Rand Pauluses & Minuses: Rand Horribly Wrong on Kim Davis, but Right on Cheney
As of last week's column, Rand was toeing the "100 Pauluses" line. Can he reach that lofty milestone in this edition? He certainly won't in the first and most highly publicized news of last week, regarding the now infamous Kim Davis.Rand Supports Kim Davis in KY Gay Marriage License Flap It would be shocking if anyone hadn't heard the name Kim Davis by now, the foolish, self-righteous (and hypocritical) county clerk in Kentucky who refused to grant marriage licenses to gay couples who had every legal right to them. A full breakdown of that story can be found here. Essentially, Davis' argument was that her religious beliefs allowed her to deny these gay couples a license, despite her working for a government office.Davis was wrong, from a Constitutional standpoint, and I won't get into my feelings on her standing as a member of society. She is a repulsive figure in every possible way.Rand came out in support of Davis' actions, taking the position that she somehow had a right to this stance, that she shouldn't be fired or jailed - even though she denied the rights and liberties of others that had been legally sanctioned, because of her own sanctimonious idiocy - despite her working as a government employee.Kim Davis has a right to freely practice her religion, but not use her position as a government official to dictate how laws are enforced. Her position requires that she treat everyone equally under the law, which has provided gay couples the right to a marriage license. If she has a problem fulfilling that responsibility, she should quit or be fired.Davis stated that she recognized "God's authority" over that of the state, which is a fine thing to believe except that one of the founding principles of this nation is the freedom to practice any religion. Thus, no one religion or belief can supersede the laws of the state - and yes I realize that Christianity has wormed its way deeply into government - for that would then naturally become an issue when it comes to treating every citizen with the same freedoms and liberties. God does not have authority that takes precedence over the legally assured rights of others as "protected" by the Constitution and government.If she wants to practice her religious liberties she is free to do so, but only in the private sector.It's shameful that Rand took this position, even acknowledging his own religious views. A man who prides himself on his knowledge of the Constitution and the rights of individuals should know that he's wrong here and there isn't any gray area to hide behind.- MINUSRand Says Cheney is "wrong about every foreign policy decision for the past 20 years"Dick Cheney and George W. Bush teamed up to put America into some of the worst and longest lasting undeclared wars since Vietnam, based upon faulty (or intentionally fabricated) information, misguided policy theory and the benefit of a national tragedy which they took advantage of to remove Constitutionally provided liberties en mass. Suffice to say, no one should be listening much to Dick Cheney's take on foreign policy, and thankfully Rand Paul is on the side of the skeptics when it comes to Dick's opinions. From the Huffington Post:
"I think Dick Cheney has probably been wrong about almost every foreign policy decision over the last 20 or 30 years," Paul told conservative talk show host Laura Ingraham. "The only time he was actually right about something in foreign policy is when he advised the first George Bush that taking Baghdad would lead to chaos, civil war and destabilizing a region. That's ultimately what happened. "Cheney, who served as vice president under President George W. Bush, published a new book on Tuesday with his daughter, Liz, in which they blame the rise of the Islamic State on the withdrawal of American troops from Iraq.
The rise of ISIS can be attributed to numerous actions taken by the United States. Starting with the repeated destabilizing of the region, through replacing the leaders in Iran, to deposing Saddam, to the funding and arming of Al Qaeda to fight the Russians, through to our funding and arming Syrian rebels who went on to team with Al Qaeda and found ISIS. This is all linked to America's meddling foreign policy mistakes. And those mistakes have been repeated by every President, regardless of party affiliation, for the past 50 years.Rand is one of the few candidates who seems interested to stopping this cycle.- PAULUSRand argues more jobs would ease the heroin "problem" in AmericaMultiple outlets picked up on a story coming out of a Rand campaign stop in New Hampshire, during which he voiced his opinion that more employment would cut down on the rate of Americans dying from heroin overdose, which has quadrupled since 2002. From CNN:
Rand Paul argued in New Hampshire Wednesday that the heroin epidemic in the United States could be solved in part by putting people back to work."People always come up to me and say, 'We got heroin problems and all these other problems.' You know what? If you work all day long, you don't have time to do heroin," the Kentucky senator said to applause while holding a meet-and-greet at the Airport Diner in Manchester.Later, when talking about the war on drugs, Paul said he supports addressing issues like the heroin epidemic by giving people treatment, rather than jail time."We need to treat it more as a health problem and less as an incarceration problem," Paul said, referring specifically to nonviolent drug users.
Rand also extended his comments to touch upon welfare and disability payments.
"We need to attach work to everything. I don't think any able-bodied person in America should get a penny unless they work. No handouts, no gifts, no welfare. Everything should have work," Paul said to more applause.
I concur that people shouldn't be doing jail time as a result of drug use, and I could theoretically see how employment could in fact help lower the rate of drug use/abuse in some people. Boredom and inactivity do factually lead to depression, which in turn can lead one to seek out an escape.However, I don't specifically buy that joblessness causes heroin overdoses because it's driving people to use more. To link those without direct statistics on who OD'd, whether they had a job or not, or were recipients of welfare or government subsidy is a bridge too far, considering heroin use increased for every income level and ethnicity from 2002-13. This would instead lead me to think this is a product of a greater issue, which is that substances like heroin, cocaine, and to a large extent across the nation, marijuana, are still only available via the black market - and that black market exists without quality controls.The War on Drugs has created an environment where any substance can be pushed, without consequence, and without quality control. This is turn can lead to varying quality, potency and reliability.The CDC theorizes that most heroin users were addicted to opiate painkillers and then turned to heroin after their prescription wore out, as it's far cheaper than high level prescription painkillers. Because of the illegality of heroin, users are forced to purchase questionable products, which are then secretly used and accompanied with an almost complete lack of support for assistance should the user desire it. Because of the illicit categorization, users may be hesitant to get help, because jobs, family, etc. may turn on them due to the negative connotation the government has assigned to this and other drugs via its propaganda campaigns on TV, radio, etc.To sum it up, unreliable "bad" drugs from the black market, combined with forced secrecy of use and shame brought on by government propaganda equal more overdoses as heroin usage increases. Never mind, btw, that the government's incredibly easy to enter disability programs are also a huge factor in all this, with record numbers on disability payments, collecting free money at home while also using those exact opiate painkillers prescribed for real or invented ailments.No one will label it as such, but the government is the dealer for the "gateway" drugs leading to heroin use.I'll give Rand a push here. He's half right, but not tackling the main issue.No 100 Pauluses for you this week, #Randypants!The Current “Paulus-Minus” Tally:99 Pauluses / 33 Minuses / 6 PushBe sure to check out our latest companion podcast edition of Rand Pauluses and Minuses, and stay tuned for the newest edition this coming Thursday right here at Lions of Liberty! Be sure to never miss an episode and subscribe to the Lions of Liberty Podcast - released every Monday and Thursday - for free via iTunes - don't forget to leave us a rating and review ;) - or the Stitcher Radio App,. The show also airs on our affiliates at LibertyTalk.FM at 6pm EST every Saturday and Sunday, and throughout the week at LRN.FM, the Liberty Radio Network! Check out our full catalog of interviews in the podcast archive!Check out the full “Rand Pauluses and Minuses” Archive!The Lions of Liberty are on Twitter, Facebook & Google+Check out our YouTube Channel!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!Join our Facebook Group: The Lions of Liberty Forum
