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    Jeff Flake should learn from Rand Paul how to disagree with Trump

    Jeff Flake should learn from Rand Paul how to disagree with Trump
    by Daniel Horowitz - October 25, 2017

    Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., has taken bolder and more consequential steps to oppose this White House on substantive issues in one day than Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., has all year. Yet, Paul has both a better working relationship with the president and better favorability among his constituents than the junior senator from Arizona.

    The answer to this enigma lies in the word “substantive.” Rand is actually working to drain the Swamp and to promote proactive principled ideas on the issues of our time, while Flake was either part of the problem or was too busy selling books to engage in substantive policy-making.

    This is where the media narrative of the binary “for Trump or against Trump” approach falls apart.
    ...
    For many of us who have had long-standing principles with a proactive agenda to implement them, this false dichotomy of being either pro- or anti-Trump in a vacuum has been very frustrating. But while Jeff Flake has been the antecedent of this predicament, Rand Paul has shined as a blueprint for how to evacuate from this morass. Flake should take notes.
    ...
    Rand Paul has taken a sledgehammer to Trump in a principled way that makes Flake’s entire brand seem pathetic. But because it’s been rooted in principles, Sen. Paul actually has a better relationship now with Trump and is moving him to the Right on some issues, despite their acrimonious start (both on the campaign trail and in office).

    Just consider the following examples:

    - When the Senate was promoting phony Obamacare repeal bills, Rand boldly stood as the final vote blocking each and every one of the proposals, despite the president staking out all his capital on the issue. Trump called out Rand publicly numerous times, yet Rand didn’t budge. Meanwhile, Flake sat in the witness protection program as a door knob for the establishment, which has long ago given up on health care, calling Obamacare “the law of the land.”
    ...
    - Rand has publicly savaged every bloated budget, spending bill, and debt-ceiling bill — all backed and signed by the president. He is even butting heads with Trump on the tax plan, upon which Trump has staked out his legacy. Flake is nowhere to be seen on any of these fiscal fights because he’s too busy promoting amnesty and books.

    - Rand lambasted Trump’s Saudi arms deal, something the president was very proud to promote, to the point that he forced a vote against it in the Senate. Flake was on the other side.

    - Rand excoriated the president’s plan to get further entrenched in Afghanistan.

    Thus, while some have spent the past year aimlessly kissing up to Trump with no regard for actual discernable policy outcomes, and others have spent their year promoting themselves as the anti-Trump with no regard for campaign promises, Rand Paul has shown a way out of this “binary” idolatry by focusing on principle and policy.
    ...
    More: https://www.conservativereview.com/a...ree-with-trump
    "Foreign aid is taking money from the poor people of a rich country, and giving it to the rich people of a poor country." - Ron Paul
    "Beware the Military-Industrial-Financial-Pharma-Corporate-Internet-Media-Government Complex." - B4L update of General Dwight D. Eisenhower
    "Debt is the drug, Wall St. Banksters are the dealers, and politicians are the addicts." - B4L
    "Totally free immigration? I've never taken that position. I believe in national sovereignty." - Ron Paul

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    The views and opinions expressed here are solely my own, and do not represent this forum or any other entities or persons.



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  3. #2
    Quote Originally Posted by Brian4Liberty View Post
    Flake's problem is that when he got to the Senate, McCain was the one who gave him the tour and oriented him to how things are done. Imagine if Rand had let himself be influenced by Mitch McConnell as soon as he got to the Senate. We'd be closing the Rand Paul subforum.

    Flake undoubtedly thought he was gonna be some sort of Maverick junior. You can tell it in the tone of his recent speech. He wants to be the wishy washy moderate who can play kingmaker like McCain in his schizophrenic maverick role. McCain gets his rocks off on being the deciding factor when every vote matters. It makes him feel important. Problem is, you never know which way he's gonna go.

    Trump is president. Gonna be that way for at least 3 more years. We can either sit in the corner and cry along with the liberals or we can get as much out of the man as we can until something better comes along.
    Last edited by nobody's_hero; 10-26-2017 at 02:04 AM.
    Quote Originally Posted by timosman View Post
    This is getting silly.
    Quote Originally Posted by Swordsmyth View Post
    It started silly.
    T.S. Eliot's The Hollow Men

    "One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors." - Plato

    We Are Running Out of Time - Mini Me

    Quote Originally Posted by Philhelm
    I part ways with "libertarianism" when it transitions from ideology grounded in logic into self-defeating autism for the sake of ideological purity.

  4. #3
    Quote Originally Posted by nobody's_hero View Post
    Flake's problem is that when he got to the Senate, McCain was the one who gave him the tour and oriented him to how things are done. Imagine if Rand had let himself be influenced by Mitch McConnell as soon as he got to the Senate. We'd be closing the Rand Paul subforum.
    IIRC, Randal had stuart smalley do his orientation. on reflection, maybe having a comedian do the tour accurately portrayed his feelings about the senate membership.



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