Often there is a very fine line drawn between altruistic reasoning and ambitious sophistry. This book walks us right down the middle of that line with a blindfold.
Rand Paul skillfully addresses the issues of the day with the same right-joins-left/strange bedfellows worldview with which libertarians often tug at the heartstrings of their progressive counterparts.
Every time you're ready to trash this book for its reactionary thinking, he grabs and holds your attention with yet one more of those civil rights bugbears commonly detested at both ends of the spectrum.
Now, here are some examples of what's bad about the good senator:
He still naively believes in tax relief for the wealthy. Perhaps he really is the kind, Christian healer who somehow cannot fathom the minds of the Andrew Mellons of the world. But after 35 years of failed Reaganomics, causing a wealth disparity that has pushed us backward to the days of the Great Gatsby, he is comically convinced that the hoarders and inheritors of this country have a sense of noblesse oblige.
He is apparently one of the few Americans who knows of or remembers the first of two attacks on the US Embassy in Tehran in February of 1979, which he juxtaposes with Benghazi. However, the conclusion which he offers in both cases speaks for military response rather than the correct view of simply not being somewhere we most certainly don't belong, CIA covert mission or otherwise.
On the one hand he admits that the sole Middle East foreign policy of our most Christian nation is to destabilize secular governments. But then he devotes an entire chapter puzzling over why Christians are being persecuted in that region.
He champions the cause of ending the NSA's spying on Americans, but then renounces Snowden's actions as "dishonest," though acknowledging that without Snowden, we'd all be very much in the dark.
He's against the Affordable Care Act based on the fact that his medical missionary work in Guatemala proves that American doctors will provide pro bono treatment to the 16.4 million otherwise uninsured. 'Nuff on that one.
He correctly states that a flat tax would be the basis of a fair revenue system. But who in their right minds would want a system of taxation which does not UNFAIRLY tax the rich, except perhaps, the rich.
Sometimes there's nothing scarier than utter silence. Using Kindle's - Search This Book function, the terms "global warming," "climate change," "gun control" and "gun rights" quite conspicuously produce zero results.
OK, all the above being said, here's what's good about the good senator:
He wants to end gerrymandering for the voting fraud that it is.
He wants to end the duplicity of congressional exemptions.
He wants to end corporate welfare which guarantees government contracts to the least deserving.
He wants to end the underhanded secrecy of the Federal Reserve and create transparency in the central bank.
He wants to allow lenders (not the government) to decide who should qualify for a home loan, as they have so successfully done for the past hundred years.
He wants to end bank transaction spying on US citizens by the IRS.
He wants to end civil asset forfeiture for the criminal theft that it has most certainly become.
He wants to end the cycle of racist profiling, unjust fines and debtor's prisons which we can no longer afford.
He wants to end the cruel insanity of mandatory minimum sentencing which we could never afford.
He wants to allow those non-violent felons who have served their time, a chance to stay clean and become full American citizens again.
See what I mean? It's a tough one! When you weigh the bad against the good, the good senator becomes a difficult decision.
If by some miracle, 2016 comes down to Bernie vs. Rand, with 44 years of voting progressive, for me that choice will be a no-brainer. However, if it comes down to Hillie and Rand, that's going to take some serious soul searching.
If there's one thing I can add to this writing which I am convinced will be useful to many readers, it's this – NEVER, NEVER pour gasoline down the carburetor of an engine to get it started! First of all, you're liable to flood it, thereby making things worse. More importantly, if it backfires you'll wind up in the nearest burn treatment center minus your eyelashes. Just buy a can of spray ether. With a triple blast into the air intake, you don't even have to remove the filter cover.
Good luck Rand.
Ron DiGiovanni
Easton, PA
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