Rand Paul: Too radical for America
- By Mitchell Blatt
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E-mail China.org.cn, January 23, 2015
Take no responsibility
When Fox News host Sean Hannity asked Rand Paul what he would do to stop ISIS after the terrorist group took over large swaths of land in Iraq and Syria, Paul said, "I'd follow the Constitution."
"Following the Constitution" is, of course, no answer. Either bombing ISIS or not bombing ISIS are both positions that would be legal in accordance with the U.S. Constitution.
If Rand Paul is president, he would actually have to make decisions about what to do. He would be involved in trying to get proposals passed through Congress and then deciding whether or not to sign them into law. Whether or not to bomb ISIS, how to handle foreign aid, and what regulations (if any) should be placed on abortion on the federal level are all policies that he will be actively involved in. He won't have the opportunity to shrug off responsibility.
Civil Rights Act
During his 2010 campaign, Rand Paul stated in an interview with MSNBC host Rachel Maddow that he would have opposed the Civil Rights Act of 1964 because of the fact that it banned segregation in private businesses. As a radical supporter of property rights, he doesn't think the government should have the power to force businesses to end segregation if they don't want to. By now the vast majority of Americans oppose segregation and support the Civil Rights Act, so Paul's position caused a lot of controversy and threatened to disrupt his campaign.
What Paul misses is that America is a democracy where we elect our leaders. Voters vote for the people whom they think are best suited to lead the country. If they disagree with someone's positions, they shouldn't vote for that person. Analyzing and debating politics is the very essence of democracy.
People shouldn't have to apologize for expressing their views as they see them, whether your view is that the Civil Rights Act was wrong or your view is that Rand Paul is wrong. Paul tries (ineptly) to disguise his views, not to express them. He's too scared that the voters won't agree with his unconventional thinking, and he's probably right.
The author is a columnist with China.org.cn. For more information please visit:
http://www.china.org.cn/opinion/MitchellBlatt.htm
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