mick silver
22nd February 2013, 10:12 AM
Rand Paul Speaks Truth to CNN Power
By Staff Report
http://www.thedailybell.com/images/feedbackicon2.jpg
8
Rand Paul: Sequester A "Pittance" That Nibbles At The Edges WOLF BLITZER, CNN (http://www.thedailybell.com/floatWindow.cfm?id=2607): All right. You heard the president lay out the choice. Are you willing to compromise on the way he described them? ... SEN. RAND PAUL (R-KENTUCKY): I'm not really willing to discuss in it the framework that he's made up for himself. I mean, for goodness sakes, it was his proposal. He proposed the sequester. It was his idea. He signed it into law, and now he's going to tell us that, oh, it's all our fault? I voted against the sequester because I didn't think it was enough. The sequester cuts the rate of growth of the spending, but the sequester doesn't even really begin to cut spending, which we have to do or we are going to get a credit downgrade, another credit downgrade. BLITZER: So you don't think that the $85 billion this year, that would be the forced cuts this year, from your perspective, that's not enough? PAUL: It's a pittance. I mean, it's a slowdown in the rate of growth. There are no real cuts happening over 10 years. – Real Clear Politics
Dominant Social Theme: It's business as usual on Capitol Hill because business works!
Free-Market Analysis: We've been critical of Senator Rand Paul because we believe he had an opportunity build a true free-market (libertarian) coalition that would cement his place in history as a Great Man and possibly change the course of Leviathan (http://www.thedailybell.com/floatWindow.cfm?id=28179).
But this is an interesting interview Rand Paul gave to leftist CNN's Wolf Blitzer. It seems to confirm the idea that while Rand Paul has not proven to be a political version of an anarcho-capitalist (http://www.thedailybell.com/floatWindow.cfm?id=1903) – as much as a politician (like his father) can be – he will keep enunciating libertarian viewpoints.
Few people aspire to being Great Men because of the cost and danger involved. Changing the direction of the American Empire is no easy task, even for someone so determined as Rand's father ... the contrarian, free-market congressman Ron Paul (http://www.thedailybell.com/floatWindow.cfm?id=859).
So Rand Paul has settled for being a conservative senator with libertarian leanings. He is the new "go to" guy when it comes to conservative/tea party issues. His face is all over US TV. He's gotten as much media play in a few months as his dad got in his whole career (up to when he began running for president anyway).
Obviously, this was the plan. Rand Paul had to choose between making history (and possibly ending up dead) and working within the dialectic of the system as a conservative-libertarian opinion-maker. He chose the latter, which almost surely guarantees him a high profile as a public speaker and political official with all the respect and financial awards that such positions garner.
In the recent past he's come out against drug laws and in this interview with Wolf Blitzer, he is very clear that the US is on track to bankruptcy. Within a formula of his own choosing, Rand Paul is speaking truth to power.
In order to do so, he had to compromise on the one issue that made his father a true change maker. Rand Paul had to accept the White Man's burden – the idea that the military-industrial complex (http://www.thedailybell.com/floatWindow.cfm?id=1864) was credible and that a purpose was served by attacking "them, over there," so they wouldn't "come here." You can see a previous article of ours on this here: Rand Paul, the Next GOP Nominee for President (http://www.thedailybell.com/28678/Rand-Paul-the-Next-GOP-Nominee-for-President).
A differentiation between legitimate self-defense and the rhetoric of militarization is the dividing line between civil society and empire – and empires always decline. Rand Paul's father refused to compromise on this critical point. He saw clearly what was necessary from the standpoint of national security and understood the corrosive nature of the military-industrial complex.
Of course, it is highly doubtful that even principled men can reverse the current direction of US Leviathan on their own. Rand Paul, had he been willing, might have been able to capture this technology-based sociopolitical and economic trend and utilize it to create a career of incredible significance. But surely this is a lot to ask.
Conclusion: Rand Paul has circumscribed his field of action but apparently he doesn't intend to abandon it.
(Video from Eduardo89RP's YouTube user channel.)
By Staff Report
http://www.thedailybell.com/images/feedbackicon2.jpg
8
Rand Paul: Sequester A "Pittance" That Nibbles At The Edges WOLF BLITZER, CNN (http://www.thedailybell.com/floatWindow.cfm?id=2607): All right. You heard the president lay out the choice. Are you willing to compromise on the way he described them? ... SEN. RAND PAUL (R-KENTUCKY): I'm not really willing to discuss in it the framework that he's made up for himself. I mean, for goodness sakes, it was his proposal. He proposed the sequester. It was his idea. He signed it into law, and now he's going to tell us that, oh, it's all our fault? I voted against the sequester because I didn't think it was enough. The sequester cuts the rate of growth of the spending, but the sequester doesn't even really begin to cut spending, which we have to do or we are going to get a credit downgrade, another credit downgrade. BLITZER: So you don't think that the $85 billion this year, that would be the forced cuts this year, from your perspective, that's not enough? PAUL: It's a pittance. I mean, it's a slowdown in the rate of growth. There are no real cuts happening over 10 years. – Real Clear Politics
Dominant Social Theme: It's business as usual on Capitol Hill because business works!
Free-Market Analysis: We've been critical of Senator Rand Paul because we believe he had an opportunity build a true free-market (libertarian) coalition that would cement his place in history as a Great Man and possibly change the course of Leviathan (http://www.thedailybell.com/floatWindow.cfm?id=28179).
But this is an interesting interview Rand Paul gave to leftist CNN's Wolf Blitzer. It seems to confirm the idea that while Rand Paul has not proven to be a political version of an anarcho-capitalist (http://www.thedailybell.com/floatWindow.cfm?id=1903) – as much as a politician (like his father) can be – he will keep enunciating libertarian viewpoints.
Few people aspire to being Great Men because of the cost and danger involved. Changing the direction of the American Empire is no easy task, even for someone so determined as Rand's father ... the contrarian, free-market congressman Ron Paul (http://www.thedailybell.com/floatWindow.cfm?id=859).
So Rand Paul has settled for being a conservative senator with libertarian leanings. He is the new "go to" guy when it comes to conservative/tea party issues. His face is all over US TV. He's gotten as much media play in a few months as his dad got in his whole career (up to when he began running for president anyway).
Obviously, this was the plan. Rand Paul had to choose between making history (and possibly ending up dead) and working within the dialectic of the system as a conservative-libertarian opinion-maker. He chose the latter, which almost surely guarantees him a high profile as a public speaker and political official with all the respect and financial awards that such positions garner.
In the recent past he's come out against drug laws and in this interview with Wolf Blitzer, he is very clear that the US is on track to bankruptcy. Within a formula of his own choosing, Rand Paul is speaking truth to power.
In order to do so, he had to compromise on the one issue that made his father a true change maker. Rand Paul had to accept the White Man's burden – the idea that the military-industrial complex (http://www.thedailybell.com/floatWindow.cfm?id=1864) was credible and that a purpose was served by attacking "them, over there," so they wouldn't "come here." You can see a previous article of ours on this here: Rand Paul, the Next GOP Nominee for President (http://www.thedailybell.com/28678/Rand-Paul-the-Next-GOP-Nominee-for-President).
A differentiation between legitimate self-defense and the rhetoric of militarization is the dividing line between civil society and empire – and empires always decline. Rand Paul's father refused to compromise on this critical point. He saw clearly what was necessary from the standpoint of national security and understood the corrosive nature of the military-industrial complex.
Of course, it is highly doubtful that even principled men can reverse the current direction of US Leviathan on their own. Rand Paul, had he been willing, might have been able to capture this technology-based sociopolitical and economic trend and utilize it to create a career of incredible significance. But surely this is a lot to ask.
Conclusion: Rand Paul has circumscribed his field of action but apparently he doesn't intend to abandon it.
(Video from Eduardo89RP's YouTube user channel.)