Saturday, March 9, 2013
#StandWithRand? Think Different
By Joshua Byers
Being as the euphoria has passed allowing for more sober judgment, it is time to go over the results of the filibuster: a morale boost for the liberty movement, increased stature for Senator Paul, Senator Paul shored up Ron’s base, the White House was embarrassed, the old Republican guard was embarrassed, debate over domestic drone use was legitimized, and finally, unhappily, zero policy change. I am not saying all of these are positive or negative, but those are the objective results.
The last result bares unpacking. Brennan was still confirmed and drones can still be used against American citizens without due process of law on American soil. To be fair, the failure of policy change is not Rand’s fault nor the liberty movement’s fault. He and we gave it our all. However, much time and energy went into the filibuster resulting in zero policy change.
The establishment still got what it wanted while praising Rand Paul. An example is Charles Krauthammer praising Rand. Yet, Charles still has his drones for his Neo-Con foreign policy.
I was cheering Rand along with everyone else, but the reality is we didn’t change policy. That is really the only measure that matters and by that measure we lost this fight. A potential silver lining I see is this could setup Rand with enough political capital to obtain a future substantive policy victory for liberty. I would like to believe it, but I believe that is wishful thinking.
Here’s the problem as I see it. None of the assumptions about Islam have been challenged. None of the assumptions about 9-11 have been challenged. Only drones operating in America has been challenged. The foundation of orthodox thinking has not been challenged. Rand made a clever argument that appealed to all Americans based on their current intellectual framework without changing that framework.
The big problem with that is all it would take for the American public to be swept away back into the arms of the Neo-Cons is one more 9-11, real or imagined.
The entire point of Rand’s different strategy was to obtain substantive policy change where Ron has failed. Not only has Rand failed too, but he also failed to convert people’s frameworks. That is something Ron excelled at.
Read the rest here.
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Here's something to wish for...
ReplyDeleteThat this incident heaped enough shame on Princess Lindsey that she'll be bounced out on her keester next election.
My issue is not with the commentary - I suppose someone has to say it, but I feel like an old hand... of course, nothing changes. It never does. But perhaps Rand feels like enough of a base of support for liberty was developed by his father and true liberty-minded groups that he feels it is worth a shot to win the big election. Of course, that wouldn't "fix" the United States, either, but I can't see how a President Paul wouldn't be a huge marginal improvement (for the whole world, by the way), over the usual clowns. Certainly, Paul would be more effective (and understands more economics and foreign policy) than even the Gary Johnson's out there...
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