Libertarian Rand Paul’s Collapse And The Passing Of A Political Movement

Libertarian
Image by Adrian Tawfik, via Flickr, available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial license.


There was a time when Libertarian Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky was considered a front-runner for the Republican party 2016. That perception is all but a pipe dream now. With Paul polling near the bottom of the field, it appears his quest to be president is over.

What does a Rand Paul failure mean for the larger Libertarian movement in America?

Just last year it seemed inevitable that the Libertarian Party would take over a large segment of the Republican Party. For libertarians, that enthusiasm has been shattered by the failure of Rand Paul. With the rise of Donald Trump as possibly the most non-libertarian in the GOP field, the outlook for this political movement is not good. The collapse of Paul’s campaign is a significant indicator that the libertarian movement in America is over.

In the 2016 Republican field for president, Paul is the only candidate who even remotely resembles a libertarian. Paul has advocated social tolerance, foreign policy restraint, and limited government. Paul began his quest to be president with name recognition. He had the media attention and the backing of his father, Ron Paul’s political operation. Common sense tells us if there was any support for libertarian ideas within the GOP, Paul would be a front runner.

Rand Paul has gone on the record stating that the Tea Party faction of the GOP has gone insane to support Donald Trump. When you talk about the Tea Party, you are, in fact, talking about Republicans. The GOP equals the Tea Party. What’s ironic is that Paul is crying because of a billionaire taking over the Tea Party supporters. The Tea Party has always been Paul’s base.

The Tea Party faction of the GOP is primarily responsible for the rise of both Ron and Rand Paul starting back in 2007 and 2008. This support was based on their so-called libertarian values, which are actually the values of the Koch Brothers. The libertarian movement proclaimed itself a grassroots movement embraced by the Tea Party crowd but, in fact, was always funded and backed by the billionaires within the Republican Party. The campaign of Donald Trump has seized control of the Tea Party from Paul. A billionaire has jerked the carpet from underneath the feet of a conglomerate of billionaires The result is a Republican Party being guided by a bunch of crazies.

What has resulted from this is a Republican Party where no one knows what they stand for. We know what they are against, but there are no fundamental principles that define what being a Republican means. What has transpired thus far in the 2016 presidential race is who can be the most extreme.

For Rand Paul, his only recourse has been to attack Donald Trump. This strategy has been a complete failure. Moreover, the libertarian ideology has been a total failure, and there are examples to support this conclusion.

The reality here is what opponents of the Tea Party and Libertarian movements have said all along. These factions within the Republican Party are nothing more than a white populist reincarnation of the George Wallace crowd. Donald Trump has copied the Wallace playbook of hate for foreigners, immigrants, minorities, and science. Trump has played on the anxiety of “White America.” Because of the change in color of the immigrants coming into our country we have experienced a bevy of stereotypical remarks from the Trump campaign that has resonated with the Tea Party crowd.

This rise in hate has been the downfall of Rand Paul, and the libertarian movement. The desire for the free-markets has given way to corporate fascism, and the age-old realities of fear, hate, racism, and white privilege.

 

Featured image by Mark Taylor via Flickr, available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial license.