Salon: Steve Kornacki: 'Is Rand Paul The Next Robert Taft?'

Source:Washington Monthly- U.S. Senator Rand Paul (Republican, Kentucky)

"When Rand Paul was announced as the winner of the Republican presidential straw poll at CPAC over the weekend, there was no chorus of boos from the assembled conservatives, a far cry from the response when his father won the same event a few years ago. Unlike Ron Paul, whose political coalition existed as much outside the Republican Party as in it and whose numerous straw poll victories were the product of organized event-crashing that irritated party regulars, Rand has dedicated himself to becoming a force within the GOP -- and CPAC '13 represents the latest evidence that he's succeeding."

From Salon

The mainstreaming of Rand Paul, interesting title for an article. I saw another article in the magazine The Week with the title: "Does the rising of Rand Paul mean and end to social conservatism?" Which are the two things to focus on as well as laying out what constitutional conservatism actually is and how that differs from religious conservatism and they may sound like the same thing but they are actually different.

If you look at Rand Paul's political background whether you want to call it Conservative or Conservative-Libertarian or just flat Libertarian, he's always been in the mainstream in America as far as someone who believes that big government shouldn't interfere in our economic or personal lives. Meaning that government shouldn't try to control us or run our lives or even try to protect us from ourselves. Not that it shouldn't tax, but not tax us to the point where we lose the freedom to control our own destiny and not be dependent on the state for our economic well-being. 

Conservative-Libertarians like Senator Paul, also believe that government shouldn't interfere into our personal lives as well. And what we do in the privacy of our own homes, what we watch on TV, who we sleep with and marry as adults, how we spend our own money, as long as we aren't hurting innocent people with what we are doing. There's nothing radical about this and this view of what government shouldn't be doing is a shared viewpoint on both the Right and Left in America which is why it's mainstream. 

Constitutional-Conservatives or Conservative-Libertarians, believe in conserving the U.S. Constitution and all the individual rights that all Americans get from it. As well as conserving our limited government and preventing government (especially the Federal Government) from getting too big. Wheres Christian-Conservatives or Christian-Nationalists, believe in covering their own culture and religious values. Even if that means using big government to try to enforce their values on everyone else. Which is very different from constitutional conservatism or conservative libertarianism and very different from Senator Rand Paul. 

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