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Does Rand Paul's Support Come From The "Hate America" Crowd?

Representative Peter King of New York had this to say about Rand Paul:

The New York Republican accused Rand Paul of “lies” and “misperception” :

“So Rand Paul does not know what he’s talking about. And, Rand Paul is really spreading fear among the American people. And, he also today, I understand on the show, he was also was comparing General Clapper to Snowden. To me, he’s either totally uninformed or he’s part of that hate America crowd that I thought left us in the 1960s. In any event, he doesn’t deserve to be in the United States senate for spreading that type of misperception and absolute lies to be honest with you.“ [Gateway Pundit]

What he was referring to was a comment by  Rand on the  Sunday shows discussing his lawsuit against the NSA over illegal snooping.  In some of those comments he had this to say:

"I don't think Edward Snowden deserves the death penalty or life in prison; I think that's inappropriate, I think that's why he fled, is that's what he faced," Paul, a possible 2016 contender for the Republican presidential nomination, said on ABC's "This Week." "Do I think it's OK to leak secrets and give up national security [information] that endangers lives? I don't think that's OK, either. But I think the courts are now saying he revealed something the government was doing that was illegal."

Paul, who's pushing a class-action suit against the National Security Agency over its data collection tactics, has said that Snowden and Clapper should "share a prison cell," charging that Clapper lied to Congress.

"It is a grand tradition," he said. "Part of that tradition is, you pay the consequences. If you break the law because your conscience says you have to, you stand trial." [POLITICO]

So the question I have for readers today is this: Does some part of Rand Paul's support come from the "hate America" crowd that Congressman King mentioned?

Let's take a look.

Clearly there is a portion of the Obama support group that one could argue hates many things about America.  Dinesh D'Souza has made the argument that Obama is out for revenge over what his father hated which is "colonialism", the kind of attitude he attributed to the United States participation in "raping" third world countries of their riches to make Americans rich.

In addition Obama has aligned himself with radicals and domestic terrorists like Bill Ayers who clearly hate many things about America.

So, is Rand Paul courting those folks?  I think not, but on the other hand he might find some support among the less militant among the remaining sixties liberals who like his stance on personal freedom and pot and the kind of things Richie Havens and Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young were singing about.

But who among the GOP crowd might be pegged as part of the modern day "hate America" crowd?  Well, that depends upon which America you are talking about.

The "big business" America which has become the controlling interest in most legislation and regulations over the past thirty years has its share of supporters.  They don't hate America.

But the small business, ultra conservative TEA party crowd does have its share of "hate America" folks.  At least they seem to hate the incumbent elected officials who they view as ruining America.  They see America headed in the wrong direction.  And some of them even hate many of the institutions of America such as party politics, checks and balances and the orderly interpretation of the Constitution through the court system.

Some of the more militant among this last bunch seethe with contempt for the "mainstream", which of course is the American mainstream and tend to lean very far toward the very liberal philosophies of Libertarianism and even anarchy.  They hate that America won't let them steer the ship of state, are angry about it and do in fact pose some threat to our national security.

And then out there on the real fringes are those who are systematically plotting against America, the true enemies of our way of life, whether driven by religious extremism or a desire to consume our resources even if it means war.  They are the ones who stir up civil unrest, engage in acts of terrorism to disrupt society and take advantage of every opportunity to destroy America because they truly, to their core, hate us.

Obviously Rand Paul is not courting the support of any of the fringe or the near fringe.  But, and I say this with obvious respect for Senator Paul, the razor's edge he walks in order to build his own constituency on his way to a 2016 run for the White House is a topic of frequent discussion in the media.  Clearly any divergence from the hard line of the TEA party gets him nailed by its members.  Any time he leans toward a more moderate position his TEA party friends try to pull him back.  And then he goes and tries to win them over again by standing firm on issue after issue of greatest concern with them, like his lawsuit against the NSA.

I'd like you to weigh in on this, but in my humble opinion, Rand Paul does in fact get some of his support from those who hate the way America has been run, who hate the excesses of our government and hate the fact that they seem to be fighting the very people they entrusted with the reins of power.  Is this what Peter King was referring to?

Those of us who have been standing up for civil liberty, freedom from government overreach, demanding accountability and honesty from our elected officials for as long as I have don't consider ourselves as hating America, but rather loving all that is good about America and hating that those are the very, most precious things about the America we love which we seem to be losing.

Rand has the chance to stand very tall in this fight, but he needs to be very careful not to give in to the other forces at work on the fringes and in the shadows.  The closer he becomes with what can be labeled "extreme" positions the more frequently he will have to face accusations like those of Peter King and though his TEA party friends might rush to his defense he will have to work that much harder, and spend that much more money to discredit people like King than he needs to.

Thomas Massie's Goose Egg Cost America A Bunch

Here's what you get when a bunch of angry neophytes get elected to Congress with the help of anarchists and think that their only job is to throw a wrench in the gears of government as they act out their temper tantrums to the delight of a news media which is using their antics to splinter the GOP and help Obama.

The recent government shutdown and confrontation over the federal debt ceiling gained the Republicans nothing, at best – and may have cost them politically as a party. But it slowed the economy and undermined confidence in public finances in a way that will have a significant negative impact on future budgets of the United States. None of this should make for an appealing strategy, but Tea Party Republicans are giving every indication that they want to do the same thing again early next year. Their more moderate colleagues need to take a firmer hand.

On the political gains from recent tactics, it is hard to find any good news for the Republican side as a whole. Representative Thomas H. Massie, Republican of Kentucky, got it right when he said, “Goose egg, nothing, we got nothing,” in terms of policy changes. And opinion polls moved more sharply against Republicans than some had expected.

The shutdown and debt ceiling brinkmanship did real damage to the economy. The immediate and direct costs are nicely summarized in a blog post by James H. Stock – an academic economist on the president’s Council of Economic Advisers. His assessment is that the effect is a

0.25 percentage point reduction in the annualized G.D.P. growth rate in the fourth quarter and a reduction of about 120,000 private sector jobs in the first two weeks of October (estimates use indicators available through Oct. 12th).

Members of the Tea Party movement express concern about the longer-run federal budget – and the potential negative impact of future debt levels. But their tactics are directly worsening the budget over exactly the time horizon that they say they care about.

The major long-term issue the United States faces is rising health-care costs (not just the part that the federal government pays for), but an important part of our projected future deficits is interest costs, i.e., what the government needs to pay holders of its debt.

The United States dollar is the world’s primary reserve currency and safe haven; the asset that major investors, such as central banks and big international companies, actually buy is United States Treasury debt. In the short term, when Congress acts in a crazy and irresponsible fashion that makes the world feel more unstable, investors “seek safety” and actually buy American government debt, pushing down yields (bond prices and yields move inversely to each other).

Over a longer period of time, of course, investors get the message: United States Treasury debt is not so safe and cannot be trusted as in the past. They should look for alternative assets. The euro may bounce back. The British pound, Swiss franc and Japanese yen have all been contenders in the past. And the most real threat over the next 20 years is probably the rising international role of China’s renminbi.

In the American system, with its carefully conceived checks and balances, an organized and well-funded minority can do a lot more damage – as we have just been reminded. The only force that can rein in Tea Party extremism – and get the nation off the road to fiscal ruin – is resurgence among Republican moderates. [NY Times]

It is clear that reckless behavior like that of Massie, Amash, Cruz and others is doing harm to the United States.  Oh it might make you feel good to hear somebody echo your disdain for Congress, but in the end, which is better for you, a doctor who tells you what you want to hear or one with the skill and commitment to do what is required in order to save your life?

GOP Show About To Get Underway

Yes there are a number of high ranking republicans who are jockeying around behind the scenes at the RNC convention with the advancement of their own agendas clearly in mind, but for most of the attendees the event is filled with glamor, fun and excitement.  I know.  I've been a delegate to three conventions.

The GOP convention is like many other big confabs.  There are a number of other events being sponsored by corporations and private individuals intended to give the delegates a wonderful experience.  Side trips, sight seeing adventures, dinner parties and private gatherings and speeches never seen on television will fill their days.

At a certain hour they will be expected to show up dressed for the part, men encouraged to wear jackets and ties, women encouraged to put on the ritz.  They will board specially secured buses and be driven to the convention site through a mile or more of barricaded security checkpoints.  With proper credentials and the probing eyes of police, secret service, military personnel and specially trained convention employees they will make their way into the hall, to their respective seats and see the wonderment of the made for TV event.

There will be stars, celebrities and famous politicians walking around and very approachable.  The chance to chat with a FoxNews reporter, have their picture made with movie stars or shake hands with the rich and famous will add to the awe factor of being at the convention.

Besides the bright lights, the well timed and chosen music, the food courts and the bars around the convention hall make the entire experience memorable for a lifetime.

It is hard to determine from inside the hall when exactly the television coverage begins.  Speakers one at a time come out and address the crowd with enough musical entertainment in between to allow the broadcasters time to analyze what has just been said, conduct an interview or two and round table the day's news.

Then another speaker, more music, more speakers and then recess for the night.  No doubt the speeches will be moving for those in attendance, but nothing approaching the clear micro-phoned delivery with the carefully planned camera angles, background colors and production quality of what those at home will see.

It is a great show and intended to be just that.  It is the high point of the presidential election process to date.  And the most important part of all is the nomination of Mitt Romney as the party's candidate.  Why is this important beyond the glitz and glamor?

Because as soon as he is nominated, he is able to start spending the campaign cash he has been accumulating all summer designated for the fall election.  It is the starting gun to campaign commercials, and the head start he needs to offset the press attention an incumbent president controls merely by his daily schedule.

The delegates and their families will have a wonderful time.  The back room guys will have the chance they've been waiting for, the home TV audience will be treated to a wonderful production and the full fury of the Mitt Romney campaign will be unleashed in less than 48 hours.

Get ready folks.  The GOP show is about to get underway.

Convention Planners Prepare For Paul Disruptions

Ron Paul quit campaigning for the nomination.  But many of his supporters refuse to give up.  Like those isolate Japanese fighters said to be holed up in caves on Pacific Islands, incalcitrant confederate sympathizers flying the stars and bars at their homes and some birthers, they are still rallying for Ron.

But despite the large Ron Paul rally in Tampa on Sunday and the threats swirling around the convention that a number of delegates still plan to use the process to put Ron's name into nomination (it might be easier than you think) the planners at the RNC have apparently given serious attention to the threat of disruption these fanatics pose.

The Republican National Convention seating chart, obtained by POLITICO Sunday, shows the delegations from Nevada, Louisiana, Maine, Minnesota and Oklahoma all located on the outer fringe of the convention floor. Each are states with significant Paul followings.

It is customary for vanquished candidates to cede delegates to the presumptive nominee, but Paul has insisted he cannot tell his followers what to do.

Paul told The New York Times on Sunday he turned down a speaking slot at the convention because he refused to allow Romney’s team to vet his speech. “I don’t fully endorse him for president,” he told the paper.

The GOP has been concerned that rebellious Paul supporters could cause hiccups for Romney’s coronation as some have stated they may try to give their delegates to Paul during the roll call. A candidate needs five states to be officially recognized on the floor and Paul supporters have made claims to Louisiana, Oregon, Massachusetts, Oklahoma and Maine. Romney’s lawyers blocked that from happening in any official way, but there’s little to prevent a delegation leader from going a different route. [POLITICO]

Revised Convention Schedule: McConnell Paul To Speak 7 PM Hour Wednesday

The Republican National Convention will officially open today when the gavel falls around 2 pm in Tampa.  It will then recess at 2:10 pm due to concerns over the tropical storm.  The convention will open again on Tuesday. Mitch McConnell followed by Rand Paul will appear Wednesday night during the 7pm hour.

Preceding the speeches of McConnell and Paul will be a Ron Paul video.

I can remember seeing a documentary years ago wherein some black Americans recalled their excitement seeing JJ Walker on television in the comedy show "Good Times".  One of the people being interviewed says he remembers his family running in to tell him "There's black people on television."  Most white people probably can't imagine how something so simple could have been so important.

I suspect that a bunch of Paul-ites will be doing the same Wednesday night when the Ron Paul video and Rand Paul get to the stage at the convention.  Watch closely to see how the audience reacts.  It will tell you a lot about the future direction of the GOP.

GOP Rules Proposal Might Brew Up A Storm

The GOP tweaks its convention rules every four years.  As the convention opens in Florida this week it seems they are going to do so again.  However one set of changes is likely to brew up a storm.  The change would allow the presumptive nominee to "vet" potential delegates before the states can send them.

The proposal also would require all delegates to vote according the the will of the people of their states.  What might be at work here?  Odds are these changes arose from the threats by Ron Paul delegates to disrupt the convention, seek to create a floor fight over the nomination and to otherwise act in a way that refuses to accept Romney as the party choice.

If the plan was to avoid a floor fight, it looks like the proponents of this rule change might have just picked one.

Ron Paul Influence At Republican Convention

He may not have won enough delegates to become the GOP nominee for president, but Ron Paul is certainly influencing the platform.  There is now talk of returning to the gold standard.

The gold standard has returned to mainstream U.S. politics for the first time in 30 years, with a “gold commission” set to become part of official Republican party policy.

Drafts of the party platform, which it will adopt at a convention in Tampa Bay, Florida, next week, call for an audit of Federal Reserve monetary policy and a commission to look at restoring the link between the dollar and gold.

The move shows how five years of easy monetary policy — and the efforts of congressman Ron Paul — have made the once-fringe idea of returning to gold-as-money a legitimate part of Republican debate. [CNBC]

Now do you see why I have been a fan of some things Paul but not everything?  I treat Ron Paul like a can of mixed nuts.  I pick through and find the ones I like and avoid the ones I don't.

Nicely done Doctor.  Now let's see if the GOP can get any farther with your ideas than you did.

$1 Billion Coming From SuperPACs To Win November

A "loose network" of outside groups is how POLITICO referred to a number of extremely wealthy donors and SuperPACS who have lined up to put the White House and Congress firmly into republican hands in November.  According to the report, they plan to amass a Billion Dollars or more to fight the battle.

Among the bigger donors are the Koch brothers.  Here's a little about them.

Koch-Glitsch is part of a global empire run by billionaire brothers Charles and David Koch, who have taken a small oil company they inherited from their father, Fred, after his death in 1967, and built it into a chemical, textile, trading and refining conglomerate spanning more than 50 countries.

Charles, 75, and David, 71, each worth about $20 billion, are prominent financial backers of groups that believe that excessive regulation is sapping the competitiveness of American business. They inherited their anti-government leanings from their father.

Fred was an early adviser to the founder of the anti- communist John Birch Society, which fought against the civil rights movement and the United Nations. Charles and David have supported the Tea Party, a loosely organized group that aims to shrink the size of government and cut federal spending.

These are long-standing tenets for the Kochs. In 1980, David Koch ran for vice president on the Libertarian ticket, pledging to abolish Social Security, the Federal Reserve System, welfare, minimum wage laws and federal agencies -- including the Department of Energy, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Central Intelligence Agency.

The brothers have backed a foundation that has trained thousands of Tea Party activists. The Tea Party, a popular movement whose name stands for Taxed Enough Already, has grown into a potent force in national politics. Sixty representatives of Congress, out of a total of 435, identify themselves as Tea Party members. [Bloomberg]

Also chipping in will be Karl Rove's group, estimated to have raised about $300 million, and the Restore Our Future PAC which helped Romney in the primary.  They are hoping to add about $100 million to the pool.

Summer will be spent raising money so Autumn can be spent harvesting votes.  Feel better about democracy now?

Could Ron Paul Influence Really Break GOP Apart?

Ron Paul's vow to "take over" the republican party might come true in a very weird way.  He might end up with a party in name only.

Fed up with an inept and self-destructive GOP apparatus in Nevada, the Republican National Committee and the Mitt Romney campaign have decided to erect a “shadow state party” in this critical swing state, sources confirmed Wednesday.

“They are still bogged down in the minutiae of whether Romney will be the presumptive nominee,” scoffed a GOP strategist familiar with the details of the restructuring. “We don’t have time for that when the Obama campaign already is in full campaign mode. We have no use for them [the state GOP].”

The lack of faith in the Republican Party in Nevada intensified with the botched February caucus, metastasized after the Ron Paul takeover in Sparks, and reached its zenith with Tuesday’s call for RNC Chairman Reince Priebus to resign by a divided Clark County GOP.

Priebus was described as “disappointed with the censuring.” So Priebus, in concert with the Romney folks in Nevada, has decided to turn the so-called Team Nevada office into the de facto Republican Party.

“The goal is for us to be running get out the vote, running phone programs, voter ID, voter contact, everything through the Team Nevada headquarters,” the strategist said.

He continued: “The RNC has said it is willing to do everything possible as the state party appears not to be willing to work with us, so we will do it without them.” [POLITICO]

I have been writing a series of articles for the past couple of weeks at KyForward.com which detail some of the periods in our history when factions within the each major party resulted in new parties under new names coming to the foreground, leaving the shell of the old party in the hands of those who wanted to control it.

Maybe Ron Paul will succeed in taking over the GOP, but maybe the money, the power, the presidency and the people will leave him behind.  In a weird turn of events he could end up being the "RINO" (Republican In Name Only).

More Talk About Ron Paul Disrupting The GOP Convention

From HotAir:

[W]hat would [Ron]Paul gain from disrupting the convention?  He won’t get the nomination, and he’s not going to get the VP slot, either, especially if he disrupts the convention.  Neither will his son Rand, who only just started his first-ever political office.  The Pauls want to play a long game, transferring the movement leadership from father to son, while maintaining their influence with the GOP.  Rand has much more potential than his father ever did within the party, and everyone knows it.

That potential will be destroyed if Ron Paul and his movement derails the convention and it leads to a second Obama term; they will take all of the blame, and they will deserve it if they pursue that strategy.  The Pauls are more rational than that, and they have used a frankly brilliant strategy to lay the groundwork for Rand in the next few cycles.  They played by the rules and won these obscure battles.  The big question — at least here in Minnesota — is whether they will stick around and do the work that these jobs require.  Paul movement members have a reputation for a lack of follow-up in this state, and we’ll see whether that applies after these victories.