In the overtime segment of Bill Maher's show (from Friday) he engaged in a political discussion regarding the 2016 elections. He brought up the topic of the Republican Party's efforts to appeal to voters and their strategy moving forward.
Maher said that the 2016 race on the GOP side would come down to Ted Cruz vs Rand Paul. He said that Cruz appeals to the dumbest voters on the right and in contrast Rand Paul appeals to young "smart" voters. Maher and the panelists even tried to paint the picture that Paul's appeal reached across the ideological divide. I found the entire discussion sickening.
http://www.hbo.com/...
Rand Paul and Ted Cruz are two peas in a pod.Both are anti-govt extremists who have already done great damage to the country.Rand Paul adds the extra layer of being a vile racist.
Rand Paul pretty much thinks the entire Federal govt. is illegitimate.
EPA
FDA
Elizabeth Warren's CFPB
Dept. of Education
Voting Rights
Work place descrimination (Racial & LGBT equality etc etc)
Women's Healthcare policies
Rand Paul is on the wrong side of all these issues.I think young voters care about the environment, funding & access to education, protecting the rights of minorities etc.
Why do folks like Bill Maher belittle Democrats for being on the right side of these issues by default, but praise freaks like Rand Paul for 1 or 2 issues that they are in agreement and then try to act like that makes them viable candidates.
I'd much rather have a debate / election against a tradional GOP candidate like Christie, than have to defend why the Civil Rights act was a good thing against a teabagger like Rand Paul.
If you're a liberal having a debate about why segregation was horrible in 2014, then you've already lost. You may win the election but the playing field has shifted so far to the right that you've lost the war.
The right wing and the GOP never do this.They never praise Democrats as being able to appeal to their voters or anyone else for that matter.Yet for some reason there are people on the left who love reaching deep down in to the right wing swamp to pull out some politician that they can say isn't "all bad".
(side note: Glenn Greenwald was unusually silent during the discussion but chimed in to promote Paul as well)
I was told that during the episode that Greenwald also promoted / praised Dave Brat. I didn't get a chance to watch the episode myself so I won't comment on that until I do.If anyone got a chance to see it, I appreciate an overview of what he said.