Loaves and fishes and tax cuts for everyone
A serious question: Does anyone, anywhere see Rand Paul as a man of deep faith and convictions? As opposed to, say,
a flagrant panderer?
[Publisher] Center Street's site says the senator will author Our Presidents & Their Prayers: Proclamations of Faith by America's Leaders. That book is due out on Sept. 8.
In the 144-page book, "Rand Paul reveals the practices of each President of the United States and sheds light on how religion played a part in their governing and personal lives," the publisher's description says.
This is in addition to another tome subtitled
Moving Beyond Partisan Politics to Unite America, because Rand Paul considers himself a pretty good candidate for that
uniting America part. In addition to being an ardent defender of the faith, I mean.
Steve Benen muses:
[T]he larger political point of the senator’s efforts is also coming into focus. Social conservatives and so-called “values voters” are looking for a standard bearer, and in general, this constituency doesn’t see Rand Paul as a natural ally. Clearly, the senator hopes to change that impression, emphasizing his opposition to marriage equality, his opposition to reproductive rights, decrying the nation’s moral crisis, misquoting the First Amendment, and even telling pastors, “We need a revival in the country. We need another Great Awakening with tent revivals.”
Time will tell if this has the desired effect on the religious right, but in the meantime, one wonders if Paul’s libertarian-minded allies will stop recognizing their one-time champion.
Indeed, a danger here is that Paul's generally less religious, libertarian-ish base will be put off by Paul's newer attempts to claim the mantle of Republican Jesus. I will point out yet again that Rand Paul's "base" consists almost exactly of his father's base, inherited via pop's mailing list, and that despite the fervor of a small set of true believers within those ranks Rand Paul himself is still a new face who simply doesn't have much of a track record or can command much loyalty. I've yet to hear a plausible theory as to how he could win the primaries or even come close, but his own plan seems to be to first dump his current libertarian supporters who didn't
want yet another candidate opposing marriage equality, reproductive rights, and lecturing them about the godlessness of the country these days. Then, presumably, a miracle will occur.
So he's sending out some strong bids to perhaps get the religious conservatives to back him, even though they've already got far better (read: more insane) choices? Good luck with that. Given that his current base is made up of people who are largely tired of the preachifying of their Republican compatriots, it may lose him as many diehard voters as it gains—and there's little to suggest he has the rhetorical chops to cater to them both.