United Liberty
Rand Paul shows libertarians how to make a difference in DC
Tue, 05/31/2011 - 1:25pm | posted by Tom Knighton
Despite his best efforts, Senator Rand Paul was unable to tip the cart known as the Patriot Act over. The freshman senator gave it a valiant effort and developed some unlikely allies along the way. When you are mentioned as an ally of Dick Durbin on an issue, and you’re really a Tea Party favorite, then you give life to the cliche that politics makes strange bedfellows.
However, Sen. Paul may well have shown libertarians the path towards transforming the nation, despite the failure. From MSNBC.com:
Paul argued that in the rush to meet the terrorist threat in 2001 Congress enacted a Patriot Act that tramples on individual liberties. He had some backing from liberal Democrats and civil liberties groups who have long contended the law gives the government authority to spy on innocent citizens.
Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., said he voted for the act when he was a House member in 2001 “while ground zero was still burning.” But “I soon realized it gave too much power to government without enough judicial and congressional oversight.”
Sen. Mark Udall, D-Colo., said the provision on collecting business records can expose law-abiding citizens to government scrutiny. “If we cannot limit investigations to terrorism or other nefarious activities, where do they end?” he asked.
“The Patriot Act has been used improperly again and again by law enforcement to invade Americans’ privacy and violate their constitutional rights,” said Laura W. Murphy, director of the ACLU Washington legislative office.
Paul has become known in his short time in Congress for building single issue coalitions of like-minded senators to try and shape policy that gives more power to the American people and strips it from the government. It doesn’t always work like he would want, but the effort itself is what’s important.
Let’s be honest for a second, my fellow libertarians. We’re not going to win a majority in the House or Senate any time soon. What we’re going to win is, at best, a few spots in government here and there. Personally, I think it will need to be people who are willing to work with whoever shares their beliefs on a given issue and move this nation down the right path.
It’s about shifting the center… If Ron and Rand and co. can shift the political center from moderate forms of fiscal liberalism and social conservatism (Mitt Romney / Barack Obama) to moderate forms of fiscal conservatism and social liberalism, we’re on the right path.
I would say that is the Paul narrative. The Pauls are shifting the mainstream without winning the Presidency. The Pauls are shifting the independents and centrists (on the issues) from increasing forms of statism… to moderate forms of libertarianism.
Pure libertarians may think that’s “not enough” but it’s better than nothing.
What Rand did in this case was to turn the Patriot act into a gun-rights issue. It was brilliant. He has turned many former pro-patriot-act voters into anti-patriot-act voters. At the same time he has exposed people like McConnel and organizations such as the NRA for the jack-booted thugs they are.
This isn’t just a minor little shift either. The pro-gun constituency has a great number that consider this their only issue.
He’s making a big difference on the free-speech front, too.
PAUL: I’m not for profiling people on the color of their skin, or on their religion, but I would take into account where they’ve been traveling and perhaps, you might have to indirectly take into account whether or not they’ve been going to radical political speeches by religious leaders. It wouldn’t be that they are Islamic. But if someone is attending speeches from someone who is promoting the violent overthrow of our government, that’s really an offense that we should be going after — they should be deported or put in prison.
Maybe libertarianism will advance a little more once you all stop being such hypocrites.
Mr. Knighton, can you please explain where ideas like this following Paul quote, as shared with Sean Hannity, fit into the Libertarian philosophy?
“PAUL: I’m not for profiling people on the color of their skin, or on their religion, but I would take into account where they’ve been traveling and perhaps, you might have to indirectly take into account whether or not they’ve been going to radical political speeches by religious leaders. It wouldn’t be that they are Islamic. But if someone is attending speeches from someone who is promoting the violent overthrow of our government, that’s really an offense that we should be going after — they should be deported or put in prison.”
Don’t get me wrong, I applaud this bold stand against American militia groups (it’s about time someone stood up to them, amirite, fellas?), but statements like the one above should make us wonder just how much Mr. Paul truly understands about our rights as Americans, doesn’t it? Or, at the least, his understanding/commitment to Libertarian principles.
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