[caption id=”attachment_143909″ align=”aligncenter” width=”2588″]Republican presidential candidate Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., speaks during the first Republican presidential debate at the Quicken Loans Arena Thursday, Aug. 6, 2015, in Cleveland. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)
[/caption]
As the Fox News primetime debate veered into social issues, Republican presidential candidate Rand Paul had his biggest line of the night.
When asked about gay marriage, Paul declared “I don’t want my marriage or my guns registered in Washington.”
The line played well for him on Twitter as he positioned himself as a small-government conservative.
It’s also a cleverly vague line.
Younger, libertarian-leaning Republicans who have a more tolerant perspective on gay marriage, could interpret the line as a respect for LGBT rights and gun rights. Older, more conservative Republicans could understand it as a traditional support for gun owners and traditional, heterosexual marriage.
