People are just so Interested in Rand Paul

[cthulu2016]

Mainstreams currently either have no nose for politics whatsoever, or else are up to no good.

At face value, the idea that a significant number of progressive Democrats are seduced by Ron or Rand Paul is absurd. If a person actually believed that, he or she would have a truly pathetic political sense.

The Mother Jones and alt.journalism set will never be voting for a Paulist. When they praise Paul it is generally ironic—a slap at mainstream Democratic Party policy along the lines of, "How can you be so blind on an issue that you can be outflanked on moral progressive questions by RW lunatics?"

I doubt anyone is actually dumb enough to think that all these fringe progressive types actually favor or support Rand Paul.

And is anyone alive so stupid as to think that we need to nip Republican Civil War in the bud? The "danger" of Rand Paul is probably a chimera, but even if it were real it would be a danger for Boehner and McConnell, not for us.

Odd to be so upset about a schismatic figure within the Republican ranks.

So what's the game?

Lay out the question for what it is and the question answers itself.

Some elements within the Democratic Party sphere think that the hippies are the real menace, and that they can use guilt-by-association, of the "Hitler was a vegetarian" school-yard variety, to silence critics of administration policies from the left.

Such "denial of the possibility of principled opposition" is a key feature of all pathological politics.

Republicans criticize Obama.
Some lefties criticize Obama.
Thus lefties are Republicans.
QED

The game is that any hippie who criticizes the Democratic mainstream from the left finds that Rand Paul agrees with her (not the other way around, since she was a hippie long before she ever even heard of Rand Paul), and thus she can be guilted-by-association as a bigot, a moron, etc..

Myself, Rand Paul agrees with me about a few things. I agree with Rand Paul about nothing. If he has stumbled into agreement with me about something or another it is a testament to the ideological incoherency of coalition-driven policy-sets in a two party system, and nothing more.

Granted, some (but far from all) lefties are intemperate in their comments and less thoughtful than would be optimal. Anyone who ever suggested that Rand Paul has courage or deep principle, for instance, is a poor read of character.

But the national game, played on the internet like World of Statecraft, is to tar the left.

It is inside-the-Democratic-coalition stuff. All intra-party fragging.

Because anyone looking coolly at the meta-benefit of the Democratic Party would probably send the RandPaul2016 primary fund a donation. (Not that anyone should, because there ought be some limit to cynicism). He is a Republican Party problem. He is a dagger pointed inward.

[mwrguy]

1. Well said

Rand Paul is dangerous, though.

[TwilightGardener]

2. The only thing interesting about the Rand Paul prominence is that suddenly

Republicans are declaring themselves Non-Neocons. RedState, Freepers, Ace Of Spades, all those righty blogs I sometimes peruse are suddenly full of comments bashing Bush and the neocon way of fucking up the middle east for the last 10 years. It's hilarious, because where were they a few weeks ago when Obama nominated the only anti-Neocon left in the Republican party (besides isolationist Ron Paul) for SecDef? However, they don't seem to understand that becoming non-neocon means detaching oneself somewhat from Israel's interests. They haven't come to grips with that yet, at least in regard to Iran.

[ljm2002]

3. Precisely...

...that is indeed the game being played here.