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Alyosha
05-06-2014, 11:21 AM
http://www.politico.com/story/2014/05/rand-paul-greg-brannon-north-carolina-106356.html?hp=l17

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Sen. Rand Paul has been trying to make nice with the GOP establishment for most of the year. But on the eve of a crucial GOP primary here, he fired up a crowd in support of libertarian favorite Greg Brannon, whom he hailed as “the dragon slayer” America needs to destroy the “Leviathan.”


“The status quo has gotten too strong in Washington, D.C. The Leviathan has gotten too large. … As we stand here, the debt clock is spiraling out of control. Send us a champion. Send us a hero. Send us a dragon slayer,” Paul said, speaking prior to Brannon in front of a cheering crowd of about 250 outside the NASCAR Hall of Fame in Uptown Charlotte on Monday.

Paul’s visit to North Carolina could encourage more libertarians and tea party supporters to head to the polls for Brannon, who is trying to force state House Speaker Thom Tillis into a runoff in Tuesday’s primary. But some Republicans believe Brannon — who has a history of controversial comments on issues from food stamps to the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks — could cost the party a critical Senate seat in its battle to retake control of the chamber. The primary is an early test of the Republican establishment’s drive to reassert control (http://www.politico.com/story/2014/05/may-primaries-to-test-gop-establishment-clout-106330.html?hp=t3_3) over the GOP’s tea party wing and retake the Senate after failing to do so in 2010 and ’12.

Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2014/05/rand-paul-greg-brannon-north-carolina-106356.html#ixzz30x9uSAU7

Spectre
05-06-2014, 11:26 AM
This is a mistake on his part. It shows he can't really be trusted and is unpredictable and seems to have a hidden agenda.

Alyosha
05-06-2014, 11:27 AM
This is a mistake on his part. It shows he can't really be trusted and is unpredictable and seems to have a hidden agenda.

So we shouldn't vote or support the best person for the job only act as knee jerk partisans?

Captain Obvious
05-06-2014, 11:29 AM
Well, if you're looking for phony, mindless supporters, might as well go where they congregate.

Codename Section
05-06-2014, 11:50 AM
Well, if you're looking for phony, mindless supporters, might as well go where they congregate.

I may have to bodyslam you for all the anti-NASCAR shit.

Chris
05-06-2014, 12:05 PM
So we shouldn't vote or support the best person for the job only act as knee jerk partisans?



No, vote for the best person for the job, if there is one, screw partisans who are only in it for power.

kilgram
05-06-2014, 12:24 PM
No, vote for the best person for the job, if there is one, screw partisans who are only in it for power.
Is there any person that is in a high position that is not there to seize power? I believe no. All the kings, presidents, dictators, CEOs... only want to seize power.

Chris
05-06-2014, 01:45 PM
Is there any person that is in a high position that is not there to seize power? I believe no. All the kings, presidents, dictators, CEOs... only want to seize power.

Probably not, it's the nature of democracy. It has to do with time preference, the need for constant campaigning and focus on next election, same as corporations being focused on short term profits.

Green Arrow
05-06-2014, 02:14 PM
Rand, Rand, he's our man, if he can't do it...we're fucked!

Chris
05-06-2014, 03:59 PM
Rand, Rand, he's our man, if he can't do it...we're fucked!


Santorum begs to differ! Rick Santorum: Rand Paul's "Not My Leader," GOP not a "Libertarian Party" (http://reason.com/blog/2014/05/06/rick-santorum-rand-pauls-not-my-leader-g)


...Van Jones asks Santorum about the current GOP frontrunner for the 2016 presidential nod, Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.). Apoplexy ensues. The "Republican Party is not a libertarian party" says Santorum.

"Do you agree with his ideas, are you going to support Rand Paul?"

"There’s diversity in the Republican Party," Santorum hesitated, but Jones pressed further: "Is he the new face of the Republican Party? Is this your leader?"

"Well, no, he’s not my leader, I can tell you that for sure," the former senator scoffed. "His father and I had some disagreements during the last campaign."

Jones then asked him outright: "If a libertarian like him becomes the leader of the Republican Party — gets the nomination — would you vote for them?"

"First off, I don’t think that will happen," Santorum asserted, "because the Republican Party is not a libertarian party, it is a conservative party. And it will nominate a conservative, and not a libertarian."

Then just to drive home the difference between brand-ecch libertarians and conservatives, Santorum calls for increasing the minimum wage by a buck and tells Strickland (a total bum as governor the Buckeye State) that Obama's request to bump it more than that is a bad idea....

Green Arrow
05-06-2014, 04:03 PM
Yeah, well, Santorum is a horrible person. Literally. The guy is not a leader, he's a follower. For every progressive vote he ever made in the Senate, he wrote it off as "that's what everyone else was doing." I'm serious, watch the 2012 debates. That was his answer to everything. The majority of the party voted that way, so that's why he did it.

He's a slimy coward and total scum. Not to mention batshit crazy.

Chris
05-06-2014, 04:33 PM
Yeah, well, Santorum is a horrible person. Literally. The guy is not a leader, he's a follower. For every progressive vote he ever made in the Senate, he wrote it off as "that's what everyone else was doing." I'm serious, watch the 2012 debates. That was his answer to everything. The majority of the party voted that way, so that's why he did it.

He's a slimy coward and total scum. Not to mention batshit crazy.



You won't ever see me arguing otherwise!

He is right though, there are at least two major branches of conservatism there, libertarian and, well, I don't know what to call it, but let's hope Rand manages to push them out of the big tent, then and neocons. Then I might vote again!

Don
05-06-2014, 04:41 PM
Rand Paul stands for a true republican government, Santorum does not.

donttread
05-06-2014, 04:59 PM
This is a mistake on his part. It shows he can't really be trusted and is unpredictable and seems to have a hidden agenda.

I'll tell you where his addenda is hidden. In the Constitution

Peter1469
05-06-2014, 05:06 PM
Not to excuse it, but the members get beat up by their leadership and those who go too far off the reservation get black listed. That is what happened to LTC West (with the help of the Florida legislature).

That is one reason we need term limits.


Yeah, well, Santorum is a horrible person. Literally. The guy is not a leader, he's a follower. For every progressive vote he ever made in the Senate, he wrote it off as "that's what everyone else was doing." I'm serious, watch the 2012 debates. That was his answer to everything. The majority of the party voted that way, so that's why he did it.

He's a slimy coward and total scum. Not to mention batshit crazy.

Green Arrow
05-06-2014, 05:23 PM
Not to excuse it, but the members get beat up by their leadership and those who go too far off the reservation get black listed. That is what happened to LTC West (with the help of the Florida legislature).

That is one reason we need term limits.

There are those who answered leadership bullying by standing firm and not budging. Ron Paul, Rand Paul, Robert Taft, Theodore Roosevelt, Calvin Coolidge, etc. That's the difference between a leader and a follower.

Chris
05-06-2014, 06:23 PM
Rand Paul stands for a true republican government, Santorum does not.

If that were true I'd vote again but I think Santorum is right that while the Republican establishment with allow Ron and Rand to campaign, I expect Rand to get the same treatment as Ron at convention time.

There's an article on The Tea Party, Revisited (http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2014/05/06/the_tea_party_revisited.html) that says similar, but even more interesting has this bit of a write up of that same thing happening to Robert Taft:


The Republican Party establishment and its more conservative base have been at varying degrees of conflict for over a half century. For a classic example of this, consider the 1952 Republican convention. As I wrote last summer:



When Republicans did win, in 1952, there was no makeover. Conservatives had argued for one, and backed Ohio Sen. Bob Taft for president, using terms that in many ways foreshadowed today’s anti-establishment Tea Party rhetoric. Everett Dirksen, shouting from the podium and wagging his finger at Tom Dewey (in the audience) argued for the seating of delegates critical to Taft’s campaign: “I stood with you in 1940. I stood with you in 1944. I stood with you in 1948, when you gave us a candidate [drowned out by crowd] . . . . To my friends from New York, when my friend Tom Dewey was the candidate in ’44 and ’48, I tried to be one of his best campaigners. . . . Re-examine your hearts [on this delegate issue] because we followed you before, and you took us down the road to defeat! Don’t do this to us!” (See it here starting at the 16:30 mark; note the fistfight that breaks out at the end of the speech, around the 20-minute mark).


Taft was a true Republican.