Rand Paul to GOP: Our party's gone crazy and we're offending people

[Faygo Kid]

Source: UPI

Senator Rand Paul, R-Ky., is attempting to dial back Republican rhetoric surrounding voter ID laws, telling the New York Times the GOP needs to avoid further alienating minorities.

"Everybody's gone completely crazy on this voter ID thing," Paul said yesterday.

The Senator's comments come after meeting with a group of black pastors at a Republican National Committee meeting in Memphis, where they discussed the inevitability of voter suppression, intended or otherwise.

Paul acknowledged that the debates surrounding the issue took on a racial tone, and said it behooves Republicans to be sensitive not to offend, again calling his GOP colleagues "crazy.". . .

Read more: http://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2014/05/10/Rand-Paul-to-GOP-Our-partys-gone-crazy-and-were-offending-people/2881399749655/?spt=mps&or=5

---

You're a little late to the party, Rand, and it's only going to get worse. Couldn't help but think of Patsy's song when I read this.

&feature=kp

Oh, by the way, don't forget to say Benghazi. It's the new Obamacare.

[hollowdweller]

1. I think it will wind up mobilizing minority and liberal voters

I think it may inhibit poor white voters.

[blkmusclmachine]

2. Today's GOP: Flat-Earthers, religious extremists, racists, bigots, misogynists, 1%'ers, and cretins.

And that's on their GOOD days!

[Faygo Kid]

3. And Wall Street and the Koch brothers

That's what makes them scary.

[Ex Lurker]

12. That's who's behind it all

without the money boys, the others would be irrelevant.

[pscot]

26. metaphor

Sauron Koch (the really wicked one you never hear about) has vast steaming piles of Cash; filthy lucre generated by fossil fuels and war machinery. Greedier than any dragon he roots among his treasure and dreams of having it all. He's willing to turn the earth into a smoking ruin, as long as he can have it all.

[Archae]

8. You forgot the Ayn Rand phanbois.

[Proud Liberal Dem]

4. Thank you Captain Obvious

[jberryhill]

5. When Rand Paul is your voice of sanity...

[Nay]

35. Indeed. It's a sad commentary on the whole situation, isn't it?

[Gore1FL]

45. I'm not sure I'd attribute Sanity to him

He isn't against the policy because it is wrong or fraudulent. He is against the policy because it offends people. He's right, but not for the right reasons.

[ForgoTheConsequence]

6. That's not what he said before.

He's going to try and portray himself as a moderate. He would probably get away with it if it weren't for an invention known as the internet.


He's even embraced evolution lately (what a brave stance!). He's in full campaign mode for college "liberal" votes.

[Thinkingabout]

7. Yep, let Rand Paul lead the GOP out of its ugly hateful ways, by all means.

After he has gotten rid of offensive and hateful remarks for both GOP and libertarians we will all be Democrats.

[SoapBox]

9. Yup! You know all about the Crazy!

Obstructionist Asshole.

[Jack Rabbit]

10. The senator does not go far enough

Voter ID laws are the modern literacy tests. It's Jim Crow. Nothing short of a call for immediate repeal is acceptable. No one must be prevented from voting this year.

[Cha]

23. Thank you, Jack Rabbit!

[BumRushDaShow]

11. "the GOP needs to avoid further alienating minorities."

Too late. When his smug ass decided to show up to "lecture" said room full of "minorities" at Howard University, it was a complete FAIL -

"Some people have asked if I'm nervous about speaking at Howard," Paul joked. "They say 'You know, some of the students and faculty may be Democrats.'" That landed like a brick on a concrete slab. After that, as though Paul had spent no time learning about Howard itself, Paul proceeded to lecture his audience on the history of black voters and the Republican Party, using the abridged version preferred by Fox News pundits: Lincoln freed the slaves, Democrats were the party of the Jim Crow, so black people should vote Republican. Paul mangled the name of one of the only elected black senators and a Howard alum, Massachusetts Republican Edward Brooke, calling him "Edwin Brooks," and then asked the audience if they knew that the founders of the NAACP were Republicans. The people in the audience replied, laughing and incredulous, that they did. Later he tried to whitewash his position on the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and an audience member pointed out that Paul's opposition to a key provision of the act was "on tape."

http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2013/04/rand-paul-howard-university-outreach-republican-party

This is the key that needs to be repeated over and over every time they utter the bullshit that tries to equate today's GOP with that of the past -

The official Republican history of race in America should no longer ignore the fact that Republicans abandoned black people after Reconstruction in the name of "reconciliation" between North and South or elide the party's post-1964 embrace of the politics of white racial resentment. That the party that was once the party of Jim Crow now gets upwards of 90 percent of the black vote is not an indictment of the Democratic Party. It is an indictment of the Republican Party.

http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2013/04/rand-paul-howard-university-outreach-republican-party

He needs to resign and leave town... and take his crazy father with him.

[freshwest]

16. What a condescending asswipe. He really thought he could lecture on history at Howard? Idiot. n/t

[calimary]

20. Yeah. It was hugely uncomfortable to watch. He started one of his sentences with "I'll bet you

didn't know that the founders of the NAACP were republicans..." and the instant murmuring reaction of the crowd clearly indicated that they DID, he was actually a little taken aback. "Oh you did know that?"

As you just said - "what a condescending asswipe!" Yes. He thought he was breaking some news with that audience. Instead, all he broke was a lotta wind.

[Cha]

24. Yeah, and Abe Lincoln was a republican.. and "won't you look at

our condescending asswipes now! "

[freshwest]

28. Yes, there is no past or future in these guys' present. Read a *breathless* piece of *news* that

telcoms keep all call records for a month and then delete them!! OMG, stop the presses!!

This was SOP as the ESS (electronic switching centers) were installed. And OMG, they saved what numbers called other numbers!

It was for billing for long distance calls. Oh, the horror! Stunning this is happening, just as it did over forty years ago.

Tired of old news being used to promote the idea that some great revelation is being made to save the human race.

Pullease. If people are that paranoid, they need to *do a John Connor* before Arnuld finds them coming back through a time machine to get 'em.

[madokie]

19. Make sure he has his crazy ass with him too

[alp227]

38. EXACTLY. Rand is doing some cover-your-ass stuff right here.

Remember, Rand is the same guy who defended the "right to discriminate" on Rachel Maddow's show back in 2010.

[Fortinbras Armstrong]

43. I just listened to that Rachel Maddow piece

He kept dodging the question. And what was that blabbering about William Lloyd Garrison?

Also, I think he meant "1940s" rather than "1840s" for desegregation of Boston transit. Is either date accurate?

[Brigid]

13. It really took him this long to figure that out?

[YOHABLO]

14. ''offending people'' bad choice of words .. more like disenfranchising voters. Because we>>

know what this vote ID crap is all about. It's to keep minorities who generally vote for Democratic Candidates from voting. There's never been a serious voter fraud problem in the U.S. Unless of course it's the Republicans flipping the votes with their buddy's Diebold voting machines.

[calimary]

22. And please understand - all he cares about is the cosmetics of it.

They're supposed to avoid "offending people." Which translates in republi-CON-speak as - keep doing this shit. But just speak about it differently in public. Find a tidied-up way to TALK about it. But don't bother trying to change, or heaven forbid abandon that sacred fuck-everybody-but-wealthy-older-white-men agenda!

They have no intention whatsoever of changing or even slightly moderating their views or their policies or their Bronze-Age anti-minorities/anti-women/anti-99%/anti-science/anti-tolerance attitudes or their party's platform planks or ANY of that. They see no reason to do so. They are firmly-set and confident in their beliefs that they are "right" and everybody else is wrong and their blue-eyed white-skinned English-speaking "god" is on their side. It's just the cosmetics behind it all that is starting to worry this pinhead and some of his little friends. Watch and listen carefully. Some of 'em are gonna start trying to sound really open-minded and tolerant and accepting of other demographics than exclusively the knuckle-dragger contingent. They're gonna start making like they've seen the light and SUUUUUURE they're gonna listen to women and be concerned with "real" immigration issues and voter suppression issues. MY ASS.

MY ASS they will. It'll all be a pants-load of soothing, nice-sounding, cosmetic artificially-sweetened happy-talk. And it won't mean a damn thing if they get into power. These people are awfully tricky. You've gotta watch 'em closely, and listen to them even MORE closely. They ALL speak with forked tongues. Or they wouldn't be members of the GOP.

[Wounded Bear]

30. This ^^^

Just more bullshit re-branding.

Or, as I like to say, polishing the turd.

[Scuba]

15. ... said the guy with the neo-Confederate staff.

[Major Hogwash]

17. And Rand is the leader of the band!!!

What a crock of hypocrisy that azzklown is full of!!

[mindwalker_i]

18. Wow, I agree with Rand Paul

Now I feel kind of... weird.

[Kingofalldems]

21. Those laws are there to protect us against

the New Black Panthers as documented by Fox news. They apparently have 2 members who once stood outside of a polling place.

[Demeter]

25. We had a local election Tuesday, and the voters were up in arms over photo ID

Michigan requests a photo id, but doesn't demand it. If you haven't got your driver's license on you, you can sign an affidavit swearing that you are who you say you are, and vote regular.

It's a complicated situation. I think Michigan did a reasonable compromise which doesn't drive the system and the voters and the poll workers crazy, but lets the GOP think they pulled a fast one.

[Politicalboi]

27. Oh Please

"The Senator's comments come after meeting with a group of black pastors."

There's the reason right there, what was he supposed to say. Come tomorrow, the whole thing will change.

[freshwest]

29. He's got a different spiel for the Bundies, his brothers under the hoods and robes. n/t

[Tom Ripley]

31. Who the fuck is he? Rip Van Winkle?

[SummerSnow]

32. Rand Paul , we haven't forgotten...

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/09/chris-hayes-rand-paul-racist_n_3570440.html

[oldandhappy]

33. John McCain playbook

Appear to be in the middle until you get the nomination, then swing far right. Sorry Ron. We have all the clips of you saying other things.

[bearssoapbox]

34. ""Everybody's gone completely crazy on this voter ID thing," Paul said yesterday."

"I think it's wrong for Republicans to go too crazy on this issue because it's offending people."

Meanwhile he's thinking...

"And we're being called out on it."

[jaysunb]

36. Rec'd for Patsy Cline :) n/t

[Paladin]

50. I'll throw in an additional rec for the young songwriter who penned "Crazy."

Guy named Willie Nelson.

[They_Live]

54. Thanks for mentioning that

I was about to do the same. Brilliant songwriting, Willie Nelson! Lovely voice, Patsy Cline!

[jaysunb]

55. I'm feeling you ! :)

Props to all.

[Wolf Frankula]

37. Every Now and Then, a Paul says something Sensible

It's still only random, and doesn't mean a Paul is intelligent.

Wolf

[winter is coming]

53. It's self-interest, not sense. He's afraid the other wackadoodles will poison the well for him. nt

[JDPriestly]

39. Look, Randy, it isn't just about voting rights.

The entire economic policy and the aggressive, nasty ways of Republican politicians are offensive to women, to minorities, and that's pretty much the majority of the country.

Libertarian ideas are extremely offensive. They mean poverty for millions of Americans. Why don't you try compassion. You need to do a complete turn-around.

I have an ancestor (actually more than one) who found religion and reformed his life from one of abusing and taking advantage of others to one of fighting for the interests and rights of the poor and of other people in general. I owe a lot to that ancestor. Because setting an example for compassion, respecting justice for all, recognizing and admitting a wrong and being willing to pay the price for living a virtuous life, respecting the rights of others, those are the keys to a truly wonderful life. Our family has been incredibly blessed, not with money, but with good relationships and good fortune in ways that do not involve money.

Forget the arrogance and hate and join the human race, Senator Paul, and you will be rewarded in ways you do not even know exist. You are just a part of the whole of humanity as are we all. Recognize it and do what you can to help others. Leave the Republican Party. It's hopeless.

[Fortinbras Armstrong]

49. Of course libertarian ideas are offensive

Libertarians start from the premise, "I've got mine, screw you!"

In the thing from Rachel Maddow cited above, Rand Paul is trying to say, "I oppose racism, but having the government force business owners to act in a non-racist manner is worse." Sorry, Dr. Paul, but that says to me that you see racism as not all that bad.

Libertarians claim to revere freedom above all else, but the obvious consequence of their ideology would be corporatism and/or plutocracy. Either one would be a dictatorship to rival Stalin at his worst.

[fujiyama]

40. It's not just about these laws being "offensive"

It's about them being morally reprehensible and simply wrong.

That's something the GOP still doesn't get. Rand Paul's comments are further proof of this. He keeps wanting to look like he's reaching out to minorities, but most will remain skeptical until he does anything of substance to address the concerns and issues affecting those he claims to be reaching out to.

So far, nothing new. This is just about optics.

[tofuandbeer]

41. But you left out the rest of the quote:

"...but we have SCOTUS on our side, so there's really no worry at all."

[JoeyT]

42. One of the chief assholes suddenly realizes he's surrounded by other assholes.

Yeah, I don't see that pulling them back from the edge.

[Zipgun]

44. You know it's bad

When Ran Paul looks like a voice of reason in comparison.

[UpInArms]

46. Oh, Rand - I see you've met ALEC

why don't you go and buy a clue

since you seem so clueless

[MynameisBlarney]

47. That's hilarious, coming from him

He's one of the crazies.

[McCamy Taylor]

48. When Rand Paul is the voice of reason for your party....it's time to go home.

[Spirochete]

51. To which he then added:

"It's about time. Keep up the good work!"

[Doctor_J]

52. Not to worry Rand. Ours is doing the work of the old Republican party for you

[another_liberal]

56. ". . . don't forget to say Benghazi. It's the new Obamacare."

Touche'