Rand Paul, post-filibuster, strides mightily atop the world of
young-skewing conservative activism yesterday at the Conservative
Political Action Conference.
Alex Seitz-Wald at ;Salon
gives Paul a clear day one victory:
Rand Paul’s 13-hour filibuster on the drone program has turned
him into a superstar here at CPAC, where red and black “Stand With
Rand” stickers and T-shirts – ;distributed
by ;an organization founded by his father — can be spotted
on one of every six or seven people milling around outside the main
ballroom, especially on the younger folks.
“That filibuster was the best move by a politician I’ve ever
seen,” a high school senior from Virginia with a swept bowl-cut
(who has seen a lot of moves in his time) ;exclaimed when asked
about his sticker.
When Paul himself took the stage inside, the audience roared in
approbation and many stood for the duration of the speech to
physically show their support. Paul played the hits right off the
back, opening with a joke about his now iconic filibuster. “I was
told I get 10 measly minutes, but I came prepared with 13 hours’
worth of material!” he said while holding up a stack of black
binders. “Don’t drone me, bro!” a young man yelled approvingly from
the crowd.
The warm reception for Paul’s anti-interventionist foreign
policy ideas is a stark contrast to the CPACs of years past, when
neoconservatives ruled the day, like when Dick Cheney had a keynote
spot just two years ago. Supporters of Ron Paul ;heckled ;the
former vice president from the audience, but now one of their own
is on the stage and getting only love from the crowd…..
Seitz-Wald notes that while presumptive 2016 rival Sen. Marco
Rubio (R-Fla.) who preceeded Paul talked of GOP’s
goodness, ;
Paul offered a plea for a revamp. “The Republican Party has to
change,” Paul said. It especially needs to appeal to young people
by expanding its conception of limited government beyond taxes and
regulation to things like drug policy, technology, and civil
liberties, he explained, because ;the “Facebook generation” is
the “core of the ‘leave me alone’ coalition.”
Other bits of Paul-centric CPAC coverage:
•Daily Beast:
;If CPAC were a music festival, Jeb Bush or Paul
Ryan might be the headliner, butRand
Paul ;would be the obscure indie band-turned-newly-hip main
attraction. The senator from Kentucky’s ;now-infamous
filibuster ;last week seems to have done for Paul what
“coming out” did for Frank Ocean. Leaders of many of the young
Republican groups considered a staple at the conservative
conference said they observed an increase in young attendees, many
of them undoubtedly here to stand with Rand.
That article goes on to quote various youthful GOP operatives
supporting the “Rand is the future” notion.
•The Wall Street Journal ;also
draws attention to the distinction between a Rubio who seems to
think the movement and Party are doing fine and a Paul who calls
for a change toward serious dedication to liberty.
•Davd
Weigel at
Slate notes that most people left the room after Paul
spoke.
•More Rand Paul at CPAC coverage from
Washington Times,
Huffington Post, and
Atlantic.
Not about CPAC, but
Charles Krauthammer at the
Washington Post noted something interesting about Paul,
something I also discussed in my article “3
Problems Rand Paul Faces With His Post-Filibuster Fame”: that
Rand Paul’s talk, framed as being about domestic rights, was at
core about foreign policy as well. Krauthammer:
The vexing and pressing issue is the use of
drones ;abroad. The filibuster pretended not to be
about that. Which is testimony to Paul’s political adroitness. It
was not until two days later that he showed his hand, ;writing
in The Post, “No American should be killed by a drone without
first being charged with a crime.” Note the absence of the
restrictive clause: “on American soil.”
Now we’re talking about a larger, more controversial issue:
the ;killing-by-drone ;in
Yemen of al-Qaeda operative Anwar al-Awlaki. Outside American soil,
the Constitution does not rule, no matter how much Paul would like
it to. Yet Paul’s unease applies to non-American drone targets as
well. His quarrel is with the very notion of the war on terror,
though he is normally too smart to say that openly and
unequivocally. Unlike his father, who implied that 9/11 was payback
for our sins, Paul the Younger more gingerly expresses general
skepticism about not just the efficacy but the legality of the
entire war.
That skepticism is finding an audience as ;the war grinds
into its 12th year….
Yes, Rand Paul said nothing of substance about
non-interventionist foreign policy. He played more to a Ronald
Reagan tradition of Reader’s Digest-y tales of stupid ways
government wastes our money. ;Yes, one can make too much of
CPAC success; Rand’s father Ron Paul won the CPAC straw poll xxxxx
and did not end up–yet–winning the movement, much less the Party
to which the movement attaches. But here’s his son, extending the
march of the notion that what we need most out of government now is
for it to limit itself and leave us alone–not to fight culture
wars or real wars. It’s a good thing.
I
wrote about Paul’s CPAC talk here yesterday, complete with full
video. … Read More
