"It’s getting hard to remember now, but there was a time for a little while there when a fair number of libertarians were worried that Rand Paul was shaping up to be another Beltway sellout."
Humph! Maybe it's getting hard for Matt Welch to remember, but I remember it crystal clear. Last summer while interning in Arlington, VA with Young Americans for Liberty, I spent an hour on the phone arguing with a girl I was dating at the time who lived in "The Free State" --New Hampshire.
She'd let herself be fooled by some arm-chair libertarians who are probably having a lot of fun playing "civil disobedience" (it's not that hardcore when your friends go on the Internet and ask people for money to bail you out) when they're not getting high out of their minds in the perpetual Renaissance Fair that I'm afraid the Free State Project is turning out to be.
These people are content with complaining on the margins of society while the people in the Ron Paul movement are working hard to mobilize libertarian philosophy into a political movement with the power to actually create the kind of society we want to live in. And then they have the gall to piss all over our hard work and determination. It was especially galling because they had no clue who Rand Paul really was. I did.
(Oh and yes-- those are actually the kind of fights I'd have with my girlfriend-- arguments over whether Rand Paul was a legitimate libertarian or a political opportunist likely to sellout once he got to Washington. But then you already knew I was obsessed-- I blog every single day about libertarian politics and you actually sit here and read it! Let's face it: you're not so normal yourself. :-P)
So I'm going to gloat a little now that Rand Paul is finally getting his due. You really should read all of Matt Welch's brilliant exposition of Rand Paul's candidacy and short, but stellar career as a U.S. Senator. It vindicates Rand Paul and it vindicates everything I've been saying about Rand Paul from the day he announced that he was thinking about forming an exploratory committee.
In general, I'm really not a very sore loser. I'm pretty good at losing with grace. (My best friend Steve, who I'm living with for the rest of this month, will tell you that I swear a lot when he beats me at GoldenEye, which is pretty much every time we play-- but I'm not actually upset, it's just part of the fun for me.) But when I win in politics, especially because I'm so accustomed as a libertarian to losing, I am a SORE winner (just ask the two poor chaps who had to ride the three hours with me from Wayne County, Kentucky to Rand Paul's victory celebration the night of the Republican Primary last summer).
So I just wanted to say to all you Rand Paul haters, doubters, skeptics, and naysayers: BOO YA!! I TOLD YOU SO! And I really did. Just read this column I wrote in Rand Paul's defense at The Daily Paul back in November of 2009:
...let me share with you my personal experiences with Rand Paul to erase from your minds any shadow of a doubt that this man is truly in this for the right reasons and earnestly wants to lead America back to her founding principles.
I live in Nashville, TN where I am finishing up my final semester of undergraduate study, just a short one-hour car trip from Rand's home, ophthalmology practice, and campaign hub. When I learned as far back as February from my colleague and fellow Nashville resident Matt Collins, that he had heard directly from Ron Paul's son, Rand Paul that Rand was definitely considering a run, I was elated!
I immediately contacted the two guys in San Diego who had started the campaign to draft Rand Paul with Rand2010.com and asked how I could get involved and what I could do to make Rand's run a reality. I told them that I live in Nashville, work with Matt Collins, and know Kentucky very well (my entire family is from the commonwealth). From that point forward, until Rand's exploratory committee announcement in May, then finally his official campaign announcement in August, I had a unique little window into the development of this grassroots liberty campaign.
During these months, over several frustrated phone conversations with Chad in San Diego, Matt Collins here in Middle Tennessee, and Rand Paul's unofficial manager at the time (now his spokesperson), Chris Hightower- an amazing picture emerged: Rand Paul didn't really want it! He was too humble, too conservative, too focused on his family and his business practice. The notion of Rand Paul as some ambitious opportunist trading on his father's name for personal benefit is a pure fiction, and I can tell you so with 100% certainty as a firsthand witness.
Rand Paul has not seized some opportunity for personal gain- history and opportunity have seized him! I cannot properly articulate how many agonized conversations I had with activists here in Tennessee and Kentucky about how perfect this opportunity was to put a true Constitutionalist in the US Senate, and how frustratingly reluctant Rand was to seize that opportunity. In the end, with the patient goading and persuading of Rand's associates and the grassroots community, and with the impelling call of duty to his country, Rand relented and decided to make a bid for US Senate because his country and commonwealth needed him.
It is so incredibly easy with Rand leading Trey Grayson in the polls, to look back in hindsight through a lens of inevitability, but things were so uncertain just a few months ago. Here was a guy with very little name recognition in Kentucky and no political experience holding an elected office. His opponent, Trey Grayson was the establishment's favorite, with lots of deep-pocketed friends in Washington, and already a well-known name among Kentucky voters as the commonwealth's Secretary of State.
Rand meanwhile, had no guarantees of support or success, a small-business practice to run, and three kids and a wife to take care of. This Senate bid was and still is incredibly risky for Rand. He and his family are taking a major personal risk for Rand to go out campaigning endlessly and meeting the people of Kentucky instead of seeing patients and performing surgeries at his ophthalmology practice in Bowling Green.
That's why it angers me to read comments like these. Rand Paul is definitely not in this for himself. He is too much like his father, too quiet, conservative, and humble, too much of a family man. So please disabuse yourself of any half-baked speculation that this man is anything less than the real deal: a principled, grassroots patriot who had an extraordinary opportunity to make a difference, and who reluctantly, but with a firm conviction of his duty to country, is taking that opportunity and running with it.
Wes Messamore,
Editor in Chief, THL
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