That is the amazingly powerful impact of Ron Paul and his noninterventionist message. Rand can travel to Israel, act like it is the 51st state, call for US interventions in the Middle East and increased military spending, but they still see Ron.
Neocon John Podhoretz spilled the beans in his most recent column:
Polling over the past year has seen a reassertion of Republican hawkishness among the party’s base. And Paul has responded. The man who called for absolute cuts in the defense budget is now calling for a $190 billion increase, and says we should attack ISIS.
“Rand Paul wants it both ways,” writes libertarian analyst Brian Doherty. It’s still the case, though, that Paul’s only true distinction as a candidate is his non-interventionist beliefs.
So that is why he is the most important candidate. If he does not catch fire, it will put an end to the idea that the GOP has turned its back on its Reaganite foreign-policy roots.Rand Paul a non-interventionist? Not a chance. They look at Rand and see Ron.
If he does catch fire, the party will be making a revolutionary, and suicidal, shift.
-RW
Read this passage this morning: "... nothing is more essential than that permanent, inveterate antipathies against particular nations, and passionate attachments for others, should be excluded; and that, in place of them, just and amicable feelings towards all should be cultivated. The nation which indulges towards another a habitual hatred or a habitual fondness is in some degree a slave. It is a slave to its animosity or to its affection, either of which is sufficient to lead it astray from its duty and its interest. ... The great rule of conduct for us in regard to foreign nations is in extending our commercial relations, to have with them as little political connection as possible."
ReplyDeleteSounds more like Ron Paul than Podhoretz. Readers of this site should have no trouble identifying the author.
Rand assumed everybody was playing Tic-tac-toe.
ReplyDeleteYou are mistaken Unowned. Rand is making the strategic error that has been made over and over again by conservatives, that of right wing opportunitism.
ReplyDeleteHe really is out of his league.
You do not go toe to toe with the Neo Cons playing their game by their rules and prevail.
The only way to beat them is to deny them battle. By that I mean deny their heros, their histories, their narratives, and their ideas. We have to reject them root and branch.
Rand does not understand that this is the only way to beat them. We are in a battle of ideas and their ideas are winning. They will continue to win until we libertarians understand that elections are an effect of ideas in motion not the cause. Real political power flows from the ideas the public holds. For that reason our message should never, ever be compromised like Rand has been doing since he was elected. He is doing net damage to our cause and I suspect he is too arrogant and too ignorant to realize it, unhappily for us all.