Why Rand Paul’s Flame War On Trump Failed
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Rand Paul, whose campaign seemed to be floundering, decided to flame Donald Trump with a spot using older footage of the billionaire praising the economy under Democrats and other supposedly “embarrassing” things. It did not go well – and Rolling Stone‘s Jeb Lund explains why it was a four-in-one fumble:
1. As Mother Jones‘ David Corn points out, one of Paul’s stump refrains during both his father’s 2008 presidential campaign and his own 2010 senate campaign involved praising Jimmy Carter as a far better president than Ronald Reagan when it came to the budget. Now, leave aside that what Trump said about the economy’s performance under Democrats was true, irrespective of whether his conclusion can actually be attributed to Democrats. If what Trump said counts as conservative apostasy, then Rand’s own stump speech about Reagan being worse than Carter is akin to climbing up on a crucifix and nailing a clown mask on Republican Jesus’ dick.
2. Whatever else you think of the Trump campaign, Trump pointing out that he can buy politicians, but can’t be bought himself, is not only hilarious, but mostly true – and it exposes a deep fissure in the conservative worldview. Rand’s response to the Donald’s donating largesse for candidates on both sides of the aisle involves drawing attention to a problem he cannot possibly ideologically object to. When Trump donates to both parties, he’s investing in future influence-peddling to reduce red tape on projects he undertakes, or to advance policies to his advantage. That’s just rational-actor theory, baby. Even conceding that big-business influence-peddling in D.C. is toxic does nothing for Paul, because his worldview doesn’t permit him the intellectual consistency of decrying that at the state and local level, or in the funding of elections in a post-Citizens United era. He’s complaining about a bug in his Never Ending Pasta Bowl in an Olive Garden ankle-deep in sewage.
3. Look, if you’re going to take a swing at a dude who’s bigger than you, you can’t miss. Trump is crushing Paul in the polls, and rather than cut Trump down to Paul’s size, Paul’s just leaving his side exposed to effortless hooks: In his response to the Paul campaign’s Trump video, Trump cites Reagan as an example of a true conservative whose ideas evolved away from pro-Democratic positions, he mentions that he kicked Paul’s ass at golf, and he closes with astonishment that there’s anyone left in Paul’s campaign unindicted enough to make ads like these.
4. Paul’s ideological inconsistency charge is a wash the moment it emerges from his mouth. You could throw three darts randomly and hit three different policies he’s had on undocumented immigrants. He was for reducing aid to Israel, until he met billionaire Sheldon Adelson, who is for giving money to candidates who like Israel. He was against all intervention in the Middle East until he realized that everyone running in the Republican Party has to oppose the Iran deal. He shamed other Republicans for not reaching out to the black community, then lectured Howard University students with the old (and to them wholly non-revelatory) fact that the NAACP was founded by Republicans, then met with slavery apologist and militant criminal Cliven Bundy. He wanted to reduce the military budget before he called for increasing it by 16 percent. He deplores overseas adventurism, but something something about Syria and ISIS, and he’s going to milk the word “Benghazi” until it’s raw. And it’s only a matter of time until his principled stand against government surveillance turns into an all-out rush to have Hillary Clinton’s skull borg-implanted with a polygraph and a GoPro.
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