It’s fine to argue, as Czin did, that Paul’s preferred approach to, or retreat from, the world makes us “less safe and less secure” — although some of us unskilled in the nuances of foreign policy might have a hard time discerning safety from security. But Paul wasn’t “blaming America” anymore than Obama ever has. Right or wrong, he was stating his view of how to make the U.S. successful.

So what is the point of the DNC’s slander? In the Senate, Paul lacks the power to achieve his foreign-policy goals while at the same time serving as a rhetorical brake on his party’s worst instincts. He makes it easier for Obama to position himself in the sensible center between isolationism and Cheneyism. But even if Paul weren’t useful to the White House politically, why emulate the lazy indecency of impugning an opponent’s patriotism? Why stoop?