Rand And Ron Paul: The Acorn And The Nut

It's long been known that uber-libertarian Ron "Uncle Crazy" Paul, the tree from which Sen. "Ayn" Rand Paul (Dudebro-KY) fell (landing on his head) has some fringe ideas and associates, especially when it comes to "states rights", views that he's still more than happy to share with us:

“A lot of times people think secession, they paint it as an absolute negative,” said former representative Ron Paul (R-Tex.). After all, Paul said, the American Revolution was a kind of secession. “You mean we should have been obedient to the king forever? So it’s all in the way you look at it.” 

That's the old coot speaking this past weekend at a "one-day seminar" on secession in Houston, TX.  It's also part of his worldview that, well,

“Sanity will not return to U.S. leaders until our financial system collapses..."

Yay, financial collapse!  Also, since when does Uncle Crazy get to talk about "sanity?"

All of which (and much more in Uncle Crazy's career) might be somewhat problematic for political scion and likely Republican presidential candidate "Ayn" Rand.  That's because "Ayn" Rand needs to broaden his support from his father's crackpot shock troops to a larger, though equally loony, Republican "mainstream:"

Rand, 52, is contemplating a presidential run — at its heart, an act of optimism. He is moderating some hard-line positions and introducing himself to donors and voters. [snip] 

Rand Paul will need to broaden his appeal far beyond his father’s hard-core supporters if he hopes to win the GOP nomination his father never could. But some members of that core said he was losing them by adopting policies closer to the GOP mainstream.

If by "mainstream" you mean anti-science, anti-immigrant, anti-minority, anti-same sex marriage, anti-Obamacare, anti-choice, anti- etc., etc.

That's why "Ayn" Rand was in Rancho Mirage (!!), California, this weekend at a cattle call luxe retreat sponsored by the paleo-right billionaire Koch brothers, hoping to pick up support from plutocrats who are hoping that they won't be flushing their ill-gotten wealth down the crapper like they did in 2012. We are assuming that having your dangerously eccentric daddy talking about secession and financial system collapse on the same weekend doesn't play well with the big money boys.  It has to make them wonder if the acorn is as much of a nut as its progenitor.

(Photo: Ron "Uncle Crazy" Paul - "Get them cannons aimed at Ft. Sumter, boys!")

Cartoon of the Day - Iowa Caucus Edition

(Jim Morin, Miami Herald)

Ron Paul's Gutsy Stand

We're not big fans of libertarian Rep. Ron Paul. His social Darwinist economic philosophy calls for phasing out most beneficial government activities such as Medicare and Social Security. But Paul does stand for principles that the far right has long since abandoned. He issued a strong statement blasting the "sunshine patriots" that are trying to block the "not at Ground Zero" Islamic community center in Manhattan, and fingers the neocon/Likudnik cohort of the far right as the hatemongers:

"In my opinion it has come from the neo-conservatives who demand continual war in the Middle East and Central Asia and are compelled to constantly justify it.

They never miss a chance to use hatred toward Muslims to rally support for the ill conceived preventative wars. A select quote from soldiers from in Afghanistan and Iraq expressing concern over the mosque is pure propaganda and an affront to their bravery and sacrifice.

The claim is that we are in the Middle East to protect our liberties is misleading. To continue this charade, millions of Muslims are indicted and we are obligated to rescue them from their religious and political leaders. And, we’re supposed to believe that abusing our liberties here at home and pursuing unconstitutional wars overseas will solve our problems."

What's sad is not that this rebuke to the hatemongers came from a libertarian like Paul; what's sad is that so many progressive Dems are hiding in the corner while the bigots control the false message. (See also Richard Cohen's surprisingly good column on the same subject in the Kaplan Daily. As they say, occasionally even a blind squirrel finds a nut).

The Real "PUMAs"

Luckily, we haven't been holding our breath for the "mainsteam media" to notice that Ron Paul has a bunch of "PUMAs" (Party Unity My Ass) over at the Target Center in Minneapolis... 10,000 of them (at least that's how many tickets were sold). By our unofficial calculation, that's 9,942 more than the so-called disaffected Hillary PUMAs that the media kept chasing around Denver for interviews. (We think those PUMAs were mostly part of Rush Limpballs' "Operation Chaos" anyway.) To cover the Ron Paul group of disaffected right-wingers/ libertarians would violate the media's meme: look how divided the Democrats are!

These folks could be critical in states like Georgia (Bob Barr's territory) and in "battleground" states like Colorado and even Montana. But, trust our brain-dead media to ignore what might undercut their hero, St. John McBungle.