Ethics LGBT Rand Paul

Rand Paul Stands for Everything and for Nothing

RandStamps-JoelPett

There’s some truth to what Rand Paul told the New York Times this week about same-sex marriage and conservative red states, but once again Rand son of Ron demonstrates that he stands for everything and for nothing.

“If you tell people from Alabama, Mississippi or Georgia, ‘You know what, guys, we’ve been wrong, and we’re gonna be the pro-gay-marriage party,’ they’re either gonna stay home or — I mean, many of these people joined the Republican Party because of these social issues,” the congressman said. “So I don’t think we can completely flip.”

However, Paul said the GOP could eventually learn to “agree to disagree” and should embrace a “bigger tent” of ideals if it wants to win elections.

Which is it?

If the party is going to evolve, it apparently won’t begin with Rand. He told an audience in Iowa this week that he supports a constitutional amendment defining marriage as a union between a man and a woman, with a side bonus of misleading single parent shaming.

“I’m in favor of the concept,” the Kentucky Republican told an audience in Iowa. “I am in favor of traditional marriage, and I think that’s been the foundation for civilization for thousands of years.”

“And the loss of the idea of marriage is probably the leading cause of poverty in our country, in the sense that if you kids before you’re married, your chance of being in poverty is three of four times that of anyone else,” he continued.

Single parents are the leading cause of poverty? If you really believe that, why not embrace same-sex marriage?

Of course the fact that wages have stagnated even as productivity has skyrocketed could also be the leading factor.

Rand son of Ron opposes raising the minimum wage, by the way, because raising the minimum wage will hurt poor minorities and children, he says. What they really need is a corporate tax cut in their neighborhood. I shit you not.

The New York Times piece on Rand Paul and the supposed “libertarian moment” is filled with contradictions and empty double-speak.

(cartoon: Joel Pett)