Mr. Conway has defended the ad, despite intense criticism:
Now, the ad itself is loaded with cheap shots. But it does raise the uncomfortable issue of Rand Paul, faith, and libertarianism's place with the Tea Party movement in general.Jack Conway, the Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate in Kentucky, has been hotly criticized from the political right, left and middle, for his attack ad on his Republican opponent, Dr. Rand Paul who, by the way, appears to be ahead in the latest polling.
The ad, which asks why Paul as a college student belonged to a "secret society" which "mocked" Christianity, was clearly aimed at raising doubts about the Republican in the minds of voters, many of whom take their Christian faith very seriously.
In a discussion with NPR's Robert Siegel, an All Things Considered co-host, Conway didn't retreat an inch from the attack, saying that candidates must be accountable for their actions.
I'll leave Aqua Buddha aside for a moment. The fact is that many libertarians are atheists, or at least do not subscribe to any major religion. At the very least, they do not believe that the church should have a cozy relationship with the state anymore than they believe big business should have such a relationship. And legislation of any kind based on moral or religious grounds is practically anathema to a libertarian. Personal freedoms trump faith-based beliefs.
So what is going to happen if and when folks like Mr. Paul take office and actually try to represent Tea Partiers? These issues will not go away.
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I'll pretend I'm a soothsayer for a minute:
ReplyDeleteRand Paul gets to the Senate, realises it is the bulwark against nationwide public opinion ("The rule of the majority! Majority to Hades!" as Senator Tydings put it), that things move slowly there, and that the seniority rule means he will have very little say in the committee room, or for some time, on the Senate floor.
Tea-Partiers become either complacent (happy that they won, like in a sporting match, and begin to look to 2012), or annoyed about Paul in a way similar to the annoyance about Senator Brown.
That healthcare doesn't get repealed, that legislation on border security, say, is weak - these things are apt to annoy the Tea Party member, who forgets Washington's statement on the upper house:
"We pour legislation into the senatorial saucer to cool it," he said to Jefferson.
And in both cases, media stories about ineffectuality in Congress annoy the Tea-Partiers since the Republicans now hold a House majority.
But we'll see.
I think the Senate will become a focal point for Tea Party anger. I'm not sure if Paul will suffer collateral damage, however, if he makes it into office. I think they'll be too busy demonizing the Democrats that hold up the bills that get passed in the Republican House.
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