Democrats are eager to lump Angle together with other tea party candidates across the country — particularly amid the controversy Rand Paul has created with his comments about the Civil Rights Act.
And they believe an Angle win in the June 8 Nevada GOP primary would give them an appealing national narrative: that the Republicans’ November ticket across the country is filled with “extreme” candidates well outside the mainstream of American politics…
“She’s a female Rand Paul,” declared a Reid adviser of Angle. “We’re going to show everyone what she stands for, and then we’ll see what happens.”
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[A]s long as the central political fights in America were about morality and foreign policy, liberals recognized “more of a libertarian” as a declaration of noncombatant status.
But the battles of today are all about the size and shape of government…
When it was a marginal ideology, it was one thing for the Left to tolerate libertarianism. But now that it’s catching on thanks to the gross overreach of the Obama administration, watch the invective rise.
The feeding frenzy on Paul’s professorial response to questions on the Civil Rights Act is just the start of what will be an assault on small-government ideas.
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Paul’s nomination could have been a moment of triumph for the Tea Party movement, as well as for Republicans, but instead it was an embarrassment. And I felt the disappointment firsthand, given that I agree with and support numerous things the Tea Party represents. Like many Americans, I’m angered by the intense spending going on under the Obama administration. But when the movement was given the opportunity to present specific solutions and answer real questions, its leaders nominated someone who—yet again—revealed weird, racist undertones, no matter how he wants to spin it…
With the midterm elections fast approaching, and the 2012 elections around the corner, let’s hope Paul isn’t a canary in the coal mine, if you will, for Republicans, but a cautionary tale. The lesson is clear: If we don’t nominate formidable candidates with wider appeal and a broader message, our party is dead in the water.
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We maintain that conservative principles view every human being as being created by God, endowed with inalienable rights. It is not conservatives who push racial quotas, preferences, and set asides. Nor is it conservative to engage in race baiting–as in attacks on Arizona for attempting to do what federal law is supposed to do. The right to life and the defense of marriage are not wedge issues at all, but bridge issues–helping conservatives reach out to minority communities…
Rand Paul is right to say that slavery and segregation were stains on America’s past. But the blood and treasure sacrificed by our people to overcome these stains should be honored, should be celebrated. We did overcome. And we overcame because conservative Republicans joined with liberal Democrats to pass the great Civil Rights Act of 1964.
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Could it be that the media establishment wanted Paul to win and treated him respectfully in order to preserve his chances of victory? For one thing, the eye doctor’s first-time candidacy offered a juicier, more exotic story line for the political press to cover than the possible triumph of a conventional candidate like Grayson. It’s also possible that Stephanopoulos (a former Clinton aide), Maddow (an unabashed leftist) and the rest of the liberal-leaning press wanted to nurture Paul’s candidacy in the primary in order to strike a blow against Republican prospects in the general election, knowing that the inexperienced contender with his provocative positions and oddball associations would be easy to defeat and discredit…
If Rand Paul gets side-tracked in defending paranoid delusions associated with his father (like the non-existent “NAFTA Superhighway” or equally mythical “North American Union”), he frankly deserves to lose. But it’s not too late to reboot his campaign, with a new dose of rhetorical discipline and ferocious focus.
If he fails to find that focus, his humiliating defeat will at least produce one worthwhile result: encouraging Republicans across the country to disregard another Paulestinian presidential run in 2012 as a dangerous dead-end.
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