'Rand Paul is Not a Libertarian Republican'

Professor Murray Sabrin, who was a 2014 candidate for the New Jersey Republican nomination for the  US Senate, sent the following letter to the editor of the Record in Bergen County:

Regarding “How to trump Trump” (Other Views, August 5), Dana Milbank correctly criticizes the recent over the top statements made by several Republican presidential candidates vying for attention as Donald Trump dominates the media coverage with his bombastic pronouncements.

Nevertheless, his identification of Senator Rand Paul as “the libertarian candidate in the GOP field” is incorrect given that the Kentucky senator identifies himself as a “constitutional conservative.”

 Libertarian writer Justin Raimondo recently wrote:  “…the Rand Paul that we were all hoping for – someone who would stand up to the War Party and refute their propaganda – is no more, if he ever existed in the first place. Instead of refuting the lies he’s joining in the telling of them – and in doing so, he’s crossed the Rubicon as far as libertarians and all those who oppose war with Iran are concerned. (emphasis in the original.)

Mr. Milbank and his brethren in the media and political establishment can now point to Senator Paul’s low single digit standing in the polls and pronounce the liberty movement kaput.  Nothing can be further from the truth.

 A libertarian Republican running for president would call for dismantling the welfare-warfare state.  In short, a libertarian candidate’s platform would include massive tax cuts, abolishing corporate welfare and all other redistribution polices, supporting civil liberties, ending the Federal Reserve’s “printing press” and implementing a noninterventionist foreign policy.

Senator Rand is not a libertarian Republican candidate for president.    If he was, Senator Paul would be leading in the polls, because 20%-30% of Republican primary voters embrace the principles of liberty.