If Rand Paul is an "outsider" to the establishment, why is the establishment endorsing him?
Beneath the smoke and mirrors, Rand's positions - and especially his endorsements - suggest that he's just another politician.
Undoubtedly, one of the most frustrating aspects of following the 2016 US Presidential Election has been the portrayal of Republican Senator Rand Paul as an "outsider" or some kind of "anti-establishment" candidate. Headlines such as "Why is the GOP Establishment Afraid of Rand Paul?" (Bloomberg, 7/14/2014) or "Rand Paul vs. the Hawks" (Reason, 9/3/2014) are not hard to come by, even as Rand's supporters routinely condemn the mainstream media for being biased towards his presidential aspirations.
While this bias certainly exists in some places, the media's hatred towards Rand pales in comparison to the treatment his father received. Ron Paul's speeches - unlike Rand's - rarely ever put a blip on the mainstream media's radar. In fact, Ron Paul's media coverage was so poor that even the buffoonish Donald Trump outweighed him, at least according to research conducted in August 2011 by Pew:
"From January 1-August 14, Paul has been a dominant newsmaker in only 27 campaign stories. (To be considered a dominant newsmaker, someone must be featured in at least 50% of a story.) That is less than one-quarter of the media attention generated by former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney (120 stories), who is the top newsmaker among Republican candidates. And he has received 25% as much coverage as Bachmann, the Minnesota Congresswoman (108 stories).
Paul's coverage also lags far behind Trump (94 stories), who dallied with a run before opting out in mid-May and Palin (85 stories), who has given no indication to date that she will enter the race. In addition, Paul trails longshot candidate and former Utah governor Jon Huntsman (44 stories) and Texas Governor, Rick Perry (33 stories) who only announced his candidacy on August 13.
The only significant GOP candidates that Paul is besting are former Pennsylvania senator Rick Santorum (21 stories) and businessman Herman Cain (11 stories)."
When the networks did allow Ron Paul to air his opinions, they usually preferred to paint him as some kind of fringe candidate, even on Republican-friendly networks like FOX News. Back in 2007, FOX went so far as to flat-out exclude Ron Paul from a debate because they had "limited space" in their studio, according to the Associated Press, and because they chose to only invite candidates who had received double-digit support in the polls.
Rand Paul, on the other hand, has made multiple appearances on FOX News, and many of those appearances have been positive. And while there are documented instances of FOX doing things like "accidentally" erasing Rand from aired polling results, overall, they've still treated him better than they treated his father when he ran for president back in 2008 and 2012.
In February 2014, former FOX host Glenn Beck and current FOX host Sean Hannity both agreed that they are "on the same page" when it comes to supporting Rand Paul for President. FOX contributor Andrew Napolitano conceded that Rand has said some things which "cannot be defended from a libertarian point of view" but then went on to hallucinate that Rand is nonetheless "every bit as libertarian as his father." FOX contributor John Stossel wrote a glowing op-ed praising Rand's presidential campaign, employing the common excuse once used by Obama supporters - now hijacked by Rand supporters - of "He May Not Be Perfect, But He's Our Best Chanceâ„¢". Following Rand Paul's 2013 filibuster, FOX contributor Michelle Malkin appeared on FOX and Friends to happily announce that Rand has the best shot at keeping the two-party system in power: "Here's the Republican Party that has been puzzling about its tarnished brand, and trying to figure out a way to reach out to non-traditional constituencies - well, it happened last night." FOX contributor Mark Levin drooled, "The man's got ideas. The man's got enormous energy. I think he's such an incredible attribute to the Republican Party, which is why he's trashed - like Ted Cruz and the others." He added: "I think he's a breath of fresh air. I'm glad he's in the Republican Party."
Finally, there's the FOX Kingpin himself, Rupert Murdoch, who said in early 2015: "I personally like Rand Paul very much, and I am very impressed by his brain." This bromance between Rand and Rupert was possibly made official a year prior when Rand invited Murdoch to join him at the Kentucky Derby for drinks and kettle corn.
Beyond the realm of FOXland, Rand has also received some support from a handful of the "liberals" over at MSNBC. Said Chris Matthews (who also busted out the pompoms for George W. Bush during the invasion of Iraq): "[Rand's] not for big government or a big foreign establishment or nation-building, as he made clear. It comes through again and again, it comes clear, I'm not George W. Bush or the crowd of clowns around him." In another instance, Matthews "saluted" the country's "number-one Republican whistleblower: Rand Paul." Elsewhere on the network, MSNBC host Joe Scarborough complained that if only America had followed Rand Paul's foreign policy, "there would be no ISIS, because we would never have gone into Iraq and Saddam Hussein would still be there, ISIS would not." And, according to MSNBC's Ari Melber, Rand Paul's "leadership" struck the right tone on NSA surveillance.
While there are definitely examples of individuals on both of the aforementioned networks speaking negatively about Rand (like Bill O'Reilly for FOX or Rachel Maddow for MSNBC), overall, for a candidate branded as some kind of outsider, there are still nonetheless a great many people in the mainstream media throwing their support behind him.
Rand's other supposedly "anti-establishment" endorsements have included:
Sarah Palin, who said during an interview that she's "on Team Rand". When Rand caught wind of her kind words, he gleefully responded: "I love an endorsement by Sarah Palin. What's not to love?"
The media has certainly pushed the idea that Mitch McConnell and Rand Paul's relationship has deteriorated over differences relating to government surveillance, but behind the scenes, a different picture emerges. The Washington Post reported Paul saying on 5/24/2015 that he and McConnell "have good relations. Really, period. We're friends and we disagree on this issue." Rand added: "We have disagreements in our caucus all the time. But I try to keep it on a friendly basis, and, you know, I don't think this will hurt our friendship."
And let's not forget that McConnell and Paul mutually endorsed one another prior to their spat over the Patriot Act renewal. "Obviously, I'm a big supporter of Rand Paul. We've developed a very tight relationship, and I'm for him," McConnell said in late 2014. In another interview, McConnell gushed over Paul like a hormone-crazed fanboy: "He is an extraordinary political talent. The way he has burst onto the national scene, I initially think the attention was just because his dad had run for president. But now it's clear that he is a very credible national figure. I am proud of what he has done." As for Rand's presidential run, McConnell said in late 2014 that "he'll be able to count on me."
For his part, Rand endorsed Mitch McConnell for re-election in 2014. His initial reasoning for backing McConnell was "because he asked me to" - but that steadily changed as Rand was pressed to give a more detailed explanation. In February 2014, Rand called McConnell an "important ally" and a "conservative voice in Washington for the people of Kentucky", adding: "The commonwealth is stronger because of his service and I look forward to continuing to work with him." A few months later, Rand again defended his endorsement of McConnell: "I came out of the tea party movement. I'm very concerned about the debt. I'm very concerned about big government. But I think the misnomer is to think somehow Senator McConnell isn't. That's what his whole entire career has been predicated upon - fighting against big government."
But the most significant pro-establishment endorsement Rand Paul has received is the one that the supposedly anti-Rand Paul mainstream media has barely reported on.
"I've seen him grow, and I've seen him mature, and I've seen him become more centrist," John McCain told the New Yorker's Ryan Lizza in October 2014. "I know that, if he were president or a nominee, I could influence him, particularly some of his views and positions on national security. He trusts me particularly on the military side of things, so I could easily work with him. It wouldn't be a problem."
In January 2015, Rand Paul returned the sentiment: "I think we've made up," he told the Arizona Republic. "When we talked, I said, 'You know, sometimes, I can get overboard, and, sometimes, both of us can get overboard.' And that's the best way to acknowledge a dispute. Disputes take two to fight, and for the most part, we have many, many things in common as Republicans. ... It was a mistake to make that too personal on my part."
Added to the list of endorsements Rand Paul has received, there's also the one major endorsement Rand himself gave to none other than Mitt Romney back in 2012. During an interview with Sean Hannity, Rand officially signaled his allegiance to the GOP establishment by uttering such a profound line of garbage that Ron Paul might have secretly reconsidered his stance on abortion - if only for the opportunity to go back in time and spare himself the future humiliation of being related to someone so utterly deranged: "I came away from it feeling [Romney] would be a very responsible commander-in-chief," said Rand. "I don't think he'll be reckless. I don't think he'll be rash. And I think that he realizes and believes as I do that war is a last resort and something we don't rush willy-nilly into. And I came away feeling that he'll have mature attitude and beliefs towards foreign policy."
And so here we have a candidate with a thumbs-up from the likes of Sean Hannity, Glenn Beck, Rupert Murdoch, Sarah Palin, Mitch McConnell, and John McCain. Here we have a candidate who endorsed a hack like Mitt Romney. Here we have a candidate who wrote an op-ed praising the Koch brothers; a candidate who has supported economic warfare not only against Iran (while simultaneously trashing negotiation efforts) - but Russia as well; a candidate who has called for an increase in military spending while simultaneously defending the US government's Tomahawk missile program; a candidate who held a private meeting with Goldman Sachs; a candidate who wants to eliminate US foreign aid to countries like Palestine - but not to countries like Israel, which receive infinitely more; a candidate who supports nation-building measures in Iraq, airstrikes against ISIS, and US arms to Ukraine; a candidate who wants to keep the torturous hellhole at Guantanamo Bay open, regardless of how damaging it is to America's international image; a candidate who "doesn't have a lot of sympathy" for whistleblowers like Chelsea Manning and a candidate who thinks other whistleblowers, like Edward Snowden, should share a prison cell with James Clapper; and a candidate who - much like then-Senator Barack Obama - doesn't want to end the government's failed drug prohibition policies, but instead, wants to "reform" them.
Only in some kind of twisted Orwellian dystopia would the aforementioned constitute anything closely resembling an "anti-establishment" or "outsider" candidate. Rand Paul - like Hillary Clinton and Jeb Bush - is just another drone for the two-party system, but unlike them, the significant difference is that he's remarkably talented at hiding his sameness.
Tearing a page from the political playbook of candidate George W. Bush, Rand is promising to be a "different kind of Republican" who wants a "humble foreign policy" - and tearing another page from the political playbook of Barack Obama, Rand's campaign is desperately portraying him as some kind of challenger to the status quo, a torchbearer of "hope and change". But beneath the smoke and mirrors, Rand's positions - and especially his endorsements - suggest that he's just another politician.