Rand Paul is the new flip-flop king: How he’s purging his scary positions — and lying about it

[DonViejo]

Rand Paul is trying to rebrand himself as a crossover candidate -- by running furiously from his freakiest stances

SIMON MALOY

Good news, everyone. We’ve managed to elect a government so disastrously inept and so thoroughly incapable of projecting an image of basic competence that the libertarians are getting a renewed burst of public attention. “Has the ‘Libertarian Moment’ Finally Arrived?” asks Robert Draper’s lengthy New York Times piece on the limited-government movement that’s eager to capitalize on our deep, bipartisan dissatisfaction with the people we keep electing to office. “Today, for perhaps the first time, the libertarian movement appears to have genuine political momentum on its side,” Draper writes.

The best expression of that momentum is the fact that Rand Paul, Kentucky’s libertarian/conservative/Tea Party/Republican senator, is considered a credible candidate for the presidency in 2016. And to hear Paul’s supporters – and quite a few media types – say it, the senator has “broad” or “crossover” appeal that derives from his proud libertarian heritage. Sure he’s a tax-cutting, regulation-shredding, small-government conservative, but he also opposes military adventurism of the sort that landed us in Iraq. “Rand is the Republican who has the best chance of keeping and energizing the base while going into their constituencies,” a Paul aide told the Daily Beast. “It’s kind of dangerous to have a Republican like Rand.”

Of course, Rand Paul has learned what libertarians have known ever since the movement began: People tend not to vote for libertarians. And so while he’s sticking to anti-interventionist foreign policies and opposition to the war on drugs, he’s also busily shedding large chunks of his libertarian past. If Rand Paul has “crossover” appeal, it’s not because he espouses libertarian positions – it’s because he’s purging himself of his own principles.

Pretty much every politician who wants to be elected president dabbles in moderation to some extent. They make a calculation: If I temper my stance on issue X, some people will call me a flip-flopper, but more people will vote for me. Most of the time, those politicians go through the sometimes genuine, though mostly contrived, explanations for why they’ve “evolved” on that issue. But Rand Paul’s not bothering to own up to his shifting ideology. He’s replacing the extreme positions he once vociferously defended with mish-mashes of conservative pablum and denying that he ever once let libertarian dogma take him down some very scary paths.

more
http://www.salon.com/2014/08/08/rand_paul_is_the_new_flip_flop_king_how_hes_purging_his_scary_positions_and_lying_about_it/

[Thinkingabout]

1. Deception is the Paul way.

[reflection]

2. The Romney method

Just deny you ever held a position, and when presented with proof to the contrary, deny it again. Repeat until news cycle ends.