Libertarian integrity
by digby
This is just getting pathetic. Pence acting like a rank amateur worthy of Sharron Angle on This Week, Scott Walker flip-flopping like a dying fish and now Rand Paul letting his libertarian facade drop and acting like he’s Pat Robertson:
At a prayer breakfast in Washington, D.C. on Thursday morning, Rand Paul practiced pandering. The senator from Kentucky will announce that he is running for president in less than two weeks, and it seems the pressure to be all things to all people is resulting in the breakdown of his political brand, with the latest example being his newly articulated position on marriage.
He conceded to the evangelical crowd, which included Dr. Jerry Johnson, CEO of the National Religious Broadcasters, that there is a “moral crisis in our country” and more specifically, “a moral crisis that allows people to think that there would be some sort of other marriage” in addition to heterosexual, or “traditional,” marriage.
To solve the crisis, Paul called for a religious revival and lost himself.
“We need another Great Awakening with tent revivals of thousands of people saying ‘reform or see what’s going to happen if we don’t reform,'” Paul said, adding that Washington has a responsibility to help, too. “There is a role for us trying to figure out a thing like marriage.” After all, he said, “The First Amendment says keep government out of religion, not religion out of government.”
Paul’s position on gay marriage has long been to leave it up to the states and keep the federal government out of it.
In an interview with The Daily Beast’s Editor-in-Chief John Avlon at SXSW earlier this month, Paul admitted he was a “traditionalist, born in 1963, okay. You know, marriage was between a man and a woman and still sort of a conservative position that I hold, personally.”
As a lawmaker, however, he felt that “the law does have to treat people equally, though, and so the idea that the law can or should be neutral is something that I do find important.”
When Paul acts or speaks inconsistently, his campaign responds by pretending like it did not happen.
“Senator Paul believes marriage is an issue that should be dealt with at the state level,” political adviser Doug Stafford told The Daily Beast. “Nothing about his position has changed.” Stafford later added: “Senator Paul does not want his guns or his marriage registered in Washington. He has said this repeatedly and consistently. Marriage is not a federal issue. It is an issue for state and local governments to deal with.”
Thursday’s statement, then, would seem to suggest to anyone with eyes and ears and basic critical thinking skills that the Senator has had a change of heart.
Stafford did not respond to a request to clarify what Paul meant by “moral crisis” or who the “us” he was referring to when he said “there is a role for us trying to figure out a thing like marriage.” But in the video of Paul’s comment, obtained by CBN News’ David Brody, it seems clear Paul is implying that the crisis can be averted with the help of both the federal government and the evangelical activist community. He says “The one thing i would say is – and this is given as free advice – don’t always look to Washington. The moral crisis we have in our country, there is a role for us trying to figure out things like marriage, but theres also a moral crisis that allows people to think that there would be some sort of other marriage. and so um really there’s a role outside and inside government…”
This is the guy everyone says is in the race to move the Party away from its traditional base of social conservatives and military hawks by educating a new generation about libertarian principles. How’s that going?
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