The Truthiness Of Rand Paul

[angelatc]

http://www.nationaljournal.com/magazine/the-truthiness-of-rand-paul-20131017


This son of former Rep. Ron Paul has inherited, or at least appropriated, his father's ability to seduce unconventional and alienated voters. Part of that is due to his policy positions, which are attractive because they sound easy to accomplish. ("Detroit has 50,000 feral dogs, thousands of abandoned houses, and I can guaran-damn-tee you, people in Detroit don't want to send any more money to Egypt.") Part of it is his style, which is casual and in the moment. ("So when I was in college … I never drank any beer or smoked any pot. Oh, actually, no, no, that's Mike Lee's story! I'm stealing Mike Lee's story!")


The overall performance is entertaining and highly relatable, and there are some policy underpinnings to go with it. Paul wins with college kids by supporting states' right to legalize marijuana and gay marriage. He wins with black voters by opposing mandatory drug sentences and promoting charter schools. And he wins with women by ignoring Pentagon brass to support better protections for rape victims in the military.




But it's on foreign policy and national security that Paul could transform the GOP. His battles to curb military forays and foreign aid, and his drive to restrict U.S. surveillance, reach a broad, diverse cross-section of angry, wary, and worried Americans. The Kentucky senator's old-fashioned, 13-hour filibuster—forcing the Obama administration to say it wouldn't use drones to kill U.S. citizens on U.S. soil—cemented his position in the national political-celebrity spotlight. Starting that night with his #StandWithRand hashtag on Twitter, he rode a wave of public anger all the way to his high-profile opposition to involvement in Syria, declaring there was "no clear national security connection" to the United States.


More at the link. I intentionally didn't post the snotty bits.

[ObiRandKenobi]

damn mike lee sounds boring.

[jct74]

it's the cover story this week...

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BW4DrOaCAAALQSl.jpg:large
https://twitter.com/nationaljournal/status/391254259070545920

[fr33]

lol wtf is with that image

http://cdn-media.nationaljournal.com/?controllerName=image&action=get&id=32749&format=nj2013_square_4_columns_large

[libertywanter]

Oh the fact checkers, Rand is ruined. I would love to know where liberals check there facts, I am pretty sure it is with other liberals. I agree with Rands comment that fact checkers can be biased. The truth can and will always be warped in politics. I am not going to say Rand is free of faults, and I am sure we will learn of many in the next couple years, Every single one of us on this earth has faults, makes mistakes and are each screwed up in our own special way. Rands voting records is all the fact checking I need to do and he passed with flying colors there. I admire that he doesnt put on an act and conform to how the other politicians act, that will give him a big plus especially among younger voters. He seems to be very down to earth, just like one of the guys, I am a pretty good judge of people and I strongly feel he is a very sincere person, there is no acting, he is legit

[eduardo89]

damn mike lee sounds boring.

Mormon who studied at Brigham Young University. Not exactly known as a party school.

[angelatc]

Oh the fact checkers, Rand is ruined. I would love to know where liberals check there facts,

I had the same thought.

[ronaldo23]

Oh the fact checkers, Rand is ruined. I would love to know where liberals check there facts, I am pretty sure it is with other liberals. I agree with Rands comment that fact checkers can be biased. The truth can and will always be warped in politics. I am not going to say Rand is free of faults, and I am sure we will learn of many in the next couple years, Every single one of us on this earth has faults, makes mistakes and are each screwed up in our own special way. Rands voting records is all the fact checking I need to do and he passed with flying colors there. I admire that he doesnt put on an act and conform to how the other politicians act, that will give him a big plus especially among younger voters. He seems to be very down to earth, just like one of the guys, I am a pretty good judge of people and I strongly feel he is a very sincere person, there is no acting, he is legit

yeah, agreed. a big problem with sites like factcheck and politifact is that they very selectively choose how many "false/true" statements to pick from a politician. You could legitimately create any ratio of True:False statements from ANY Politician, Republican or Democrat. It's very interesting that only 28% of what Obama has said ranks as false while Rand//Republicans tend to be 40-50%+. They go out of their way to NOT analyze statements from Rand that would be considered "fact", but instead selectively cherrypick statements they can tear apart, to make it seem like it is merely one side that is playing loose with facts.

[VoluntaryAmerican]

She doesn't really paint any of his transformations... foreign policy, etc. as being potentially positive. Instead she just hammers away that he's a liar over and over. Fucking establishment shill.

[angelatc]

yeah, agreed. a big problem with sites like factcheck and politifact is that they very selectively choose how many "false/true" statements to pick from a politician. You could legitimately create any ratio of True:False statements from ANY Politician, Republican or Democrat. It's very interesting that only 28% of what Obama has said ranks as false while Rand//Republicans tend to be 40-50%+. They go out of their way to NOT analyze statements from Rand that would be considered "fact", but instead selectively cherrypick statements they can tear apart, to make it seem like it is merely one side that is playing loose with facts.

Oh hell - when he said something like "only 50%" pay income taxes," they explained how what he said was true, but then went on to say that since most people would not understand the nuances (payroll taxes aren't income tax - isn't that hard?) they were going to mark it false anyway.

[MRK]

Oh hell - when he said something like "only 50%" pay income taxes," they explained how what he said was true, but then went on to say that since most people would not understand the nuances (payroll taxes aren't income tax - isn't that hard?) they were going to mark it false anyway.

It's nice to know these political "fact checker" sites haven't changed since their inception.

[libertygold]

I had the same thought.

Me too. who is fact checking the fact checkers?

[helmuth_hubener]

None of the examples sounded to me like he said anything false. And certainly not like he was lying.

The number of diagnostic codes are going up: true. He didn't say "and it's all Obama's fault and not Bush's at all". Saying "it's all Obama's fault and not Bush's at all" was the part of his statement that National Journal picked up on as being false. Since he didn't make that statement...

Rand said that insurance could be unaffordable if it covers ridiculous things ("if it's going to cover pregnancy to sex change to lap dancer."). He didn't say that it would. Accusing the administration of requiring policies to cover sex-change and lap-dancing was the part of his statement that National Journal picked up on as being false. Since he didn't make that statement...

Rand talks about the ridiculousness of borrowing a trillion dollars a year. Specifically stating that the 2013 fiscal year deficit was precisely 1 trillion dollars is the part of those statements that National Journal picked up on as being false. Since he didn't make that statement...

Since he never made any of these statements, who is the liar here, and who is the truth-teller?

Here's another one I remember from days of yore: Rand repeatedly stated that the average salary for government employees is significantly higher than the average salary for private sector workers. The "fact-checkers" completely and totally conceded this point, they admitted and agreed that it is completely and totally true, and then went on to call him a liar anyway.

These people are dishonest weirdos.

[KingNothing]

She doesn't really paint any of his transformations... foreign policy, etc. as being potentially positive. Instead she just hammers away that he's a liar over and over. Fucking establishment shill.


It's a really odd article because it is obvious the author doesn't like Rand, but felt compelled to say that Rand holds a slew of awesome policy positions... which don't matter because he acts like a politician from time to time.

[KingNothing]

None of the examples sounded to me like he said anything false. And certainly not like he was lying.

I like that she cites how Rand was asked a gotcha-question about the deficit, clearly stated that he was talking about the debt, and criticized him for his stance.