What If Rand Paul Had Been In Charge In Chile?

Last week Ken tackled humanity's fascination with the rescue of the Chilean mine workers. Americans were far more engrossed-- joyfully so-- in this than they were in the 1973 Kissinger/CIA-directed overthrow and murder of Chilean President Salvador Allende and the installation of brutal fascist dictator Augusto Pinochet, who systematically murdered thousands... while pleasing his American backers by, among other things, privatizing Social Security! Last week, though, we were all Chleans, all rooting for "our team."

Lucky for the miners Don Blankenship wasn't in charge. And lucky for the miners, neither was Kentucky self-certified eye doctor Rand Paul, currently running for the open Kentucky Senate seat, after making it clear to Kentucky miners and their families that all he knows about the lives of miners is what he's gathered from right-wing ideological screeds. He loves repeating them but were they in play in Chile over the last 68 days, there would, no doubt, have been a far less happy ending to the story there.

Yesterday we looked at author Thom Hartmann's explanation of the commons-- something radical right Republicans like the spoiled elitist Rand Paul define as socialism. In his book Threshold-- The Crisis of Western Culture, Hartmann uses the example of how he started his first business. Is it socialistic? Capitalistic? If rightists like Paul manage to seize power in their country, whatever it is, it's over:

The electricity that was delivered to us passed through public streets maintained by the City of East Lansing. My customers drove to us on public streets. Most were students attending a largely publicly financed "land grant" university. My employees were literate because they'd attended public schools that were operated by the government. I could accept and cash checks and know that the bank wouldn't run off with my money because of federal and state banking regulators. My contracts with suppliers were enforced with a government-operated court system, making it possible for me to safely predict that people would keep their word to deliver goods after I'd paid for them. If they failed to do so, there as a government-operated police and jail system that could be used to induce them to behave honestly.

My employees would reliably show up for work because their food supply was safe because of government stands and inspections, and because the air and water were clean enough to breathe without causing asthma attacks or disabling diseases. They didn't demand a pension plan from me because we were all-- they and I-- paying into Social Security. We were able to offer an inexpensive health insurance policy-- as I recall, it cost us around thirty dollars a month per employee-- because at that time Blue Cross/Blue Shield was required by the State of Michigan to be a not-for-profit corporation whose sole purpose was to provide health insurance, and at that time our hospitals were all similarly nonprofits that delivered high-quality, inexpensive care.

Paul's nihilism is mistrusted by sensible Kentucky voters and, in a state where McCain bested Obama 58-41% in 2008 and where Obama is highly unpopular today, progressive Democrat Jack Conway is on the verge on turning a deep red seat blue. Blue America's partners at the Americans For America PAC have come up with a novel way of communicating the danger of a Rand Paul victory to mining communities in Kentucky. Please consider helping them keep this ad on radio stations in eastern Kentucky counties from McCreary to Greenup and Pike to Laurel. We're getting reports that Ashland and Middlesboro voters have taken note and are discussing the ad and, more important, what's behind it:



Blue America has endorsed Attorney General Jack Conway as the best candidate for the Kentucky Senate seat-- and we hope you'll avail yourself of the opportunity to contribute to his campaign at the link that starts this sentence. Today the Herald Leader, which had endorsed Rand Paul over Trey Grayson in the Republican primary, came out for Jack Conway as the better choice for Kentucky.

Since riding the Tea Party wave to victory in the Republican primary as a relatively unvetted candidate, Paul has spent the summer and early fall revealing himself to be quite the ideologue who's long on simplistic slogans but short on understanding the drastic consequences of adhering to those slogans.

What came across as refreshingly candid in the spring proved to be distressingly extremist when Paul was pressed on issues ranging from civil rights and the Americans with Disabilities Act to Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security.

As a senator, his mission would be a chain-saw massacre of federal government that lays waste to farm subsidies, education spending, mine-safety regulations, federal aid in fighting the scourge of drugs and numerous other programs of significant benefit to Kentuckians.

Which brings us to another disappointing post-primary revelation about Paul. As far as Kentucky is concerned, he is a drive-by candidate-- a transplant who, despite living here for the better part of two decades, never stopped to smell the bluegrass and learn about his adopted state's history, culture, problems or needs.

The sole focus of his campaign involves his antipathy for federal government. If he mentions Kentucky at all, it is almost as an afterthought.

So, the stark choice for Kentucky voters is this: a moderate Democrat who understands Kentucky's problems and needs and has a plan for creating jobs versus an ideologue Republican/Tea Partier with no record, no understanding of the state and a chain saw for a plan.

By far, Jack Conway stands as the better prepared candidate to serve the best interests of Kentucky in the U.S. Senate.