Originally Posted by
Badger Paul
"You are the slug."
Nope, still flying. Looking down at you right now.
I get that some people are still invested in Rand's career but you're wasting your time in my opinion. For the Republican Party, the "Conservative Movement", even some quarters of libertarians, it's Trump's World and he's just living in it. For all of these things and the country as well has turned its back on what father stood for which Rand failed to advance. What we have in 2019, over a decade after Dr. Paul first Presidential run is an authoritarian state with a massive military-industrial-complex, involved in countless wars and drowning in red ink. One potential young leader of the Freedom Movement in Congress leaves the GOP and another may very well be primaried out too.
Speaking of war, I have no doubt Rand is sincere in wanting to be a back-channel from Trump to the Iranians and wants to prevent Bolton and Pompeo from starting a war. The problem is, he has nothing to offer Iranians, short of asking the Islamic Republic for surrender terms in order to get the sanctions removed. Remember, he opposed the nuclear deal. So what can he say or do other than "Trump doesn't want a war." Fine. But if he really wants to de-escalate the best thing to do is fire Bolton and Pompeo, stop selling arms to the Saudis and remove the navy from the Persian Gulf. He has not done this, ergo we remain on the brink and thus there's really nothing for Rand to discuss with the Iranians. By the way, I seem to recall some Paul saying "Sanctions are an act of war." But it wasn't Rand.
And regardless whether Trump wins or loses next year, the situation within the party and on the Right will remain the same. After a decade it is clearly obvious that a quite strong majority of Republicans favor what Trump or any-Trump-like replacement in the future will offer, not "Paulism" or "Ryanism" or what the never-Trumpers and the neocons offer either. In other words, even if Trump loses, Rand isn't going to be the one to pick up the pieces, someone else, a more competent version of Trump, will emerge. Many Republicans in the House opposed the budget deal but a good chunk of them supported it and will do so in the Senate and say "Hey, President Trump is in favor of the deal, so am I!" So there you go, "deficits don't matter" and it isn't just Dick Cheney saying this but also Rush Limbaugh and all of Conservative INC. which Trump now owns lock, stock and barrel.
So when 2022 rolls around my guess is Rand will go back home to Kentucky and back to medicine and away from the swamp of D.C. and the snake-pit of politics where I think he will be a lot happier. More power to him. He isn't his dad, he knows it, doesn't want to be and in time he'll stop pretending.
