Want to know the real deal about Rand Paul? The Washington Post will be glad to tell you. Check out these heads:
Charles Lane: Rand Paul’s dark vision
Jennifer Rubin: Rand Paul goes off the deep end
Dana Milbank: The decline of Rand Paul
Taking them in reverse order, Dana Milbank is the voice of conventional wisdom in DC. He never kicks you unless you’re down. Punching down, and kissing up, is what Dana does for a living.
Jennifer Rubin is, well, Jennifer Rubin. I doubt if “Rand Paul goes off the deep end” is Jenny’s head. Jenny’s preferred head probably would have been “Rand Paul goes even deeper off the deep end than anyone supposed was humanly possible,” in part because, to Jenny, anyone who proposes that the U.S. cut off all aid to Israel, as Rand once did, isn’t really human.
Charles Lane is, well, Charles Lane. He’s pissed, apparently, because Rand is the wrong kind of libertarian. He isn’t a “cheerful, optimistic” libertarian. “Paul represents a darker, angrier corner of the libertarian imagination, the part that’s not just concerned by government overreach in pursuit of legitimate objectives — fighting terrorism, say — but positively haunted by spies, war ‘hawks’ and maybe killer drones.”
“Haunted by spies”? Why would anyone think that, just because our government is constantly spying on us and constantly lying about the spying?
“War ‘hawks’”? You mean remarking on the fact that in the last two administrations the U.S. has fought three wars, all of which have been abject failures, and, in response, most of the Republican Party is demanding that we involve ourselves in ongoing conflicts in Ukraine and Syria and demanding that Iran either submit entirely to our will or else—or else, well, you know what.
And “killer drones”? Who has a problem with the execution of American citizens sans trial? Or the murder of young men for the crime of being a young man, aka a “militant”? Or the incidental murder of women and children for the crime of standing next to a “suspect”?
I disagree with Rand Paul on a lot of things. But anyone who pisses off Dana Milbank, Jennifer Rubin, and Charles Lane can’t be all bad.
