Conservatives hate the minimum wage. They hate affirmative action. They hate the Fair Pay Act. They hate cap and trade. They hate the SEC. They hate OSHA. They hate the EPA. They hate corporate taxes. They hate hate hate everything that inhibits businesses from doing whatever they want. It’s not the high-tax, big government 1950s they romanticize — it’s the 1920s, or even better — the 1890s. But they usually don’t get quite so explicit about it. They know saying Wal-Mart should be able to pay its workers whatever they want won’t win elections, and they’ve gotten very good over the past three decades about keeping it a little more abstract, i.e., “we’ve got to keep government out of the way so that businesses can create jobs.” Make no mistake, Rand [Paul] is not being shunned by the GOP because they think his views are abhorrent — he’s being embraced. They’re just a little peeved because he went off script and got way too analytical and specific. In short, he represented their beliefs too accurately and too honestly. Let’s stop pretending Randy’s “extreme libertarianism” is any different from the views of practically every Republican in Congress, shall we?
—Blue Texan, “Rand Paul is Just Saying Out Loud What Republicans Have Believed for Years” (via smart-tart) (via ihatethismess) (via skirtonfire) (via nezua)
