Ron stands with Rand
by digby
So Ron Paul finally endorsed his son. I guess there were some people who thought he would do otherwise but seriously — no. They are a family and they believe in the same political ideology. There was never a question that Paul Sr would use his influence (and fund raising capacity!) on behalf of his own offspring regardless of how often the younger Paul sells out. Please.
Dave Weigel reported on the endorsement:
“I know the media likes to play this little game where they pit us, or certain views, against each other,” the elder Paul will write, according to excerpts provided by the younger Paul’s campaign. “Don’t fall for it. They’re trying to manufacture story lines at liberty’s expense. You’ve spent years seeing how the media treated me. They aren’t my friends and they aren’t yours.”
In the e-mail, Ron Paul will say that the enemies of liberty “fear Rand more than any other candidate,” and that “unlike other candidates, Rand isn’t depending on Wall Street fat-cats and banksters who want more special treatment, bailouts and stimulus packages to bankroll his candidacy.”
The “banksters” language is a mainstay of Ron Paul’s own fundraising appeals, which roll out of his Campaign for Liberty as frequently as CDs used to roll out of Columbia House (R.I.P.). It can be read as a knock on, well, anyone else; the libertarian reader might think first of Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.), whose fundraising has lapped Paul’s with the help of hedge funds.
Cruz’s campaign has already been trying to pull support from Paul, taking advantage of a polling slump that some libertarians blame — ironically — on the candidate’s attempts to broaden his appeal. Ron Paul’s letter addresses this directly.
You would think with both the left and right wings condemning the “banksters” and Wall Street that we’d find some way to create a coalition to actually do something to rein them in. But there’s a tensy little problem: to the extent that the right wing isn’t being totally cynical and dishonest by trying to leverage this populist point of view to their own advantage, they also cannot bring themselves to endorse the only remedies available: taxation and regulation.
I guess they figure they can just shake their fists at the elites while proposing to lower their taxes and get rid of all regulations and their rubes will go along. And they’re right. Never mind.
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