In a recent column, I wrote about Rand Paul’s “libertarian dilemma.” How can the Kentucky senator and 2016 presidential candidate broaden his appeal within the Republican Party without making libertarians, including prominent libertarian activists with big platforms, unhappy?
There may be a simple answer to that dilemma: the rest of the Republican field.
Lindsey Graham all but announced a bid to run for president Monday. The South Carolina senator is known for generating quotes that rile civil libertarians — “Shut up, you don’t get a lawyer!” — and he plans to spend a good bit of his presidential bid zinging Paul for being insufficiently hawkish on foreign policy.
The already announced GOP candidate Marco Rubio is campaigning on the slogan “Nothing matters if we aren’t safe.” Rubio says, “The world has never been more dangerous than it is today, but in the New American Century, a stronger America will make the world safer.”
Not only did the phrase “New American Century” play a role in conservative foreign policy debates back during the old American century. “Nothing matters if we aren’t safe,” the Federalist’s David Harsanyi argues, “seems like an unhealthy message in a free society.”
Chris Christie has defended the Patriot Act and slammed the “civil liberties extremism” based on “fears” that are “exaggerated and ridiculous.”
“When it comes to fighting terrorism our government is not the enemy, and we should not be listening to people like Edward Snowden,” Christie declared “Right now that debate is dominated by intellectual purists worried about theoretical abuses that have not occurred.”
Meanwhile, Paul is going to filibuster Patriot Act renewal. He has sued over NSA surveillance and bulk data collection practices.
The recent re-litigation of the Iraq war allows Paul to restate his opposition while also criticizing Hillary Clinton for the war in Libya. Paul, whose father was one of just seven Republicans in Congress to vote against authorizing the Iraq war, can say he was describing the invasion as a mistake long before most of his primary opponents.
Paul’s occasional overtures to more hawkish Republicans, such as when he was quoted as saying the surge worked, will continue to annoy libertarians. But he’s not going to have to work too hard to be more libertarian than most of the other Republicans running, especially on foreign policy and civil liberties.
