Be prepared for questions about ideology next week, including what a libertarian is. Those of you writing about the differences between Republican candidates might find these useful.
- The collapse of Rand Paul and the libertarian moment that never was.
The collapse of the Rand Paul campaign speaks volumes. In a 15-person field, Paul is the only candidate who looks even remotely libertarian (social tolerance, foreign policy restraint, and limited government). He started the campaign with decent name recognition, a seat in the United States Senate, lavish media attention, a serious will to win, and a battle-tested, national political operation inherited from his father, Ron. If there were any significant support for Libertarian ideas in the GOP—any at all—Rand Paul would be near the top of an otherwise crowded, fragmented field that is fighting over every non-libertarian voter in the party. Yet he’s polling at a mere 1 percent among Republican voters nationwide and has a higher unfavorability rating than anyone else in the GOP race.
- Rand Paul Is Not A Libertarian.
Libertarians, in general, are fiscally conservative but socially liberal, with a non-interventionist approach to foreign policy. His father, Ron Paul is a “libertarian cult figure” who had tremendous appeal to young Republicans. Rand Paul is clearly marketing himself as the heir apparent to those supporters — the one candidate with a chance of expanding the Republican base. But is Rand Paul a libertarian? He certainly likes to talk like a libertarian. Let’s take a look at where he stands on the issues.
- The strange death of GOP libertarianism: Rand Paul’s collapse and the fading of a political moment.
In a recent article, Jerry Taylor, president of the Niskanen Center, Washington’s newest libertarian think-tank, discusses the collapsing presidential campaign of Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul and what it means for the larger libertarian movement in the United States. As I pointed out last month, Taylor concludes that the sudden rise of Donald Trump, who may just be the least libertarian of all GOP front-runners, is not a good sign for the libertarian movement, which not too long ago seemed poised to take over a large segment of the Republican Party. Today, this optimism had been shattered.
- IS RAND PAUL A TRUE LIBERTARIAN? NO, HE’S A POLITICIAN.
. . . it seems to me that many people are hitching their wagons to Paul without really looking at his record. While I can appreciate Senator Paul’s filibuster regarding the use of drones abroad and his opposition to the USA Patriot Act and the Freedom Act, he’s hardly the pinnacle of the classical liberal ideal. He’s still a politician.
Let me repeat that. He’s a politician. Look at Paul’s voting record. Far from breaking away from partisan politics, Paul votes align with the Republican Party some 84 percent of the time. This includes affirmative votes for the annual National Defense Authorization Acts.
- Is Rand Paul struggling because he isn't libertarian enough?
This has been the week of articles painting a dismal portrait of Rand Paul's presidential campaign. Hispolling has slipped since the last time I wrote about this topic and his fundraising numbers, including super PACs, have been a major letdown. Disappointed libertarians are starting to speak out about these struggles, somelamenting that Paul hasn't been libertarian enough while others note that he hasn'trecaptured the excitement of his father Ron Paul's Republican presidential campaigns.
