to statism. One can be either a Liberal or Conservative Libertarian just like one can be either a Liberal or Conservative statist.
“There are a lot of folks here who might describe themselves as conservative-libertarian or libertarian-conservative. ..”
Some conservatives think they are liberatarian, probably because libertarians are fiscal conservatives.
My brother was attracted to libertarians while in college, but he realized many were not true CONSERVATIVES.
Libertarians are not usually strong on the life issue, which is the most important issue of all.
For instance, if Rand Paul is really pro-life, why did he get a 33% rating from Planned Parenthood?
“KY U.S. Senate Jr Rand Paul Republican 33”
snip http://votesmart.org/interest-group/1578/rating/6093
As a strong pro-lifer, I’ll be supporting candidates for POTUS who get a 0% rating from Planned Parenthood.
There are many things I like about Rand Paul, and I believe he’s great as a U.S. Senator, but I would prefer a true conservative as POTUS.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.