Rand Paul's fake libertarianism

Rand Paul likes to claim that he is a libertarian. He's all for the rights of the in-duh-vid-uals. Protect peoples' rights and let people prosper without interference from big gub'mint! People are smart! They hate anyone trying to tell them what to do. So government? Stay out of it! Fair enough. If that's what you believe, it's a bit socially Darwinistic for my liking, but if you're truly against government, so be it. If you think government shouldn't be sticking its nose in anything and should be small, well, we'd disagree, but I can respect that.

Exxxxxxcept, sometimes he's not for freedom. For instance, while he's supported a bill preventing the feds from prosecuting people for medical marijuana in states where it was legal, he's also played to the social conservatives by claiming he doesn't think marijuana should be legalized. C'mon Rand, either you're for freedom or you're not.

Gay people getting married? If you're for freedom, surely you're in favor of that? Right? Not in the case of Rand Paul. To him it's icky. Doesn't sound very live-and-let-live. That's not the worst of it though. In this case, the hypocrisy goes even deeper. He's willing to allow states to regulate marriage. But that is only because he believes it's the best way to ensure that marriage is defined as one-man-one-woman. So rather than allowing people to marry freely, Rand would actually use government as a weapon to enact his legislative agenda. Again, how is this man considered a libertarian? Maybe there were some asterisks in the Bill of Rights that I didn't catch? (Everyone had the right to free speech except for black people? Maybe that was in small print?)

Abortion. Allowing women self-determination over their bodies seems like it would make Paul's libertarian views on this pretty clear, right? Certainly he would want women to be able to control what they did to their bodies. Nope. Wrong again. He authored the "Fetal Personhood Bill" which defines life as beginning at conception. It would outlaw all abortions. Kind of the Anti-Libertarianism. Planned Parenthood gives him a 0 percent rating and the National Right to Life Committee gives him a perfect score. Hmmm...I'm sensing a pattern in unprincipled libertarianism.

He's also in favor of a massive increase in military spending. Again, doesn't seem like that would be the position of someone who wants a smaller government. But our Rand is a libertarian because...uh.....FREEEDOM!!!!!!

Drones? You wouldn't think that someone in favor of less government would like them. But again, Rand defies expectations. It's pretty clear that Rand likes the mavericky-impression generated by the term libertarian, but not so much its implications in real life. I'm not a fan of knuckle draggers whose unapologetic Christian conservatism would make the United States an analog of Iran, but on the other hand, at least I know where those legislators stand. That's what they want. Rand Paul likes pretend he's one of a new breed of Republicans, but he doesn't even have the courage of his convictions, as well as having icky Republican convictions.

At least Rand Paul is honest

Rand Paul is saying some crazy shit at the moment and I certainly don't agree with his opinions. I think that should be nearly self-evident-but what I do appreciate is his honesty. His ideology is SO insane that I think it might make for a teachable moment about the completely unsustainable model of the supposed conservative world view. It's not really conservative. These guys are enamored of too much power invested in a president-as they themselves have said, they are fans of a strong executive branch (the strong Unitary Executive theory) and I'd argue that some of them veer toward Fascist, but we are seeing what happens when there is no regulation. We have the BP oil spill, we have an SEC in which the watchdogs are watching porn instead of the financial industry, we have astronomically expensive wars. And yet even Rand Paul, this supposed laissez-faire Tea Bagger, isn't so loyal to his ideology when it comes to ensuring the money stream keeps flowing into his medical practice. He's a doctor and although he's fervently anti-government, when it comes to ensuring that he doesn't lose any of his precious income, he's a bleeding heart liberal. So again, can so-called conservatives ever be intellectually honest? If they would, well, perhaps we could evolve....but no, I guess there are too many political points to be made.

Perhaps a few people will think about the insanity of his beliefs and realize that government is not all that bad. Yeah, sometimes government makes poor decisions, but who would you rather have leading you? The esteemed Senator from BP? Yeah, they're geniuses. The honorable gentleman from Halliburton? I'm sure they'd NEVER lie to you. The distinguished representative from Goldman Sachs? Just don't let your wallet out of your sight. When I ask my supposedly-conservative friends this, they have no answer. They hem and haw and it's obvious they don't want to have that discussion. This is why the world is in trouble.

Some might say Rand Paul might have exposed himself as a lunatic, but to me, it's really not that surprising. He's just a more honest Teabagger. Rand Paul is not the exception to the rule, he is just a more candid expression of it.