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Thread: Rand Paul has a plan to influence the Trump administration. And it's working.

  1. #1

    Rand Paul has a plan to influence the Trump administration. And it's working.

    Rand Paul has a plan to influence the Trump administration. And it's working.

    W. James Antle III
    February 10, 2017

    Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) is taking a lot of friendly fire from libertarians.

    The big issue is Paul's vote to confirm Jeff Sessions as attorney general. "[H]ow does a drug war and mass incarceration critic vote for the Senate's most strident supporter of both… to run the DOJ?" asked The Washington Post's libertarian scribe Radley Balko.

    Complicating things: While the Kentucky senator seemed to bend on Sessions, he was gearing up to oppose the hawkish Elliott Abrams if he was nominated for deputy secretary of state, just as Paul promised to do whatever it took to block Bush-era hawk John Bolton from either of the top two State Department jobs. (The Abrams point is now moot, as President Trump has personally nixed his nomination.)

    But I must say: I think Paul's priorities here are correct.

    ...

    Trump is going to be a law-and-order president. (It's also worth noting that conservative support for criminal justice reform is dependent on relatively low crime rates that were not entirely secured by libertarian means.) But Trump doesn't have to be a hawkish president. Paul understands this, and is picking his spots to oppose and prod Trump accordingly.

    As a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Paul has more practical ability to stall or even circumvent nominees who would try to make the Trump foreign policy George W. Bush 2.0. But if Paul had voted against Sessions, the Alabama Republican would still have been confirmed. Paul would just have been the sole Republican on the side of Democrats who tried to assassinate Sessions' character.

    Many libertarians don't like Paul's collegiality with more statist Republicans. But if you are going to work within the Republican Party, sometimes you've got to, well, work within the Republican Party.

    ...
    read more:
    http://theweek.com/articles/679419/r...ration-working



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  3. #2
    Interesting. Good tactics.
    "I am a bird"

  4. #3
    As much as I hated hated hated the Sessions vote, this has pretty much been my take on it. Without the Sessions vote he would not have had the oomph for Abrams.

  5. #4
    So much crying on FB from liberty people on sessions.

    Just like there was so much crying on Mitch. Well without Mitch, Audit The Fed wouldn't be welcomed to the Senate with OPEN arms, Rand wouldn't have had all of those platforms in the foreign relations comm. Rand wouldn't have gotten an endorsement for president from majority leader. Rand would've had opposition vs. favorability on his bills and amendments and procedures.

    Remember when Rand killed the patriot act, it took a lot of procedure and you think Mitch would've let that happen if Rand opposed his re-election?


    We are getting the closest we've ever gotten to passing audit the fed and that is thanks to Rand. Ron takes credit for getting all this started but other people and tactics are needed to bring the ideas to life.
    Last edited by eleganz; 02-10-2017 at 04:14 PM.
    THE SQUAD of RPF
    1. enhanced_deficit - Paid Troll / John Bolton book promoter
    2. Devil21 - LARPing Wizard, fake magical script reader
    3. Firestarter - Tax Troll; anti-tax = "criminal behavior"
    4. TheCount - Comet Pizza Pedo Denier <-- sick

    @Ehanced_Deficit's real agenda on RPF =troll:

    Who spends this much time copy/pasting the same recycled links, photos/talking points.

    7 yrs/25k posts later RPF'ers still respond to this troll

  6. #5
    Compromising and selling out principle is never ok, even if it is "strategic" (isn't that what the bad guys do?)

    He should have simply abstained from the vote
    __________________________________________________ ________________
    "A politician will do almost anything to keep their job, even become a patriot" - Hearst

  7. #6
    Quote Originally Posted by eleganz View Post
    Just like there was so much crying on Mitch. Well without Mitch, Audit The Fed wouldn't be welcomed to the Senate with OPEN arms, Rand wouldn't have had all of those platforms in the foreign relations comm. Rand wouldn't have gotten an endorsement for president from majority leader. Rand would've had opposition vs. favorability on his bills and amendments and procedures.
    Believe it or not, Rand actually has/had Mitch's fate in his hands. He chose not to exercise that power for better or worse. But no, Rand did not need to endorse Mitch, it was unnecessary.


    Quote Originally Posted by eleganz View Post
    Remember when Rand killed the patriot act, it took a lot of procedure and you think Mitch would've let that happen if Rand opposed his re-election?
    If Rand had opposed Mitch's re-election, Mitch would not have gotten reelected.
    __________________________________________________ ________________
    "A politician will do almost anything to keep their job, even become a patriot" - Hearst

  8. #7
    Matt, did you ever give credit to Rand when he voted against Pompeo as CIA Director?



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