Looks like they can’t stand Rand

One of the big mysteries of the Koch brothers’ lavish gala this past weekend is the fact that Rand Paul was not in attendance. You’d think that the Kochs would at least insist that Paul come to the fete to do a dramatic reading of John Galt’s “Atlas Shrugged” speech for the billionaires in attendance, but he didn’t show. Some reports suggest that he was invited, but declined. Perhaps his feelings are hurt that they also invited Scott Walker, Ted Cruz, Jeb Bush, Marco Rubio and even Carly Fiorina, when he believes that he should have been anointed by all the rich men in the world by acclamation. He is, after all, the One True Libertarian of the bunch.

Or is he? Paul has been spending so much time in recent days talking about the horrors of Planned Parenthood, you’d think he was a Catholic priest or a member of Ralph Reed’s Bible study group. In fact, both of the Pauls, father and son, have always played fast and loose with their libertarian principles when it comes to reproductive health; the only individual property right they don’t recognize is a woman’s ownership of her own body. Since the followers of the Pauls tend to be those who find such concerns irrelevant to their own freedom — being that they are mostly young, white males — that may make some sense from a practical standpoint. Rand has to build a coalition with someone, so why not the religious right, since their main concern in life is keeping women in their place, and the Paulites seem to find this to be a position they can work with.

And so it is becoming clear that for all the former Beltway excitement over Paul’s alleged magical ability to transform the Republican Party from it’s aggressively hawkish global ambitions and theocratic, authoritarian domestic aspirations into an isolationist, tolerant, pluralistic party, he just can’t seem to make any headway. He can’t raise much money and nobody, it turns out, is very interested in his ideas.

Thus, the true believers are depressed. One of them wrote a piece for Politico about what’s gone wrong, titled, “Why I’m tired of defending Rand Paul.” The piece was written by Jonathan Bydlak, someone who’s been with the Paul family for years, serving as director of fundraising on Ron’s 2008 campaign; a loyal lieutenant who truly believes that Rand Paul could be president. But unfortunately for Bydlak, it turns out that Rand Paul also believes that, which means that these days he’s acting like just another Republican.