Rand Paul: A Profile in Courage

Jacob G. Hornberger offers up well-deserved praise in Rand Paul: A Profile in Courage.

My own observation is that Rand Paul may be the biological son of Ron Paul but he is not his consistent and principled non-interventionist offspring. However Senator Paul must be once again highly commended for his courageous stand in defense of the Constitution, and the civil liberties and individual rights bestowed upon us by the Framers in that document. They recognized that our inherent natural rights come to us from God and our humanity. Paul’s singular opposition to the egregious, unconstitutional and invasive USA PATRIOT Act makes him the “true patriot,” the true sentinel of the Republic.

He stands light years in opposition to the belligerent posturing of the senile Pug John McCain, the droopy Basset Hound Jeb Bush, the cagey Chihuahua Ted Cruz, the flaming Rottweiler Marco Rubio, the incontinent Poodle George Pataki, the swaggering Shih Tzu Lindsey Graham, and the blustering Doberman Rick Santorum.

They are compliant lap dogs of the forces of fear, of the duplicitous military-industrial complex that Five Star General and President of the United States Dwight D. Eisenhower presciently warned us against in his Farewell Address to the nation.

Eisenhower led our armed forces to victory in World War II seventy years ago. He knew the horrific face of war and the destructive consequences that it engendered.

In the midst of World War II, the conservative journalist John T. Flynn brilliantly pointed out:

The test of fascism is not one’s rage against the Italian and German war lords. The test is — how many of the essential principles of fascism do you accept and to what extent are you prepared to apply those fascist ideas to American social and economic life? When you can put your finger on the men or the groups that urge for America the debt-supported state, the autarkical corporative state, the state bent on the socialization of investment and the bureaucratic government of industry and society, the establishment of the institution of militarism as the great glamorous public-works project of the nation and the institution of imperialism under which it proposes to regulate and rule the world and, along with this, proposes to alter the forms of our government to approach as closely as possible the unrestrained, absolute government — then you will know you have located the authentic fascist.

But let us not deceive ourselves into thinking that we are dealing by this means with the problem of fascism. Fascism will come at the hands of perfectly authentic Americans, as violently against Hitler and Mussolini as the next one, but who are convinced that the present economic system is washed up and that the present political system in America has outlived its usefulness and who wish to commit this country to the rule of the bureaucratic state; interfering in the affairs of the states and cities; taking part in the management of industry and finance and agriculture; assuming the role of great national banker and investor, borrowing millions every year and spending them on all sorts of projects through which such a government can paralyze opposition and command public support; marshaling great armies and navies at crushing costs to support the industry of war and preparation for war which will become our greatest industry; and adding to all this the most romantic adventures in global planning, regeneration, and domination all to be done under the authority of a powerfully centralized government in which the executive will hold in effect all the powers with Congress reduced to the role of a debating society. There is your fascist. And the sooner America realizes this dreadful fact the sooner it will arm itself to make an end of American fascism masquerading under the guise of the champion of democracy.”

Jeb Bush, George Pataki, Rick Santorum, Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, Lindsey Graham and John McCain pass this fascist litmus test. They have absolutely no credibility and authority to speak to the American people about any issue of substance.

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1:28 pm on June 1, 2015