McConnell & Cheney Aren't Right About Much, But They Were Correct When They Warned KY Republicans That Rand Paul Is WAY Outside the Mainstream

Wednesday Rand Paul captured the imaginations of conservatives far and wide when he-- feeling a little giddy over his smashing victory over Mitch McConnell and the Republican Party Establishment that had sought so hard to marginalize and demonize him-- made the mistake of going on Rachel Maddow's show and proclaiming, in effect, that property rights trumps human rights. Basically, what he said is that he wouldn't support legislation like the Civil Rights Act of 1964 or the Americans With Disabilities Act because they interfere with private property. Paul says he isn't a racist-- akin to Mark Foley saying he isn't gay or Mark Souder claiming to be a paragon of the ideal one man/one woman marriage at whose alter conservatives supposedly worship. In other words, he's lying his ass off. He and his father are both steeped in racism (and John Bircherism).

The arguments that ensued-- it turns out that Twitter is more a hotbed of mindless libertarian gibberish than I had ever imagined-- reminded me of a point that Thom Hartmann made in his book, Threshold about the conservative/libertarian fetishism over property.

In the conservative/libertarian dystopia, private property is the ultimate and highest value-- it is sacrosanct. As the Ayn Rand Institute's president, Yaron Brook, told me in a June 26, 2008 interview on my radio program, when "the majority" votes to limit how he can use his property, "that is a form of theft, and it is done with violence [the enforcement power of the police]." It's the ultimate expression of the tyranny of the majority that makes democracy a flawed system, in Brook's worldview. Government-- the combined will of the people in a democratic republic-- should have no power whatsoever to regulate or control the use of private property or land, as the ownership rights asserted over that land should be absolute. [In the 1850s and '60s it was ownership over another kind of private property that led this country into the most appalling war it had ever fought, one that you can't possibly be in any doubt as to which side Brook-- or Rand Paul-- would have taken.]

The obvious problem with this worldview, is that one person's "land use" may be another person's disaster. Should a farmer have the right to convert his five hundred acres into two thousand home lots if it means that the water table serving then thousand acres will be deleted or contaminated? Or to use a less clear and more aesthetic perspective, should a person be able to build a multi-story office building-- or a waste disposal plant-- on his property if it means that your property will now forever be in shade, unable to grow food plants or flowers, or lacking a view?

This morning, Rand Paul's extremism on this property über alles theme, made it into the media when he accused Obama of being "really un-American" and having "his boot heel on the throat of BP" in regard to the oil spill in the Gulf. At this point the Republican Party should be looking for a way to replace BabyPaul on their ticket but we'll let them work that out on their own. His supporters who somehow imagined that he was going to be some kind of a champion for ordinary families against powerful corporations and incipient fascism have to take a closer look at how unconvincing his faux populism really is. There always has been a difference between constructive all-American populism and the Know Nothing brand embraced by conservative careerists.



The real winner of Tuesday's primary in Tuesday was Democrat Jack Conway, who garnered 226,773 votes (followed by 221,269 for his Democratic opponent and 206,159 votes for Rand Paul. But Conway also won because even Kentucky Republicans have become convinced that Rand Paul is not a plausible candidate for federal office. 43% of Trey Grayson supporters say they will not vote for Paul in November-- and this was even before Paul made a jackass out of himself on national TV by extolling racism and defending BP-- both based on his bizarre ideological fetishism about property rights trumping humanity. This morning Jack told Kentuckians that "Rand Paul apparently has a deeply held conviction that corporations should be allowed to do what they see fit without oversight or accountability. He even goes so far as to say that that criticizing corporations when they hurt taxpayers and working families-- as in the case of the massive BP oil disaster-- is 'un-American.'

"As Attorney General, I've seen how corporations can take advantage of consumers-- whether it's oil companies that gouge Kentucky customers after a series of storms or pharmaceutical companies that commit Medicaid fraud. I have a deeply held conviction that we need a senator who will hold companies accountable. We have enough senators in Washington who are looking out for what's best for corporations. My sole focus will be looking out for Kentucky's taxpayers and families."