Rand Paul Endorses Another Establishment Republican, Nothing For ‘Liberty Democrat.’

Brandon Turbeville
The Anti Media
April 29, 2014

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In yet another example of Rand Paul’s contradictory behavior, it has been revealed by Ben Swann that the Kentucky Senator may very well have attempted to kill the campaign of a “Liberty Democrat” for U.S. Senate in Maine.

At the very least, Paul was painfully ignorant of both the positions of the candidate he endorsed as well as the positions of the one he did not.

Given the track record of Paul, however, it is much more likely that he was fully aware that Republican incumbent Susan Collins was a supporter of NSA spying and domestic wiretapping, the PATRIOT ACT, as well as a tacit supporter of torture.

That being said, before taking the stage to endorse Collins, Paul spoke to the Portland Herald Press where he stated “I whole-heartedly endorse Senator Collins for re-election. I think she is doing a great job for Maine and for the country.” However, when Paul was forced to address Collins’ stance on the NSA scandal, he responded by stating “I don’t really know, exactly, what her position is on the NSA; you’d have to ask her about that.”

Yet if Paul was incapable of doing even 20 minutes worth of research before “wholeheartedly endorsing” a candidate, Ben Swann was able to do that research for him. As Swann reports, Collins’ record is less than rousing for anyone who supports basic liberty and human freedom. Swann provides a sample of Collins record by pointing out that:

• Collins voted YES on extending the PATRIOT Act’s roving wiretaps in February of 2011.
• Voted NO on requiring a FISA court warrant to monitor US-to-foreign calls. (Feb 2008)
• Voted YES on removing need for FISA warrant for wiretapping abroad. (Aug 2007)
• Voted NO on preserving habeas corpus for Guantanamo detainees. (Sep 2006)
• Voted NO on requiring CIA reports on detainees & interrogation methods. (Sep 2006)
• Voted YES on reauthorizing the PATRIOT Act. (Mar 2006)
• Voted YES on extending the PATRIOT Act’s wiretap provision. (Dec 2005)

Based on this history, Swann asks “why Senator Rand Paul, who is building his campaign largely on the issue of NSA spying and the restoration of Constitutional rights and civil liberties, would say Susan Collins ‘is doing a great job for Maine and for the country.’”

The Democratic candidate, Sheena Bellows, maintains a much better stance on these issues than Collins. Bellows opposes these policies, believes that Edward Snowden is a hero, and also believes that the Whistleblower Protection Act should be amended to include government contractors.

Bellows was interviewed by Ben Swann who allowed her to further explain her position on the issues mentioned above. In the interview, she stated that “Both of the oversight commissions (on NSA Spying) found that in reports in December and January that this mass bulk data collection by the NSA had not stopped a single incident of terrorism. So not only is it undermining our liberties but it doesn’t work. It doesn’t make any sense. Its big brother at its worst.”

In regards to Edward Snowden, she responded that,

I do think he should be protected under the Whistleblower Protection Act, and I am glad that you brought that up because the problem under our laws what he did is not protected as a whistleblower action and so even Daniel Ellsberg has said that what his ability to be a whistleblower with the Pentagon Papers would not be protected today. We have undermined protections for whistleblowers to the extent where it is a crime to tell the truth.

. . . . .

You demand that they [individuals who have lied to Congress about wiretapping programs] be fired and I think that there should be penalties for lying to Congress and they should be enforced. I think there should be serious penalties for lying and rewards for whistleblowers.

This is a much better position than both Collins and Rand Paul himself, who recently stated that Snowden should receive prison time for his actions.

Bellows also supports the legalization of marijuana. She stated in her interview with Swann that

I support legalization. I think the war on drugs has utterly failed. We see that we incarcerate more people than any other country in the world, more people per capita than any other country in the world and to what end? We are sending billions of dollars to lock people up for activities they engage in in their own time. There are industrial uses for hemp, medicinal uses for marijuana. I think its time we take a new approach to drug laws and its time to restore our individual liberties.

This is by no means the first time Rand Paul has endorsed an establishment Republican over a candidate that embodies the liberty-based principles that many Libertarians espouse. In 2013, Paul endorsed Mitch McConnell over David Adams. In 2012, Paul endorsed Mitt Romney over his own father, Ron Paul.

Since Paul has cast himself as one of the philosophical “brains” in Congress as well as an expert in Constitutional law and the role of government, he cannot be assumed to have simply overlooked important positions such as those mentioned in this article when he was deciding on which candidate to endorse.

Indeed, the question is not so much Rand Paul’s brains as it is Rand Paul’s character.

With this most recent in a long list of betrayals, it is safe to assume that Paul is just another Republican or that he is simply playing political games in order to get elected. Either way, he is clearly not being truthful with those who support him and this fact, by very definition, speaks volume to the true character of Rand Paul. More accurately, it speaks to the lack of it.






 


Brandon Turbeville is a writer out of Florence, South Carolina. He holds a B.A. from Francis Marion University and is the author of six books, The Road To Damascus- The Anglo-American Assault on Syria, Codex Alimentarius- The End of Health Freedom, Seven Real Conspiracies, Five Sense Solutions, and Dispatches From A Dissident Vol. 1 and 2. He is a staff writer for Activist Post as well as a writer for The Anti Media and has published over 300 hundred articles dealing with a wide variety of subjects including health, economics, war, government corruption, and civil liberties. He has been a guest on numerous alternative media broadcasts as well as mainstream outlets. Turbeville is also an occasional contributor to other media outlets such as Natural Blaze and Progressive Gazette. His books can be found in the bookstore at BrandonTurbeville.com, www.FalseFlagPublications.blogspot.com, and TheBookPatch.com.