Once in a great while a politician does or says something right. In contemporary politics, that someone is usually Rand or Ron Paul. John V. Walsh, from antiwar.com, with three things Rand Paul has done right:
“I am the least popular guy in Washington.” Thus spoke Rand Paul at a stopover rally in Massachusetts on his way to New Hampshire on June 7. Who can doubt that claim after the events of the last few weeks.
When you have Barack Obama, John McCain, Harry Reid, Lindsay Graham all arrayed against you, you are bound to get the award for least popular guy in Empire’s capital city. An accolade of this magnitude also means that you must be doing something right. And that something right was Paul’s filibuster against the PATRIOT Act in the Senate in defiance of his own Party, an act that killed the PATRIOT Act dead.
Now here is the strange thing about Senator Paul’s acts of courage and defiance. Those who wish to see respect for privacy and the Bill of Rights withhold their praise from Paul! Is that not strange on the face of it? It is great to have sympathizers who are also critical when the occasion demands it – and Paul has these in abundance. But when a political figure like Rand Paul does something right, he also deserves praise. To withhold such praise will in the end weaken an ally and perhaps lead to his political demise.
So let’s get to the overdue praise right now. One loud full-throated cheer for Rand Paul – for his courageous stance that killed the PATRIOT Act and also for opposing Obama’s fake reform USA Freedom Act which has replaced it.
(If you have any doubts that the USA Freedom Act is a sham reform, the PATRIOT Act in disguise, here is what the ACLU’s director Jameel Jaffer had to say about the “USA Freedom Act”:
“This bill would make only incremental improvements, and at least one provision – the material-support provision – would represent a significant step backwards. The disclosures of the last two years make clear that we need wholesale reform.”
For more detail and a hint of how bad the USA Freedom Act really is, read what Jaffer said to Glenn Greenwald here.
If that does not convince you, think about this. Obama has been making love to the PATRIOT Act since he has been in office, advocating and winning its extension in 2011. But after Snowden’s revelations burst on the scene in 2013, the widespread anger made it impossible for PATRIOT to survive. So Obama offered a “reform.” It would have been very surprising, given Obama’s record, if that reform were anything other than a fig leaf. (And so it has turned out, and a pathetic fig leaf it is, incapable of providing adequate cover for our clothes-less spying Emperor.)
To continue reading: First Step To ‘Least Popular’ in Washington
