Rand Paul Heir to Ron Paul's Libertarian Movement? Says America Needs Spiritual Leadership
The Kentucky sentator spoke to a conservative Christian group in Iowa, where supporters of his father, Ron Paul, have taken over leadership in the state Republican Party. The younger Paul spoke in Waukee Friday about his journey as a Christian.
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Rand Paul, Kentucky senator, Tea Party leader and possibly heir to his father Ron's libertarian movement, told about 300 conservative Iowa Christians that America needs to recover and find its moral bearings.
"There is a sickness out there that needs more than political leadership. It needs spiritual leadership," he said. "In that cause, I'll do the best that I can."
As the keynote speaker for the spring fundraiser for the Iowa Faith & Freedom Coalition, an influential group in Iowa Republican Party politics, Paul gave the least political speech of the night. He followed speeches by Iowa politicians Sen. Chuck Grassley, Rep. Tom Latham and Rep. Steve King.
Ralph Reed, the founder and chairman of the national Faith and Freedom Coalition, spoke about the organization's effort to identify evangelical Christians and Catholics who are not registered to vote, as well as to get registered voters in those groups to the polls in November.
Then he passed buckets to the crowd asking for donations to support that effort.
"I'm Not Always a Good Christian"
Paul, the eldest son of Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul, spoke about struggling with issues of his faith.
"I tend not to wear my faith on my sleeve," he said, adding later that "I see decisions government makes almost always in moral terms."
He spoke about his opposition to abortion and gay marriage, his fiscal conservativism and his opposition to war.
"I'm not a a pacifist but it is wrong to elect leaders who have any glee or enthusiasm for war," he said.
There were no standing ovations or interruptions of applause in his speech, which was not distinctly partisan.
His strongest partisan line was to criticize President Barack Obama's position on gay marriage.
"He said that his views were evolving on marriage. Call me cynical, but I didn't think his views on marriage could be any gayer," Paul said.
Heir to Libertarian Movement?
Rand Paul won his Senate seat in 2010 by beating an establishment Republican. Shortly after taking office, he helped found the Senate Tea Party Caucus, while still remaining loyal to the small-government, anti-big spending movement of his father.
Iowa conservative Christians may not be completely aligned with the Pauls' libertarian leanings, but Ron Paul nevertheless has plenty of support in Iowa.
Paul placed third in the Iowa caucus, and ironically, some are predicting that his followers will take 20 of Iowa's 28 delegates to the Republican National Convention at the state convention next month.
Earlier in the day, Paul told a Des Moines gathering sponsored by Americans for Prosperity, a conservative super PAC, that if the Iowa Republican Party wants to grow, it needs to include his father's supporters, according to the Des Moines Register.
That's part of Ron Paul's strategy to get enough delegates at the national convention to influence the Republican Party platform, to perhaps get a chance to speak at the convention, or as the Washington Post reports, a shot at the vice presidential slot for his son.
National Journal quoted an unnamed Paul campaign adviser as saying Paul has stayed in the race to have influence over the Republican party platform, but also to raise money that will help build his movement for years to come.
"Yes, Ron is 76 years old, but he has a son," the Journal quoted the adviser saying.
John Menuis
9:30 pm on Friday, May 11, 2012
Faith is no virtue. Faith is gullibility. Faith is believing in something for which there is no evidence. All religions have faith. If you depend on faith how do you differentiate between Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism or the great purple sun god? What kind of god asks people to believe using faith with no evidence?
CodyYooooo
4:16 pm on Sunday, May 13, 2012
I have faith Ron Paul will win the election, there's plenty of evidence but people like you just can't see it.
I have faith in the spirits of Jesus Christ, Ghandi, Buddah, and Superman (Not to compare the first three to him, that's your purple sun God) and the summary of all their teachings will prevail over the ignorance of people like you, who walk blindly with no faith.
I have faith you will one day see the errors of your own perception.
rob
5:39 pm on Sunday, May 13, 2012
i have faith the police in america have an IQ of less than a corn patch
Marcelino moreno
9:55 pm on Friday, May 11, 2012
Is in it ironic that you mention faith, as if science don't require faith. Science does have faith and a god, that is (time plus space plus chance) what is chance? Can we see chance? Can we talk to chance? Can we touch chance? Can we smell chance? Seems to me that someone needs faith to believe in chance!
David
3:27 pm on Saturday, May 12, 2012
Science doesn't require faith, your confusion is really big.
Jonathon MacRae
10:51 pm on Friday, May 11, 2012
Read Hebrews 11 if you don't understand.
However, I warn you, without faith you will never be able to understand.
By the way, of the four religions you listed, three of them have the exact same roots with different branches. Faith and research would help you to determine the only branch that bears fruit today.
David Leonard
8:30 am on Saturday, May 12, 2012
Mark Twain once said that faith is pretending to believe what you know ain't true.
LarryLinn
12:48 pm on Saturday, May 12, 2012
Well said!
Corvus Rabiatus
9:21 pm on Sunday, May 13, 2012
I like that!
Samuel Clements was a true American and a smart one at that! (Unlike many that I know nowadays, unfortunately.)
Oh and I'm NOT an American, thank the higher being of choice.
FreedomLover
9:46 pm on Saturday, May 12, 2012
I'm very disappointed to read these words from Rand Paul. I thought he was for freedom and the rights of the individual. If he is, he must be for not only freedom OF religion, but also freedom FROM religion. This kind of language coupled with his stance on the Civil Rights Act wherein he favors property rights over individual rights makes me think he's a reactionary, not a libertarian. You've lost me, Rand.
Jason
1:02 pm on Sunday, May 13, 2012
Yes, i sadly felt very much the same. So much so I took the time to go to Rand's Sentate page and contact him to inform them of my disappointment.
Corvus Rabiatus
9:07 pm on Sunday, May 13, 2012
Just goes to show that Rand Paul is no less a society follower than all of the other politiciians. He's just into it for himself and the fortunes that he pursues. He's just a bleached and permed stooge like the rest of them. He's the ultimate fortune hunter and he is playing all his voters for suckers.
Aaron Hoffman
8:25 am on Sunday, May 13, 2012
Links to a video of the speech
part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wfx-7pexJ48
part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t9tlQXbeL3s
TheRoadLessCrazy
11:38 am on Sunday, May 13, 2012
Practicing morals is an individual faith that one perceives or has been taught to do. Faith does not just have to be only with a supreme being. There is also faith in your friends, family & fellow human beings. Both faith & morals cover a broad spectrum of beliefs. If someone says they have good morals & strong faith is doesn't not necessarily mean that they are extreme in their religion or even their convictions. Saying this country is lacking in either to many is a true statement. Is kindness & common decency to each other too much to ask? Why do we continue to take it too such extremes when we do not agree with someone? If your life style is not being infringed upon in a violent or criminal manner, then why do we really need to argue, not debate, but full on argue with one another? Do what's right for yourself & allow others do what they feel is right for them.
Corvus Rabiatus
9:15 pm on Sunday, May 13, 2012
Rand Paul is a fraud and someone who takes advantage of the anger and true feelings of the common people. It is what he thrives on and how he gets his business established. He feeds on the desire of decent people to see real change, but he fails to deliver at every turn, His expressed ideals are unrealistic and he knows it. Yet he will put them forth and poison the gullible minds to follow him like the sheep that he wants the people to be.
Wake Up!
See the Filthy Fascist for what he is!
Corvus Rabiatus
9:41 pm on Sunday, May 13, 2012
Not to put too fine a point to it, but Rand Paul is a fraud. He is just the bleached and permed product of his dad, who actually has some measure of genuine intent.
Rand Paul has none and only serves his own ambition, dragging all of his voters with him into the void that what his purported 'ideals' are!
His ideal is minimum wage for all, except for the tax-exempted 'happy-few'.
His justice is that of the pocket-book (meaning: Not yours!)
His sense of fairness is that of the stick he pokes in your eye.
His idea of gender equality is bare feet in front of the kitchen counter, subsequently the inability to 'get it up' after an exhausting 12 hour day in his libertarian-paradise work environment.
Fascism has no claim over his ideals, but it is no less.
Corvus Rabiatus
9:48 pm on Sunday, May 13, 2012
Yep! I don't like Rand Paul and I do not make a secret of that.
I despise him like what I find under the soles of my shoes after a visit to the dog-park.
I dislike him for the fake that he shows himself to be.
Vile and unsanitary is the feeling that I have when seeing him.
Uncouth and mentally incapable is what I deem his utterings to be.
He is the ultimate antithesis of what I expect in a Senator.
But Heck! He's yours!
That defines you!
Corvus Rabiatus
9:58 pm on Sunday, May 13, 2012
Rand Paul is a mere symptom of the sickness that plagues the American political system. He's like a little bully who pokes a stick into the wheels. An intentonal saboteur and a willfully damaging operative towards the democratic process.
His ignorant and inept voters allow him to do that.
That is the way Fascism arrives.