Thursday, February 20, 2014

Rand Paul's Stand on Felon Voting Rights

Politico reports:
Sen. Rand Paul took his push for restoring felons’ voting rights to the state level on Wednesday, testifying before a Kentucky Legislature committee and urging his home state to lead the way[...]Paul tweeted Wednesday morning about his push for voting rights restoration, both at the federal and state level.
This is simply a bizarre stance. Of all the problems in the country, Rand is spending energy on voting rights for felons? Is there a silent majority out there somewhere that I am not aware of that wants to desperately see the restoration of voting rights for felons?

Given this stance and his raising of Bill Clinton's "intern problem," when he really should be asking his staff about intern problems at Ron Paul Inc., one has to wonder if Rand is now taking talking points advice from someone who is trying to sabotage the campaign.

11 comments:

  1. Restoring voting rights is a big push issue for Dems this time around. They think they can win the difficult PR battle of sympathizing with felons in exchange for all the Dem votes they expect to get out of it. I have seen many stories floated by the media about it.

    I can only speculate, but it seems to me that a Republican Party birdie is in Rand's ear telling him to lead the way on this issue. Rand can make it a "state's rights" issue without alienating his base and the Republican Party gets to keep an arm's length from it. He seems to be taking the position of the Party's right cover.

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  2. He's pandering to Democrat constituency. Perhaps he will run as Democrat in 2016. (He might as well.)

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  3. With the growth of the police/prison industry, there is potentially a massively under served constituency (30% of the electorate in some areas, and not just urban) so while an experimental angle in so far as focusing on voting rights, there is some logic behind it.

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  4. He is making an awkward attempt at getting support from that cohort of Americans who are, shall we say, over represented in prison. You know who I mean of course. It won't work for the simple reason that black voters don't trust anyone with an "R" next to their name on the ballot, especially some lily white Kentucky cracker.

    They have a herd mentality that is ingrained and pervasive and they tend to prefer politicians who are flamboyantly corrupt, conniving, obnoxious and hypocritical. Like for instance - Jesse Jackson Jr., Mel Reynolds, Alcee Hastings, William Jefferson, Gus Savage, Cynthia McKinney, Rod Wright, Charlie Rangel, etc., etc., etc.

    Maybe if Rand has sex with underage girls, treats his staff like slaves, embezzles money from his campaign, assaults capitol police, dodges taxes on overseas real estate income and takes cash bribes for political favors he might get a few more votes from the more generously pigmented faction. Playing the saxophone badly on The Tonight Show wouldn't hurt either.

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  5. Now Robert, you're getting petty.
    Look, there's no such thing as bad publicity. And these are issues which no one else is pushing. So, it makes a stir and who's the only one involved? Rand Paul! So he gets his 30 seconds on the news.
    Look, the guy went from junior senator from a junior state to a "rising star" in the GOP (admittedly, a dubious honor). Not bad for a guy with NO previous political experience.
    He's very popular with the crackers down here in the Abacos.

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  6. Rand Paul's relishes quixotic and emblematic gestures of red state fascism rather than any meaningful turn toward liberty. His southern white christian followers swallow the idea of Homeland Security and overt bellicose militarism whole hog, and they were ideas born and blessed by the Israeli military.

    We will all get to watch in horror as Rand proves his true militarist colors over the next 9 months and buries any evidentiary link to his fathers brand of foreign policy.

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  7. Felons must have favored Rand among Republican presidential contenders. Oh and also it's a matter of principle you see.

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  8. Strange indeed.
    Democrats will never vote for him and neither will felons.
    Republicans tend to think felons are already softheartedly way too much, so he's not endearing himself to them, either.
    It's just baffling.

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  9. Randy along w/ dimwit Paul Ryan are part of the Repuke's failed Jack Kemp staterrrgy to export the wonders of free markets to the ghettoes. Next big thing will be will the secret Kemp handshakes w/ the NFL felons.

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  10. Robert,

    Do you think it's the right thing to do? Many felons are felons because of the drug war — they haven't committed any violent crimes. Yet once they are a felon they find it hard to get a job because they've been branded. The ability to squash political dissent this way is more than unsettling.

    It's being called the New Jim Crow:
    http://newjimcrow.com/media

    So could this be a case where Rand Paul is just doing the right thing? Or is his every move simply considered political *a priori*?

    My own opinion is Rand Paul has issues he cares about, and then picks and chooses his battles according tow which one's he can win — with an aim of helping to forward libertarianism.

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  11. Rand is attempting to position himself as non-racist because most of the felons expected to have their voting rights restored will not be white.

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