Ron Paul Problems

When people fall for Daily Currant articles again and again

How some people come off at happy hours and conventions…

Hearsay, Strawmen, and Skinsuits

hipsterlibertarian:

I cropped out of this screenshot the article igiveup linked, which is this piece at the Washington Post.

I’ve seen this article going around, coupled with a lot of “Rand Paul sucks so much and he’s nothing like his father” comments. But here’s the thing: Holding politicians accountable is really important. But you know what else is really important? Doing so based on things they’ve actually said and done, rather then going after them because of hearsay evidence.

Let’s tale a closer look at what the WaPo piece quotes from Rand Paul himself saying, and what it quotes from other people who saw him speak. I’m going to focus on gay marriage and drugs, the two subjects which get the most attention in the article, and which have gotten the most attention from libertarians taking issue with Rand as a result of the article.

From Rand:

“To some, ‘libertarian’ scares people,” [Rand] said. “Some of them come up to me and they say, ‘I kind of like you, but I don’t like legalizing heroin.’ And I say, ‘Well, that’s not my position.’ ”

Paul said he believes in freedom and wants a “virtuous society” where people practice “self-restraint.” 

“I’m not advocating everyone go out and run around with no clothes on and smoke pot,” he said. “I’m not a libertarian. I’m a libertarian Republican. I’m a constitutional conservative.”

On marriage, a matter in which many libertarians believe the government should have no role, Paul used the CBN interview to lay out a more careful position.

He said he’s not ready to “give up on” the traditional family unit. But he added that it is a mistake for conservatives to support a federal ban on same-sex marriage, saying, “We’re going to lose that battle because the country is going the other way right now.”

“If we’re to say each state can decide, I think a good 25 or 30 states still do believe in traditional marriage, and maybe we allow that debate to go on for another couple of decades and see if we can still win back the hearts and minds of people,” he said.

From others:

“Straight libertarianism has nothing Christian about it,” said pastor Brad Sherman of the Solid Rock Christian Church in Coralville, Iowa, a participant in the Israel trip. “I know a lot of people attribute him to be a libertarian. My impression so far is that he’s not as libertarian as possibly his father was, but I’d like to explore that more.”

“He made it very clear that he does not support legalization of drugs like marijuana and that he supports traditional marriage,” Sherman said.

“He’s closer to our philosophy than he is to what I would define as the hyper-libertarian position,” [David Lane, a longtime organizer of evangelical pastors and voters] said.

Now, this is why I really want to see Paul’s original comments, unedited, instead of this mix of very short quotes from him and comments from some of the people who heard him talk.

It seems to me that if you look at what Rand himself said (as much as can be determined from this article), his position on gay marriage is personal disagreement coupled with opposition to a federal gay marriage ban and the realization that the country is increasingly in favor of allowing people to decide this issue for themselves. On the issue of drugs, we see only that he doesn’t want people to do drugs and does not think heroin should be legal.

The marriage position is exactly what he’s said before — that the tax code should be marriage-neutral and he doesn’t “think the federal government should tell anybody or any state government how they should decide this” — as is the stuff about drugs. Rand has never said he wants to make all drugs legal, though he is leading the charge to decriminalize drug use, particularly for marijuana. As for the larger drug war, on this issue, too, he wishes to leave the question to the states.

And you know what? His father, Ron Paul, has taken an identical constitutional, states’ rights position on the drug war and gay marriage both. (Though he has also said that the less achievable ideal would be to totally remove the government from both questions at all levels, which I support.)

Contrast that with the quotes from Sherman and Lane, who seem to have been far more influential in the minds of many who have responded to this article with criticism for Paul. I’d venture so far as to suggest that Sherman and Lane heard what they wanted to hear — and Rand’s opponents read what they wanted to read.

In other words, Rand Paul telling a group of evangelicals “I’m for traditional marriage” does not mean he wants the federal government to ban gay marriage. It means he’s identifying with them culturally and religiously to gain their support, and his political position on gay marriage is well-documented elsewhere — and it’s not a federal definition of marriage to the exclusion of the gay community.

Now, Rand’s position on these questions might not be good enough for you. I get that. Many libertarians may disagree with this kind of position on social issues because they aren’t into federalism and/or our Constitution and/or incrementalism.

But here’s the key point: That’s another issue entirely.

If you want to say Rand is wrong because you disagree with him about states’ rights/the Constitution/incrementalism and you can’t support him at all as a result, say that. But unless we get his full comments and they’re far more damning than what he is quoted as saying in this WaPo article, the suggestion that he has embraced the drug war and wants to keep all gay people from getting married is a straw man argument based on hearsay evidence.

So, does anyone have a source for what Rand actually said, or are we just going to continue acting like he’s Rick Santorum in a skinsuit based on what these two guys in Iowa think they heard?

If you’ve got a link, message me with it and let’s set this record straight. The speech in question appears to have occurred in Ceder Rapids, Iowa on Friday, May 10, 2013, at a luncheon in a hotel.

Anonymous asked: What do you think about Rand's drug war comment?

I am going to defer to the Libertarian Christian’s explanation on Facebook: “Rand says ‘I’m not advocating everyone go out and run around with no clothes on and smoke pot.’ Reason finds one audience member that interpreted this to mean Rand opposes drug decriminalization. Reason gleefully writes a whole article asserting that he does without a single direct quote.”

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