The wardoves of the GOP
by digby
Well bowl me over with a feather. You mean libertarian, isolationist Rand Paul from Kentucky is just like the rest of the Republican Party, rattling his sabre the minute he gets the chance? Say it ain't so!
It is our role as a global leader to be the strongest nation in opposing Russia's latest aggression.
Putin must be punished for violating the Budapest Memorandum, and Russia must learn that the U.S. will isolate it if it insists on acting like a rogue nation.
This does not and should not require military action. No one in the U.S. is calling for this. But it will require other actions and leadership, both of which President Obama unfortunately lacks...
I would reinstitute the missile-defense shields President Obama abandoned in 2009 in Poland and the Czech Republic ...
The real problem is that Russia's President is not currently fearful or threatened in any way by America's President, despite his country's blatant aggression.
Missile defense! Now there's a Big Gummint boondoggle for you. And one might think that being upset that the US isn't threatening enough wouldn't be a libertarian position, but there it is ...
I guess my point is that if what you care about is an anti-interventionist foreign policy, you are obviously in a minority in American politics. But your best chance of actually not intervening is voting for non-interventionist Democrats, who have at least some influence in their party. For instance, Syria. It is highly doubtful that the President would have backed off without the British no vote and the impending no vote in the House led by anti-war Democrats. It's not much, but it's what we have to work with. If libertarians could get past their obsession with keeping taxes low for millionaires, they could add their numbers to the existing anti-war liberals and have a real impact. But as long as they fall for Rand Paul's flim-flam, they will be a totally marginal presence in American politics. The American right loves war. It's their main organizing principle. As bad as the Democrats are on these issues, and they are bad, they will always at least have to pay some attention to the doves in their ranks. There are a hell of a lot more of them than there are peacenik Republicans. As Paul proved this week, even the GOP doves are warmongers.
Well, when it suits them. There are times, as when Paul was speaking of college students back in 2009 when he made the non-interventionist case and called for a strong pullback from global military adventures. Who knows what he really believes?
.