Rand Paul is in for 2016. The first-term Republican US senator from Kentucky this week announced his run for the White House.
Rand, the son of 12-term congressman and three-time presidential candidate Ron Paul, has made a reputation for himself in the Senate as a libertarian. His support for fewer regulations, an end to government surveillance and fewer military interventions abroad earned him the derision of Republican hawks such as Sen. John McCain.
He announced his candidacy with a message emphasising personal liberty, privacy and curbs on government spending.
Paul is in an odd political spot. He’s a non-interventionist who argued for defence cuts during his first couple of years in the Senate. That put him out of the current Republican mainstream and more in line with the Republican Party of the mid-20th century.
Yet his non-interventionism is a bit more nuanced these days. In his announcement, Paul said he “envision(s) an America with a national defence unparalleled, undefeatable and unencumbered by overseas nation-building. I envision a national defence that promotes, as Reagan put it, peace through strength.”
Peace through strength and “whatever it takes” aren’t cheap, which is why many hard-core libertarians suspect Paul is not one of them.
Speaking in Louisville, Paul condemned special interests “that use Washington as a piggy bank” and said the government overspends and borrows too much money, squandering the country’s future.
Some $3tn comes into the US treasury annually, the 52-year-old Kentucky ophthalmologist said. “I propose we do something extraordinary, let’s just spend what comes in.”
Paul attacked both his own Republican party and the Democrats, saying the leadership of each had resulted in the poor becoming poorer and the rich becoming richer.
He became the second Republican to officially state his plans to run. Senator Ted Cruz was the first, making his announcement for the 2016 presidential election on March 23. Several other leading Republicans are expected to join the race in the coming weeks and months.
Jeb Bush, the son of one former president and brother of another, has started organising his bid but has not yet formally declared his candidacy.
In making his announcement Paul also condemned warrantless searches of Americans’ telephones saying the phone records of law-abiding American citizens were “none of (the governments’) damn business.” The first act of his presidency would be to end this unconstitutional surveillance, he added.
Rand is not his father, Ron, who ran for president in 1988 on the Libertarian Party ticket. The elder Paul is about as doctrinaire a libertarian as you’ll find.
The son isn’t as rigid as the father, which may make Rand Paul a more appealing candidate and perhaps a better politician. But his nuance should also remind Americans that when it comes down to winning votes, principle takes a backseat to politics. Always.
If America makes it to November 2016 with Rand Paul and Hillary Clinton as the two major candidates for president, the liberal will be tempted to vote for Paul.