SALON

Rand Paul, dorm room libertarian

The Kentucky Senate candidate quotes Kundera, gets the Americans With Disabilities Act wrong, blasts "Tom Sawyer"

Topics: Rand Paul, War Room, 2010 Elections, Civil rights movement, Disability,

Rand Paul, dorm room libertarian

Kentucky Senate candidate Rand Paul took to the editorial page of a Kentucky newspaper to explain his political philosophy without the annoyance of some interviewer badgering him to justify or defend his beliefs.

He supports the Civil Rights Act, he says. And he loves (and quotes) Martin Luther King.

According to Paul, the most pressing issue of 2010 — the modern civil rights movement, if you will — is protecting “the rights of people to be free from a nanny state.” Just let that one sink in for a bit. Calorie counts on menus is Jim Crow redux and Michael Bloomberg is a modern-day Bull Connor:

Now the media is twisting my small government message, making me out to be a crusader for repeal of the Americans for Disabilities Act and The Fair Housing Act. Again, this is patently untrue. I have simply pointed out areas within these broad federal laws that have financially burdened many smaller businesses.

For example, should a small business in a two-story building have to put in a costly elevator, even if it threatens their economic viability? Wouldn’t it be better to allow that business to give a handicapped employee a ground floor office? We need more businesses and jobs, not fewer.

It should be pointed out (and it has been, by John Cook and now Greg Sargent) that Rand Paul is wrong about the ADA. To demonstrate government overreach, he uses an example that is specifically exempted from the act. Two-story buildings do not need to install elevators.

Despite his protestations to the contrary, Rand Paul is not an idealist — if he was, he’d be “brave” enough to attack the drug war or military expenditures as often as he attacks government spending on the disadvantaged or impoverished. He is just a dim caricature of his father. He clearly inherited a philosophy and never bothered to question or challenge it himself.

But I love the attempt to appeal to Kentucky voters by beginning an Op-Ed with the words “Kundera writes of….” Rand Paul: He quotes Ayn Rand, Milan Kundera and the band Rush, and he’s obviously never thought through the things he argues beyond the most superficial levels.

Rand Paul is a dorm room pothead.

Alex Pareene

Alex Pareene writes about politics for Salon and is the author of "The Rude Guide to Mitt." Email him at apareene@salon.com and follow him on Twitter @pareene

Next Article

Related Stories

Featured Slide Shows

The week in 10 pics

close X
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11
  • Lisa Montgomery embraces her nephew Thursday after a tornado tore apart her home in Cleburne, Texas. The twister killed six people and destroyed entire swaths of the North Texas town.
    Credit: AP/LM Otero

  • Jack McMahon, the defense attorney for abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell, speaks outside the Criminal Justice Center in Philadelphia Tuesday. His client was convicted of killing three babies in his clinic, and will serve multiple life sentences.
    Credit: AP/Matt Rourke

  • A photo taken Monday captures Vice President Joe Biden's response to a Milwaukee second-grader's innovative proposal to end America's epidemic of gun violence. This guy!
    Credit: AP/Jenny Aicher

  • Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., flanked by a grouper-eyed Michele Bachmann, addresses the IRS' admission that it targeted Tea Party groups in advance of the 2012 election. In an op-ed for CNN Thursday, the Kentucky senator slammed the president for his faux outrage.
    Credit: AP/Molly Riley

  • Ousted IRS chief Steven Miller is sworn in on Capitol Hill Friday. Miller testified before the House Ways and Means Committee on the extra scrutiny the agency gave conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status.
    Credit: AP/J. Scott Applewhite

  • Attorney General Eric Holder pauses as he testifies on Capitol Hill before the House Judiciary Committee Wednesday. Holder is under fire, among other things, for the Justice Department's gathering of phone records at the Associated Press.
    Credit: AP/Carolyn Kaster

  • O.J. Simpson sits during an evidentiary hearing at Clark County District Court in Las Vegas, Nev., Thursday. Simpson, who is currently serving a nine-to-33-year sentence in state prison for armed robbery and kidnapping, is using a writ of habeas corpus to seek a new trial.
    Credit: AP/Las Vegas Review-Journal/Jeff Scheid

  • Major Tom to ground control: On Sunday astronaut Chris Hadfield recorded the first music video from space, a cover of David Bowie's "Space Oddity."
    Credit: AP/NASA/Chris Hadfield

  • When it rains it pours. President Barack Obama speaks during a news conference Thursday with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, inexplicably inspiring an #umbrellagate Twitter meme.
    Credit: AP/Jacquelyn Martin

  • A smoke plume rises high above a road block at the intersection of County A and Ross Road east of Solon Springs, Wis., Tuesday. No injuries were reported, but the the wildfire caused evacuations across northwestern Wisconsin.
    Credit: AP/The Duluth News-Tribune/Clint Austin

  • Recent Slide Shows

  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11

Comments

37 Comments

Comment Preview

Your name will appear as username

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href=""> <b> <em> <strong> <i> <blockquote>