Rand Paul, still reeling from interviews in which he advocated the politically extreme position that businesses should be free to discriminate based on race, has given an interview in which he advocated completely eliminating the 14th Amendment's guarantee of citizenship to those born in the U.S. Interestingly, this interview was with the quirky Russian television network Russia Today, which broadcasts a lot of odd, far-right political opinion in a pseudo-news format. (By Russian, I mean that it's sponsored by the Russian government. It broadcasts in English via cable.) That's how far afield Rand Paul now has to go to avoid being asked about the Civil Rights Act.
Is this the strategy of his new campaign manager, Jesse Benton? Remember, Benton was the communications director for Ron Paul's 2008 presidential campaign, so it would make sense that media image building would be his focus. Benton probably looked at the options, saw RT and said, far-right, outside the echo-chamber, not highly visible, let's go for it. And maybe, just maybe, RT agreed in advance not to ask about the Civil Rights Act or BP comments.
In spite of being limited by his new campaign manager to this carefully chosen safe forum, Paul still manages to put his foot in another whopping pile of crap. His problem isn't just bad political instincts, it's that his views like those of his father are truly crazy. These aren't just unforced errors. These are the man's core beliefs.
Is this the strategy of his new campaign manager, Jesse Benton? Remember, Benton was the communications director for Ron Paul's 2008 presidential campaign, so it would make sense that media image building would be his focus. Benton probably looked at the options, saw RT and said, far-right, outside the echo-chamber, not highly visible, let's go for it. And maybe, just maybe, RT agreed in advance not to ask about the Civil Rights Act or BP comments.
In spite of being limited by his new campaign manager to this carefully chosen safe forum, Paul still manages to put his foot in another whopping pile of crap. His problem isn't just bad political instincts, it's that his views like those of his father are truly crazy. These aren't just unforced errors. These are the man's core beliefs.
Listen at 9:20 of the video below. He even spells out a motive for opposing the 14th Amendment. He worries out loud that "it helps the Democrats".
In addition to advocating gutting the Constitution in this interview, Paul also gets the facts of the attempted Times Square car-bombing wrong, advocates that the U.S. install an underground electric fence along the entire border with Mexico, and says he wants the U.S. to leave the IMF, World Bank and U.N. He's concerned about the U.N. leading armies in battle, although he makes a point of clarifying this by saying that he "likes diplomacy".
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