Following Rand Paul to Disaster

My latest column for The Week looks at the impending victory of Rand Paul in the Kentucky GOP senatorial primary and the message his backers hope to send to the party.

My latest column for The Week looks at the impending victory of Rand Paul in the Kentucky GOP senatorial primary and the message his backers hope to send to the party.

In today’s Republican mood, politicians who explain practical limits are rejected as weaklings and sell-outs. When [primary candidate] Trey Grayson explains that a Republican majority will not be able to balance the budget in a single year – or that some of the anti-drug programs funded by federal dollars are saving lives – he loses support. When Rand Paul announces that he will never vote for an unbalanced budget, today’s angry Republicans hear a man of principle not a petulant grandstander.

You can’t run a country this way of course. Nor (probably) can you win a general election. Especially not with a candidate as deservedly vulnerable as Rand Paul.

Click here to read the rest.