A Buckshot to the Gut

*Written by Rob Rimes.

“You can’t change the Regime from the inside, any more than you can change the Mafia from the inside.” – Lew Rockwell

I went to bed pissed off last night. Really fucking pissed off. After enjoying a house party with some friends, I got home and popped on ‘Hannity’, as he does a stellar job of putting me to sleep. No offense Sean, it’s not you, it’s me and by the 12 o’clock hour, I’m usually quite buzzed. But anyway, on the program was Senator Rand Paul, son of Ron and liberty ambassador to Kentucky. Was he there to talk about his dad’s delegate-hunting efforts or how the Paul campaign wasn’t dead and was going to storm into the Republican National Convention in August? Nope, Rand Paul, son of Ron, was on ‘Hannity’ to announce his endorsement of big government pimp, Mitt Romney! I had to turn the television off and went to bed disgusted.

I woke up early this morning and kind of just sat on the couch in my bedroom for awhile running through scenarios and reasons as to why Rand Paul endorsed his very own father’s biggest rival. While I started to come to my senses to a degree, I was still angry – if not more angry. I wanted to give Rand Paul the benefit of the doubt, I talked to some friends about it to get their take and sat down to ponder even further. The truth is, I can’t justify it under any circumstances. As much as it pains me to admit, I think that the actions were cowardly and I will get into why I feel that way as I continue to type.

What this is, is party politics as usual. This is Rand Paul doing one of two things, if not both. The first thing is that Rand is vying for a cabinet position or something even bigger than that, the job of being Mitt Romney’s VP. The second thing is that he is trying to toe the party line and show a unified Republican Party as they try to defeat Barack Obama this November. Either way, I have a problem with this.

Now don’t get me wrong, I know that Rand Paul is not Ron Paul, as they do have some contrasting differences but if he truly stands on principle and his beliefs, a Romney endorsement should be the last thing on his mind. In the ‘Hannity’ interview, Rand spent a lot of time rambling off issues where he and Romney agree. However during that time, he failed to mention any areas where the two do not see eye-to-eye. Sure he played up Romney’s stance on SOPA and PIPA, which if the public weren’t outraged by them Romney would go the other way, but Rand didn’t bring up Romney’s stance on NDAA. For those who do not know, Romney supports the bill that is now law and allows for the detainment of American citizens without the right to trial and due process. If Rand Paul is the constitutional conservative he has claimed to be, then any support of NDAA should be a major red flag and disqualify Romney from even being a contender that coincides with Rand Paul’s supposed philosophy and principles.

If Rand Paul has one iota of respect for his father’s economic philosophy, which he has also mirrored in many ways, he would know that Mitt Romney’s track record is complete shit. Hell, I tackled the subject of Ol’ Mittens’ economic idiocy and “smaller” government policies in a lengthy article titled “The Mitt Romney Problem, Part I: Smaller Government“. TheSwash.com contributor and economic czar Tho Bishop also spoke about Romney’s economic record in his article “A Credible Criticism of Romney“. Read both and educate yourself as to why Mitt Romney is pretty much the economic antithesis of Rand Paul’s father, the man whose campaign he was working on up until last night. If you’re homies with Rand Paul, make him read them – maybe he needs a refresher.

Ron Paul supporters are outraged and although many of them weren’t critical of Rand, a large number of them had some harsh things to say. Here is a collection of quotes from posters at the Daily Paul:

-Not another penny for Rand! THAT IDIOT! He got himself infected by the Washington, shifting, turning, spinning, compromising, eye shutting WASHINGTON BUG!

-Son betrayed the father. Looks are perception. Perception is marketing. No kid does this to his father. Rand could have quietly gone to the polls and voted. I can’t see it as anything except spineless.

-He was an equivocator from the beginning. He does not have the same commitment to the Constitution. He’s feathering his own bed. Now, let him lie in it!

-This weakens us by making us have to bend to the establishment and compromise our beliefs. Paulistas, we never compromised one hair during this whole journey. Are you willing to begin compromising now?

-Rand Paul is a pathetic sellout! I just emailed the Campaign For Liberty to let Rand know exactly how I feel. He is a traitor. He has lost my vote in 2016.

Is any of that justified? Sure.. I can totally understand why loyal Ron Paul supporters are pissed off, as I am one of them. Now there were also comments by those not as irate:

-Rand needs to be getting his ducks in a row for I suppose a second choice which would be Mitt for POTUS & Rand for VP….Rand is evidently playing Paulitics here folks… So I would appreciate for all of those who have been attacking Rand to please STOP.

-Rand is not capitulating. Rand is not genuflecting. Rand is entrenching himself in the GOP. The liberty movement has a guy in the heart of the GOP in Rand, and how can that be bad? When Rand becomes President, we’ll see strength in a leader that’s been unseen since Reagan.

I also understand the stance of these people, as they want to give Rand Paul the benefit of the doubt but in doing so, they are compromising their own principles, if they have them and I assume they do. These people and those like them are of the belief that the Republican Party is still somehow salvageable. I personally don’t believe that it is and one of the few things I have actually disliked about Ron Paul is the fact that he has held on to the GOP banner for so long. Now I understand that the elder Paul has done it in an effort to have the largest platform to deliver his message and I can’t fault him for that. Rand on the other hand is only delivering one message with his actions, and that message is compromise. Rand is telling us that it is okay to compromise your principles for the lesser of two evils. Sorry, but I’m not buying into that bullshit. Especially when it castrates the liberty movement who are starting to see the forest for the trees and are distancing themselves from the Big Two political parties. I refuse to accept that we only have two choices and as long as we compromise for the lesser of two evils again and again, we will only ever have two choices: two very bad choices!

Many people are also supporting his decision because they believe that Rand Paul becoming vice president is a good thing. As of right now, this would be horrible. Just like I pointed out when people started calling for Marco Rubio to be Romney’s running mate, this guy is too young and inexperienced. He has barely gotten his feet wet in the Beltway and needs a lot more mileage before stepping up to a much grander stage. Sure, I was cool with the possibility of Rand running for president in 2016 or even better 2020 but now I am not so sure. 2012 is certainly too soon for any of this talk considering he was just sworn into office in January of 2011!

The worst part about this whole announcement is the timing of it. Ron Paul is still attempting to capture delegates and plans on making a big splash at the Republican National Convention and Rand Paul was a big part of this. Rand Paul, just as much as his father and other key campaign staffers, continually sent out e-mails multiple times per week pushing supporters to keep on fighting for his dad. Well, his father’s hunt is not over, yet his own flesh and blood has left the flock and aligned with the one man who still technically opposes his father. What does this say to all of us who read Rand’s diatribes on how important it is to support his dad and how important this fight for liberty is? It’s as if Rand’s words were just that: words. It’s as if he didn’t believe in what he was saying all along and then jumped on the obvious winner in an effort to save face with his establishment Republican constituents or to get a job in the Romney Administration. It’s as if Rand is taking the easy road and if that’s true, it’s the act of a coward – plain and fucking simple. Now I don’t want to say that Rand Paul was for sale or that he sold his soul but c’mon, how does this look? Why couldn’t he have waited until the day after the convention to show his support for Romney. I still wouldn’t have liked it but I would’ve understood it a little more than I do at this stage of the race. I certainly think many people would’ve been a lot less hostile about it.

Then again, it is still Mitt Fucking Romney!

Maybe Goldman Sachs, Credit Suisse Group, Morgan Stanley, Bank of America, JP Morgan Chase, UBS, Citigroup, Wells Fargo and Barclays all offered to throw Rand some cheese, as they have bought and paid for Romney and Obama over the years. Maybe Rand, under the guise of the wise and intelligent liberty-loving people’s champion, is the banksters ultimate weapon for the future. Sure, I am just speculating here but crazier things have happened.

I guess that it is appropriate that Rand Paul is the Tea Party’s champion because just like them, he has compromised to the point that he has become an establishment stooge. I can’t accept the fact that maybe he is trying to do the right thing and change the machine from the inside. I just don’t believe that at this point because that formula will not work. I once believed that it could but I’ve become so privy to the establishment’s tricks and have dealt with enough of their drones to know that you can’t just keep pumping fresh water into an ocean of pollution and expect it to get clean.

I honestly hope that Rand Paul did this with the best of intentions and didn’t do it just to advance his career. I am not going to just give him the benefit of the doubt as actions speak louder than words and his actions have been complete shit for the last twenty-four hours. Rand Paul shouldn’t have made any announcement until after the RNC and honestly, if he wanted to do the right thing and advance liberty, he (and Ron Paul) without leaving the Republican Party should have endorsed Libertarian Party candidate Gary Johnson. Even though, Johnson most likely won’t win, the support of the Pauls would have been a big boost to his campaign, his fundraising and would’ve really helped advance liberty in a way that toeing the party line couldn’t. However, Rand’s got that long stellar career to look forward to and apparently that’s what’s most important to him.

He’s still got a long road ahead of him and I could be completely wrong here but this reactionary piece had to be written, as I wouldn’t be able to go to sleep tonight with this on my mind. Maybe I am jumping the gun, maybe I am being unfair and maybe I should have waited to calm down but this is how I feel right here, right now and I’m not going to censor my thoughts and compromise my own principles and who I am by giving Rand Paul a free pass because of who his father is and who I hoped he would become. I hope he proves my doubts and concerns wrong, I would want nothing other than that. If he does, I’ll be the first to say that I was wrong and I will apologize to the man. I just don’t think that day will ever come.