{"id":4726,"date":"2010-11-03T07:41:51","date_gmt":"2010-11-03T12:41:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/brucegarrett.com\/brucelog\/?p=4726"},"modified":"2010-11-03T08:42:20","modified_gmt":"2010-11-03T13:42:20","slug":"our-government","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brucegarrett.com\/brucelog\/4726","title":{"rendered":"Our Government"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rand Paul, white heterosexual<\/span> tea party candidate won his contest last night, and among cheering white heterosexual supporters announced to the world…<\/p>\n

I have a message – a message from the people of Kentucky, a message that is loud and clear and does not mince words: We’ve come to take our government back!<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Our government. \u00a0 Our government. \u00a0 Our government. \u00a0 This from the man who said it was wrong for government to force businesses to obey civil rights laws<\/a> because it was a violation of individual liberty, but who also thinks government should be in the business of controlling women’s bodies, dictating what is and what is not marriage<\/a> and what is and what is not a family. \u00a0 So when speaks of “the people” and utters the phrase “our government” it’s pretty easy to tell that “the people” are not necessarily his neighbors in this life but merely his own kind. \u00a0 White. \u00a0 Heterosexual. \u00a0 Oh…and rich. \u00a0 Very very rich.<\/p>\n

Thus, the Louisiana Courier Press reported during the campaign…<\/p>\n

Along with college and university students, Paul is courting the libertarian-leaning Republicans who got excited about his father. But to win a Kentucky primary, he’ll need social conservatives, and University of Kentucky political scientist Stephen Voss said he must be careful as he tries to appeal to both.<\/p>\n

“This is a difficult tightrope to walk,” said Voss, who nonetheless believes Paul may be the front-runner right now. “When he’s talking economics and money, he is philosophically a libertarian. When he talks about social issues, he’s sending guarantees to the right wing that he’s not libertarian.”<\/p>\n

Paul says he opposes abortion without exception, not even in cases of rape, incest or the health of the expectant mother. He also opposes marriages between gay and lesbian couples. At the same time, he voices staunch opposition to government intruding in the private lives of citizens.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

A Difficult Tightrope To Walk…<\/em> No, not a tightrope, a deception. \u00a0 \u00a0 There are two kinds of “libertarian”. \u00a0 There’s the useful tools who really believe that crap. \u00a0 I was one of those back in the late 70s and moved around in Libertarian circles, working on campaigns, getting bored shoppers to sign our petitions, and that was where I saw that I was basically just a useful tool for the other sort of Libertarian. \u00a0 The faux ones. \u00a0 The rich right wingers and hard core John Birchers who saw libertarian rhetoric as a good way to bamboozle voters, especially young voters. \u00a0 I first saw it when a vigorous argument broke out in the ranks after the U.S. supreme court decision in Hardwick v. Bowers upheld the state’s sodomy laws. \u00a0 I was aghast and fully expected my comrades in the movement to be also. \u00a0 But…no. \u00a0 It was all about “state’s rights” many of them said. \u00a0 But, but…says I…surely the states don’t have the right to toss grown adults in jail for simply for having sex either, no matter how strongly others may disapprove. \u00a0 Individual liberty and all that. \u00a0 No, no, I was told over and over. \u00a0 “State’s rights”. \u00a0 “State’s rights”. \u00a0 “State’s rights”.<\/p>\n

It was a slogan I had come to know well from the fight over race segregation in America, and I knew perfectly well even at a young age just what it was code for, along with that other famous code phrase of the time. \u00a0 We reserve the right to refuse service to anyone.<\/em><\/p>\n

I got your libertarian America right here…<\/p>\n

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…and here…<\/p>\n

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…and here…<\/p>\n

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…and here…<\/p>\n

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…and here.<\/p>\n

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And I got your “libertarian” senator right here…<\/p>\n

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\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Rand Paul, white heterosexual tea party candidate won his contest last night, and among cheering white heterosexual supporters announced to the world… I have a message – a message from the people of Kentucky, a message that is loud and clear and does not mince words: We’ve come to take our government back! Our government. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,65],"tags":[118,20,6],"class_list":["post-4726","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","category-thumping-my-pulpit","tag-republican-america","tag-the-american-gutter","tag-the-right-wing-mindset"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brucegarrett.com\/brucelog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4726","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brucegarrett.com\/brucelog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brucegarrett.com\/brucelog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brucegarrett.com\/brucelog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brucegarrett.com\/brucelog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4726"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/brucegarrett.com\/brucelog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4726\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brucegarrett.com\/brucelog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4726"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brucegarrett.com\/brucelog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4726"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brucegarrett.com\/brucelog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4726"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}