Rand Paul's Techie Trek & The "Technology Revolution Manifesto"
As Rand Paul continues his unofficial run for the GOP Presidential nomination upcoming, he's been stomping around different parts of the country and engaging audiences that could be difference-makers for him in an election. The most recent stop on his tour was in Silicon Valley, where he found a favorable response from the region's techies, which some would consider surprising considering the ridiculously liberal area that the Valley resides in.However, it makes sense on both sides of the equation.Ron Paul issued his "Technology Revolution Manifesto" via the now largely irrelevant (and corrupted) Campaign for Liberty back in 2012, which was criticized by libertarians including myself and John Odermatt for separating from true libertarian ideals and embracing a more broadly conservative message. I also cited that document specifically as the moment that Ron passed the torch to his son:
The “Technology Manifesto” professes its love of internet freedom, while mainly toeing the conservative line, which intersects libertarianism in this case at multiple points. This plays into Rand Paul’s wheelhouse, as someone who has made internet freedom one of his main issues during his time in office, and even cited the cause as one that he knew Ron Paul supporters were ardent about during an interview on Sean Hannity’s radio broadcast:“My dad has a legion of young followers who are on the Internet,” Paul told Fox News host Sean Hannity, “and they think they rule the Internet and maybe they do or maybe they don’t, but they’re very concerned about the freedom of the Internet.”Ron Paul is going to retire after this campaign – he has already declared his intention to do so. So as strong as his values are, he is supporting this imperfect document to help his son enamor himself again with the liberty crowd, whom Rand has fallen out of favor with. And by focusing not on the Federal Reserve, which is being audited but is still quite strong (the Ron Paul campaign slogan is now “Audit the Fed” rather than “End the Fed”), he allows his son to focus on a topic that he can take a straighter libertarian stance on and that won’t ruffle any GOP establishment feathers like attacking the Fed would. Thus, Rand can both cuddle up to his father’s libertarian base while also making sure he stays tight with the GOP establishment that can help facilitate a presidential run.
It is not surprising in the least to see Rand return to this place of comfort, taking a stand on something that he's not likely to get much pushback on from the libertarian sector, while embracing one of the richest donation bases that an up-and-coming presidential candidate could ask for. This is the completion of a promise made by Ron Paul two years ago when he launched the Rand experience. It doesn't hurt either that in the "Manifesto", the Pauls cite Apple as one of the greats to be followed, despite it's patent-trolling ways.It also makes complete sense that these techies would embrace Paul, who supports free market economics, small government and obviously speaks out quite often against government spying and involvement in matters surrounding digital privacy.While the San Francisco Bay Area is as a whole very liberal, Silicon Valley itself is comprised of businessmen and engineers who want nothing more than privacy and the freedom to operate in the most profitable way possible. The CBS story called Rand and the Techies "strange bedfellows." I'm just shocked it has taken Rand this long to embrace them formally.(Writer's note: Speaking of technology, the video embed code keeps disappearing and it's completely inexplicable. Sorry! Video can be viewed here)Receive access to ALL of our EXCLUSIVE bonus audio content – including “Conspiracy Corner”, “Degenerate Gamblers” and the “League of Liberty Podcast” by joining the Lions of Liberty Pride and supporting us on Patreon!
