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Rand Paul Backing Out of 'Meet The Press'

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wrenchwench5/21/2010 4:27:37 pm PDT

Weigel keeps digging: Defending Rand Paul, Part II

[…]

This is complicated stuff, but the Pauls are used to it. I first grappled with it in a 2008 story about racist passages in Ron Paul’s newsletters, written between his departure from Congress and his 1996 return to it — a story Joe Conason kindly links to in order to make a point about the Paul family’s embrace of Pat Buchanan-style populism. (A number of people whine whenever I mention this story, and they should probably grow up already.)

But there’s no comparison between the 2008 newsletter story and this story. That was about explicitly racist populism. This is about the libertarian dream of a colorblind society, faithful to the Constitution, with as little regulation of business as possible. I’m sticking up for Rand Paul here for a couple of reasons.

— He believes this because he despises racism and believes almost all Americans agree with him.

— This debate is more interesting and honest than the usual slippery debate we have about race, law, and regulation.

[…]

If you want to know the libertarian position from a sympathetic POV, Weigel has it. If you want my opinion, Rand P. is a pathetic POS.