Rand Paul and Berkeley: libertarian and leftwing hotbed find common cause | World news | The Observer
- Paul Lewis:
"The rise of Paul and his libertarian brand of politics, one of the few intellectual movements with appeal across the spectrum, is turning old political assumptions on their head. Paul, the son of libertarian guru and former congressman Ron Paul, was the star of last week's Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) – an annual litmus test for the Republican base. For the second year running, Paul won the straw poll of likely Republican 2016 presidential contenders, trouncing fellow senators Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz as well as scandal-hit New Jersey governor Chris Christie.
"For decades, libertarianism has hovered on the fringe of the Republican party, associated with Ayn Rand novels, anarchists and tax refuseniks. Now it is suddenly a political force to be reckoned with, disrupting the political establishment by sparking unusual alliances between Republicans and Democrats."
"Nowhere has that dynamic been more evident than in the fallout over Edward Snowden's disclosures about widespread surveillance by the National Security Agency. Reform of the NSA is the issue Paul has claimed as his own, even to the extent of filing a lawsuit, naming himself as co-plaintiff, to challenge the agency's mass surveillance of domestic phone records....
"It used to be centrists who crossed the aisle to reach compromise. Today, it is those on the libertarian right, like Paul...
"The election is more than two years away, and already the Bush and Clinton dynasties have an air of inevitability about them. But there is something zeitgeist-like about the Paul brand: a sense that its moment may have arrived."
Read more: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/mar/15/rand-paul-berkeley-libertarian-leftwing-alliance
'via Blog this'
- Paul Lewis:
"The rise of Paul and his libertarian brand of politics, one of the few intellectual movements with appeal across the spectrum, is turning old political assumptions on their head. Paul, the son of libertarian guru and former congressman Ron Paul, was the star of last week's Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) – an annual litmus test for the Republican base. For the second year running, Paul won the straw poll of likely Republican 2016 presidential contenders, trouncing fellow senators Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz as well as scandal-hit New Jersey governor Chris Christie.
"For decades, libertarianism has hovered on the fringe of the Republican party, associated with Ayn Rand novels, anarchists and tax refuseniks. Now it is suddenly a political force to be reckoned with, disrupting the political establishment by sparking unusual alliances between Republicans and Democrats."
"Nowhere has that dynamic been more evident than in the fallout over Edward Snowden's disclosures about widespread surveillance by the National Security Agency. Reform of the NSA is the issue Paul has claimed as his own, even to the extent of filing a lawsuit, naming himself as co-plaintiff, to challenge the agency's mass surveillance of domestic phone records....
"It used to be centrists who crossed the aisle to reach compromise. Today, it is those on the libertarian right, like Paul...
"The election is more than two years away, and already the Bush and Clinton dynasties have an air of inevitability about them. But there is something zeitgeist-like about the Paul brand: a sense that its moment may have arrived."
Read more: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/mar/15/rand-paul-berkeley-libertarian-leftwing-alliance
'via Blog this'
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