Posted on 06/26/2013 5:41:29 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
Here's The latest in the continuing saga of Rand on the Skywire, trying to inch along the tightrope between libertarians and conservatives towards the GOP nomination on the other side.
Love him or hate him, the 2016 debates will be roughly 8,000 percent more interesting with him onstage than they would be otherwise.
Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., told ABC News he believes the Supreme Court ruling on the Defense of Marriage Act was appropriate, and that the issue should be left to the states. He praised Justice Anthony Kennedy for avoiding “a cultural war.”
“As a country we can agree to disagree,” Paul said today, stopping for a moment to talk as he walked through the Capitol. “As a Republican Party, that’s kind of where we are as well. The party is going to have to agree to disagree on some of these issues.”…
Paul said he agreed with Kennedy, whom he called “someone who doesn’t just want to be in front of opinion but wants government to keep up with opinion.” He said Kennedy “tried to strike a balance.”
Many social conservatives won’t be happy to hear him talking about leaving things to the states, and they really won’t be happy with him waving off the culture war, but they were never Paul’s target constituency in the first place. If you’re a young, bridge-building, aspiring GOP nominee, the politic answer here is obvious: Support traditional marriage at the state level and oppose any lawmaking on the subject at the federal level. Be a socially conservative small-government federalist and hope that both social cons and moderate/libertarians each cut you enough of a break on your middle-ground position that the Skywire doesn’t sway too much. That’s the smart play for someone in Rand’s position (at least until he makes it to the general, when any misgivings about gay marriage at the state level will begin magically to melt away). Just one question: Does he support state traditional marriage laws at the state level? I honestly can’t tell. This morning he told Glenn Beck this:
“I think traditional marriage laws are now affirmed in 34 states,” the Kentucky Republican said on Glenn Beck’s radio show Wednesday morning, calling it the “good side of the ruling.”
So he does support them. But wait — a few months ago, he said this:
Social issues are another area where he thinks Republicans can make a better argument to independents and centrists without departing from their principles. Gay marriage, for instance, is one issue on which Paul would like to shake up the Republican position. “I’m an old-fashioned traditionalist. I believe in the historic and religious definition of marriage,” he says. “That being said, I’m not for eliminating contracts between adults. I think there are ways to make the tax code more neutral, so it doesn’t mention marriage. Then we don’t have to redefine what marriage is; we just don’t have marriage in the tax code.”
As I said at the time, that’s the sort of thing you often hear from libertarians who want the government, and not just the federal government, out of the marriage business altogether. I don’t think Rand could get away with that position in a GOP primary, which is why I assume he’s still nominally in favor of state marriage laws. Whether he’d have an Obama-esque “evolution” in support of liberalizing those laws to include gays once safely elected, though, I leave to you to decide.
Via Noah Rothman, here he is with Beck having a not-especially-libertarian exchange about whether legalizing gay marriage necessarily means legalizing polygamy. Beck’s more concerned about that than Paul is — Rand clarified what he said here about non-humans later in the day, in fact — but he does seem to see some hazy role for government in legislating morality. Some of his dad’s fans won’t like that, but plenty of mainstream conservatives will.
Update: A “wacko bird” divergence:
U.S. Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) today released the following statement on the Supreme Court’s decisions on the Defense of Marriage Act and California’s Proposition 8:
Today’s Supreme Court decisions on marriage are a regrettable overreach against the will of the people as expressed through large, bipartisan majorities in Congress and directly through referendum in California – a markedly blue state.
Nothing in the Constitution compelled this result, and, once again, the Court has chosen to substitute its own views of public policy for the democratically expressed will of the voters.
The family is the fundamental building block of society, and I strongly support traditional marriage between one man and one woman. The voters of California made that same choice, until the courts improperly substituted their preferences for those of the people.
Our Federalism allows different states to make different policy judgments based on the values and mores of their citizens. Federal courts should respect that diversity and uphold that popular sovereignty, not impose their own policy agenda.
Geez——another disappointment.
Military chaplains will now be forced to violate their conscience
I hope Rand realizes that. All chaplains should abdicate in disgust. That will take out a lot of the religious service members too, who don’t want to be in the field without spiritual counsel.
FURP! Rand Paul is randomly unreliable, ie, a liberaltarian squish.
Ted Cruz is quite literally the only man I trust in Washington right now.
As for Rand, give him a couple months and his tune will change. He seems to shift a lot to suit the audience.
Once again, the people who use the system the way it is set up are getting screwed by the people the people who sit on their asses and use short cuts.
What about the rights of Voters to shape their government? What about them?
rand is an effing moron.
doma WAS the law that left it up to the states, it kept the federal govt from having a national “yes” on the issue. by having a “no” position at the federal level it allowed states to have either a no or yes position.
You didn’t realize he’s a libertarian? His dad was their presidential candidate.
and rand, you stupid asshat, thedemocrats don’t agree to disagree on anything in their party, they tell the minority to shut the eff up. works pretty well for them in terms of getting what they want.
Anyone with an objective view of the U.S. Constitution would come to this same conclusion, and I'm kind of disappointed that so many Freepers missed this point all along. There is simply nothing that gives the Federal government any role in establishing a legal (or other) definition of marriage.
Contrary to a lot of conventional wisdom on this matter and on the Supreme Court decision, the next logical step in this process is not the complete transformation of the legal definition of marriage across the country. Rather, it will be the complete eradication of anything remotely resembling "marriage" under any Federal law -- followed by the same process in many states.
Keep in mind that the plaintiff in the original case brought before the Supreme Court was an elderly lesbian who claimed that she deserved the same legal status under Federal estate tax law as a married heterosexual couple. The Supreme Court agreed with her. I say good for her, and then I say I should be next up to the plate in the same legal challenge against the estate tax. If an octogenarian lesbian can leave a tax-free estate to her "spouse," then the same tax exemption should be given to anyone who gets "married" -- to his cousin, his drinking buddy, or a business partner -- for the sole purpose of circumventing the Federal estate tax.
I can guarantee everyone here that there are hundreds of CPAs and tax lawyers hard at work right now trying to figure out how to work this ruling in their clients' favor -- in ways that nobody in Washington, D.C. ever even imagined.
You could call it the “Tax Lawyer Full Employment Act.”
Those thing determined, defined, and endowed by the Creator TRUMP Federal, States, and The People. The institution of Marriage is one of those things.
Just think about that for a moment. What the hell does a civil "marriage license" mean in a religious institution -- or, in the case of the Catholic Church, a sacrament?
Once polygamy works its way into our social order, organized crime families will have all the protection they need to carry out their "business activities."
And people don’t realize what legalized IT marriage means for IT......It will be a mini-Y2K in terms of code that would have to be changed to handle it.
Isn't that what they just did. I think you miss the obvious. Your line is reasoning is severely flawed. Here is an example of where your opinion must necessarily lead one. IF today the issue as regards God came to be debated THEN how on Earth could the Feds, the States or the People claim that we are endowed inalienable rights? How could the 'decide' as you suggest such an issue; a FUNDAMENTAL issue such as God's existence and the rights endowed all?
I would suggest that DOMA was neither a political conclusion imposed nor a determination alleged and codified BUT RATHER simply an acknowledgement proclaimed much as the acknowledgement proclaimed as to God. The government did not create God nor did it create Marriage. DOMA was no more an imposition imposed upon the States that inalienable rights are an imposition imposed upon government.
should read “And people don’t realize what legalized gay marriage means for IT
You make some pretty good points.
I look at marriage like one might look at conception of life. The government should not define it regulate it or limit it but simply acknowledge it to protect it. No-fault divorce in my opinion is comparable to abortion. In both cases government stepped in and added 50 shades of gray to what should be black or white issues THEN premised upon the created gray areas began to define and regulate.
You are too kind. To use the word squish shows great restraint on your part, Jim. I should have such restraint.
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