Daily Archives: April 5, 2014

Republican Senator Rand Paul has been making a big play for millennials lately, most notably by taking his civil liberties pitch to colleges around the country. Paul has got the right idea when he says his party must evolve, adapt or die (although I think the first two are virtually the same thing).Katie Glueckof Politico wrote that The Kentucky senator drew a largely friendly reception at the University of California-Berkeley as he skewered the intelligence community.

Sen. Paul spoke of dystopian nightmares and added that your rights, especially your right to privacy, are under assault. Paulalso saidhe perceives fear of an intelligence community thats drunk with power, unrepentant and uninclined to relinquish power.

Virtually all of the other politicians taking that stand come from the left side of the political spectrum. They include figures like independent socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders and Democratic senators Ron Wyden and Mark Udall. Rand Paul is not like these other defenders of civil liberties.

Rand Paul, like his father, prefers to package his fairly old-school brand of economic conservatism under the trendier name of libertarianism. Thats not just a labeling change. It also means Paul has paired his retrograde economic ideas with a very outspoken stance against militarism and the espionage state. Its a mixture that Paul hopes can make inroads with groups that are not traditionally Republican voters.

Pauls play for millennials was almost inevitable. As a recent Pew studyreported, that generations disaffection with the two-party system appears to be at record levels. Fifty percent of millennials polled said that they do not associate themselves with either party, which is the highest percentage recorded thus far. Its also a 10 point jump from their equivalent age groups level of political affiliation only seven years ago.

But Rand Paul gravely misunderstands the nature of that political disaffection. Yes, millennials feel alienated toward political and other institutions. They have a right to feel that way. AsJoshua Hollandsays, millennials didnt abandon these institutions. The institutions abandoned them.

But Rand Paul and libertarianism are not the answer. His economic strategy can be summed up in a quota used for one of his bills: remove the shackles of big government byreducing taxes, regulations, and burdensome union work requirements.

In other words, more of the same conservative philosophy that got us in this mess in the first place. Here are 10 reasons why millennials should be extremely wary of the senator from Kentucky.

1. His philosophy of deregulation created your jobs problem.

Rand Paul loved to preach the gospel of deregulation. He went so far as to proclaim that Obama was putting his boot heel on the neck ofget thisBritish Petroleum. Why? Because BP was being asked to bear part of the cost for the oil spill it created.

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10 reasons Americans should be wary of Rand Pauls libertarianism especially millennials