Really? I do not think this is true:
“shrewd and flexible politician Rand Paul”
He’s a braying jackass. Who thinks he’s shrewd, really?
9 Likes
The press. The same people who stay glued to Cruz for his latest Plop of Greatness. The same people who are more interested in whether or not Obama said “horseshit” than they are about the subject of the “horseshit” comment - you know giving high-tech weaponry to yet another bunch of Islamofascists who will inevitably turn those weapons against first civilians and then Americans.
5 Likes
I have to chuckle at the people who think liberals are going to run into the arms of Rand Paul.
It’s simply not going to happen. He’s too wormy.
Libertarianism is going nowhere in the USA.
6 Likes
Hard as it is to believe, there are single-issue voters (in this case, stoners) who probably will.
Not enough to make a difference, but enough to give shitty media sites a chance to call Rynd a “Bipartisan Dreamboat” or some such shit.
1 Like
Nowhere is the intellectual flabbiness of Libertarianism more evident than in its knee-jerk antiabortion attitudes. Rand Paul represents the extreme end of the spectrum with his “personhood begins at fertilization” stance. So my individual autonomy as a woman ends the second somebody’s sperm hits one of my ova, at which point my body becomes the collective property of the state, which values the life and well-being of the product of conception inside me above my own? To hell with that.
12 Likes
I now have a glimmer of hope that the fundamental truth about the entire Republican Party—not just its “libertarian” wing—will start to become evident: that it’s a de facto theocratic party controlled at the local, state, and national level by Evangelical Christianists, allied with smaller numbers of Opus Dei Catholics, Mormons, and other reactionary Judeo-Christian sects. All of these people openly and unapologetically seek to make their religious views the law of the land, because the Bible says so.
Virtually every policy stance that that GOP takes, from dealing with climate change to education to foreign policy in the Middle East to immigration to tax and regulatory issues, is directly informed by the warped and perverted version of Christianity that these people adhere to. The fact that a significant amount of economic self-interest comes with this—like the drive to divert public tax dollars to privately-owned Christianist schools—shouldn’t deceive anybody about the movement’s philosophical/ideological roots in highly-selective Biblical literalism.
It’s instructive to keep in mind that over 60% of white Evangelicals support the use of torture. They’re sociopaths.
16 Likes
I’ve said it all along and it’s true. The Republican God is Ayn Rand.
3 Likes
He hasn’t been laughed off the stage. He appears to know when to dial back (as far as public statements) on some of his crazier beliefs. He still believes them, just doesn’t state them for “general consumption.” And he’s made a few statements designed to give the impression that he’s the adult in the room.
“Shrewd” works for me
3 Likes
Ayn Rand elevated self-aggrandizement to virtue and followers of John Calvin decided wealth was likely a subtle proof of their election to paradise. Thus, greed became good.
The modern GOP is the thalidomide child of these wretched beliefs.
13 Likes
We’re not talking about the thing he has on the top of his head. (Which I believe is a muskrat, by the way.)
12 Likes
The true essence of Libertarianism is, “Mind your own business and I’ll mind mine.”
This aberration is something like, “Leave me alone and you better fucking play by MY fucking rules… or else.”
5 Likes
Well duh!
1 Like
Personhood cannot be absolute when that person lives inside another person. Unless Rand Paul wouldn’t mind me crawling up inside him (not that I would want to)…So the logical outcome of his position is that you cannot outlaw abortion, but that the fetus must be put into an invitro flask and allowed to fend for itself as a rugged individual.
4 Likes
Rand Paul is nothing but a cynical grifter.
He doesn’t BELIEVE in anything (making him the “perfect” politician.)
“Libertarianism” is just a means-to-an-end for him.
7 Likes
You need to do a “Spoiler Alert” or “Brain Bleach Will Be Needed” disclaimer when you post stuff like that.
2 Likes
“The most active early Con-Con was Michele Bachmann, …”
So THAT is what her song-and-dance is called!
5 Likes
Well, actually, “Libertarianism” is the family business.
But I’m sure he’s convinced that he’s earned everything he’s ever gotten.
4 Likes
So called Libertarians have had their party taken over by the religious right. It is so sad to see this. The Libertarian party might as well call themselves the religious republican coalition party.
2 Likes
Wouldn’t ‘tinker-toyed’ be a better verb than ‘engineered’?
1 Like
If it was good enough for the Inquisitors…
Nobody expects the Southern Evangelicals!
(Somewhere, Michael Palin is not smiling.)
jw1
2 Likes