This is a tremendous victory for the libertarian movement.  It may be looking like the tea party movement is coming together with the Ron Paul libertarians.  First the Maine GOP Platform has elements of both the Paul faction and the tea partiers.  Now, Rand Paul is nominated for the US Senate. 

We are a long way from the 2007 laughter of Cong. Paul in his brave candidacy.  Is it any question who won the 2008 election?  Ron Paul did.  Congrats Rand Paul!

If Paul pummels Grayson in an election that has given the fullest airing yet to the conservative split on the activist foreign policy of the Bush years, expect to see more Republicans expressing their reservations about Obama’s Afghan policy.

The Rally for the Republicans at the Kentucky Fair & Exposition Center isn’t your standard rubber-chicken campaign event. Frank Simon, a Louisville religious-right leader known for his strong opposition to gay marriage, leads the crowd of 800 in the Pledge of Allegiance. The Rev. Jerry Stephenson, a conservative black pastor, delivers the invocation, asking “Father God” to “help us start a revolution.” Then the Grammy-nominated rock and reggae singer Aimee Allen, decked out in tattoos, patterned stockings, and high-top sneakers, performs a three-song set, culminating in an anthem helped along by the candidate’s sons on acoustic guitars: “We don’t want no war no more / Bring our boys home to our shore.”

This improbable opening is topped off by the Rev. Jeff Fugate, the right-wing pastor of Clays Mill Road Baptist Church in Lexington, Kentucky. Unlike the previous act, Fugate doesn’t sing about the PATRIOT Act or inciting a riot. Instead he gives a Falwellesque speech about restoring American values.

I believe this is inevitable.  Cong. Paul told courageous truths in 2007 and 2008; the GOP largely attempted to isolate his followers and their message.  But it failed due to the combination of the TARP and Obama’s legislative agenda.  The latest Rasmussen poll is startling:  President Obama 42% and Cong. Paul 41%.  (Thanks to the Lew Rockwell blog for this)

Rand Paul is doing so well that some libertarians are concerned he’ll compromise.  Some think he already has. 

Some libertarians fear the noninterventionist message is being lost entirely. David Adams cautions that “it is an oversimplification to call [Rand Paul] an anti-war candidate,” even though he would not have voted for the Iraq war. The younger Paul is still undecided about what our policy should be in Afghanistan. “Rand is terrified of the foreign policy his father has supported,” opines a libertarian activist who says he was rebuffed when he tried to arrange a meeting between Rand Paul staffers and J Street, an organization that bills itself as a more dovish Israel lobby.

But I believe the Rand Paul campaign may be promising!  So is the Rasmussen poll.  Independents chose Paul over the President by a wide margin but many voters do not know Paul:

Voters not affiliated with either major party give Paul a 47% to 28% edge over the president.  *  *  *  But nearly one-out-of-three voters (32%) are not sure what they think of Paul.

This is encouraging.  Cong. Paul can only go up.  If this report about oil prices is true, we may have an especially angry electorate.  No jobs, inflation, massive debt, and $4 or $5 per gallon gasoline.  I am thus encouraged.  We need a constitutionalist President.  To have that, we need constitutionalist elected officials.  Of course, we dare not trust in men but in the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Wolfford has this criticism of Ron Paul:

Many conservatives reject Ron Paul’s celebrity, fringe positions, and irritation to the party over the years. He has advocated the legalization of drugs and blamed U.S. foreign policy for bringing about the 9/11 attacks. Some haven’t forgotten his 1988 run against Bush 41.

Conservatives should reject a person because he is a “celebrity”?  Oh if we had had a qualified celebrity in the last Presidential election!   Celebrity status did not bother the conservative supporters of Sarah Palin. 

And let’s discuss fringe positions:  Cong. Paul calls for balanced budgets, severe reductions in the federal government, and no wars without a declaration (and the consensus that such a declaration would require).  Is it gold and silver as legal tender?  I agree that is radical.  But the Constitution does indeed forbid the states from accepting any thing other than those two precious metals as currency.  I certainly cannot call for that today.  We need paper money.  Is it renouncing goody-goody wars against nations that did not attack us?  When I was a boy I was proud to say the USA never attacked another nation without a compelling reason.  Today that is not true anymore. 

The 9/11 is caused by our foreign policy canard is a misunderstanding of Dr. Paul’s position.  Paul is using 9/11 as a danger of an interventionist foreign policy.  He in fact voted for the authority to root out Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan.  Today, as it evident by the way the US treats Karzai for daring to stand up to us, we are in fact nation-building.  This is not what the US should be doing. 

Legalization of drugs?  Many call for that to some extent.  William F. Buckley, Jr., famously went beyond the three mile limit in his yacht to legally smoke pot!  The 1988 campaign?  I have not heard anyone angry about the over 400,000 votes Paul got as if it cost Bush the election. 

Here’s the issues framed well:

Conservatives have a legitimate concern over Paul’s national-security credentials. He’s questioned Iran’s status as a potential nuclear threat and expressed worrisome views about how to handle captured terrorists. Some of his comments, whether off-the-cuff or not, have brought leading Washington national-security Republicans to his opponent’s side. Dick Cheney recently endorsed Grayson, calling him the “real conservative.” Paul has called for nixing the federal Energy and Education Departments to loud cheers; this is impressive to tea-party Jeffersonians, but won’t necessarily play well in a general election.

If it is conservative to play to the mob on procedural rights for terror suspects, count me out.  I do not want such rights as trial by jury decided by politicians!  Cheney cited the USA Patriot Act as a reason to support Grayson.  The excesses of the Patriot Act are manifest; we need to repeal that law before we do health care. 

Has NR conceded that we should have a department of education or energy on the federal level?  Not me.  NR may have strayed.  I’ll stick with Rand Paul.

Rand Paul has the passion on his side, but Kentucky Republicans who want to hold the Senate seat should give him a good, hard look before they vote in the primary on May 18.

I’ll still respect the NR of old.  But today’s not your father’s NR.  Thanks for the memories.

I prefer to believe what the Houston Chronicle suggests:  That Ron Paul and Liberty is popular.  History teaches that liberty resonates with a deep need people have.  Our Declaration asserts that “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal and are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”  The Bible agrees:  “Proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof” (Leviticus 25:10)

Ron Paul did not get the most votes but his ideas are now available for people around the world to see.  He also has encouraged others to seek lesser office (Rand Paul and Peter Schiff are only two examples) to place liberty ideals into action.  Dr. Paul has cured the apathy of many Americans! 

To paraphrase Emile Zola:  Liberty is on the march!

The most striking result in the NBC/Journal poll is that the Tea Party movement has a net-positive 41 percent to 23 percent score. The American public is in a populist/conservative/libertarian mood. Republicans need to adopt that mood, channel it into sound policies, and learn to trust the people, without worrying that they haven’t all yet signed up to GOP orthodoxy.

That sounds like find and support Ron Paul/Gary Johnson candidates.  We’ll see if we see Kristol out stumping for Rand Paul or Peter Schiff.