Rand Paul---Quickest Rise & Fall in political history?

Last week?... lauded, praised, touted, idolized for his little "Mr Smith Goes to Washington" filibuster show.....Glenn Beck calling him "the most logical candidate for President of the United States"....


Today?....loathed, despised, vilified for coming out in support of "amnesty" for illegal immigrants?

And you could have marked the switch with an egg timer.

 

The amazing part is how he seems to be getting a free pass for backing amnesty

 

The talking filibuster was a circus stunt that made no sense. The amnesty for illegal aliens makes some sense.

 

Rand Paul is doing what it will take to pull some Latino votes, Republicans need to broaden their voting pool and the Latino vote is a good place to start.

 

Washington isn't going to stir dissent in the Hispanics.

 

True on both counts. But clearly Rand is thinking he can be "everything to everybody". Like his stand on same-sex marriage....claims he "personally" believes "marriage is between a man and a woman".....but wants "Government OUT of marriage", i.e. a libertarian stance that would mean same-sex marriages could be made as legal as heterrosexual marriages.

I just wonder, in their desperation for a win in 2016....how much "playing both sides" the Right will be able to swallow from "Son of Ron"???

 

If I had to guess, I would say unlimited amounts.

 

Same-sex marriage and abortion are two issues where libertarian ideology falls apart. They keep talking about autonomy yet they want to control womens' reproductive rights and who can marry whom.

Libertarians can never make a good argument about why heterosexual marriages should be legal and same-sex marriages shouldn't be.

 

You're not much of a "Libertarian" if you're advocating the Government getting involved in social issues so I truly wouldn't consider those types to be Libertarians to begin with.

 

Agreed. There are plenty of conservatives who lean libertarian, but that's not the same as a capital L libertarian.

There are also civil libertarians (like myself) who differ from capital L libertarians by not agreeing with all of their economic policies but agreeing with them on social policy and foreign policy.

 

Rand in a pickle. To be a good Republican (i.e. appeal to Social Conservatives) he has to say something completely contradictory to what his Dad's Cultists who are libertarian (or just libertarians in general) support.

And when he tries to do BOTH...he looks like a panderer and neither side trust him.

 

That's a 'fall'?

 

Won't work unless Republicans hop on board the wealth redistribution bandwagon. Hispanics want the white man's money, and they vote themselves raises just like blacks do. They're not quite to the 95% level yet, but they'll get there eventually.

 

I don't think he is getting a "free pass" on anything. Amnesty is the default position for the majority of establishment Republicans.

 

This is really no surprise. Rand has never been as principled as his father, which actually makes him a more effective politician. Unlike Ron, Rand will sell out for votes, go along and get along with repugnant policies and people, while trying to borrow credibility from his father's name. A filibuster which has no practical effect (even though it was the right thing to do) is the most we can hope from this politician.

 

That's something a racist would say.

 

That's something an anti-white racist would say.

 

As usual, as soon as the crackpot libertarians such as Rand Paul open their mouths and get specific on the details, they crash and burn. He goes out sucking up to Latinos who the redneck libertarians hate and the agenda disintegrates.

The only thing different that has happened is that Rand Paul is just stupid enough to accomplish his demise a lot faster than his wacko father did.

 

I'd actually say that Rand is a somewhat more practical version of his father.

The fact that he's now supporting a more open visa system means that he's starting to lean more towards libertarianism with a capital L.

 

Good for you! Now all you have to do is convince all the real libertarians that sending all of them back is not going to be a popular agenda. You know, America is for Americans and the aliens are taking all the jobs, blah, blah, blah. The ones that now want to kill Rand Paul for being a turncoat! You know the ones! Liberally nearly all of them.

 

Most actual libertarians support an open visa system.

The far right is the group that actually supports the "deport them all" approach.

 

And hopefully they are split down the middle, but you just know that's not true and it's a heavily loaded agenda in favour of the 'deport em all' goofs. Yours to deal with! Ours to continue to laugh at!

 

The GOP appears to be evolving toward a more libertarian view on immigration. Part of this is just from the perspective of appealing to the rising Hispanic vote, but the other part is the practical realization that building a wall is too expensive.

Therefore, the practical approach is to reform the visa system. Also, when people say "amnesty", they usually mean granting citizenship to people illegally here.

What Rand has advocated is giving them a path to citizenship, but that's different from just giving them citizenship immediately.

In short, everyone still has to earn it.

 

You guys expect libertarians to play in your box of statutes on this issue while we feel that the state should not play any role whatsoever in marriage other than a contract of sorts to dole out possessions if the contract is agreed to be terminated by both parties at a later date. The state should not recognize any sort of religious agreement, but should only concern itself with an agreed upon business contract of sorts.

 

I agree, and that's exactly what Rand Paul needs to do. Weasel back and forth between offering a path to citizenship that is actually meaningful and a path to citizenship that will give them nothing.

Or in other words, he has to be for it or agin it and it's impossible to be both no matter how many weasel words he invents.

You libertarians aren't going to be able to fool near enough people to make Rand Paul a viable choice. Give it up now or be the object of all the jokes. No more 'yeah buts'!