Josh Marshall: Rand Paul and the Sweet Smell of Your Own Crap

[babylonsister]

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2013/04/rand_paul_and_the_sweet_smell_of_your_own_crap.php

Rand Paul and the Sweet Smell of Your Own Crap

Josh Marshall April 11, 2013, 12:02 PM 10498


Yesterday morning Sen. Rand Paul went over to Howard University. And it didn’t go terribly well. One might say that’s only to be expected in a case like this - perhaps even the whole point - since the aim is to break the ice between communities either antagonistic to each other or thoroughly out of communication. But it’s more an example of what happens when a staunch conservative steps out of the GOP’s tightly-drawn racial nonsense bubble and hits an audience not dying to be convinced that the GOP’s problems with non-whites are the results of boffo misunderstandings about a Republican party that is actually the best thing that ever happened to black people.

snip//

The gist of what happened yesterday was that Paul took this clown show to an audience at an historically black college where, yeah, they actually do know that Lincoln freed the slaves and that Frederick Douglass was a Republican. And they’ve even heard about the Dixiecrats. After I reading Benjy Sarlin’s account I was surprised Paul didn’t introduce himself by thanking the crowd for welcoming him to the ‘Democrat Party Plantation.’

Rand’s surprise was akin to one of those old Bugs Bunny cartoons when Bugs’ nemesis walks over a loose floorboard and the board flies up and whaps the guy right in the face. You can become so lost in your own story that you confuse your conciliation with your aggression. The GOP is so deep into its own self-justifying racial alternative reality that there’s some genuine surprise when the claptrap doesn’t survive first contact with actual black people.

[longship]

1. Love Josh!

He can really turn a phrase.

Nice post.
R&

[malaise]

2. Beautifully written

He nailed it

[immoderate]

3. I'm always annoyed when people treat Rand Paul as some sort of intellect.

And my utmost thanks to the students of Howard University! They showed him life outside the bubble...

--imm

[MotherPetrie]

4. Love his way with a word! K&R

[freshwest]

5. His historical visit to the Planet of Black People was covered differently in libertarian circles.

'A respectful welcome,' one said. What they expect to happen?

I'm sure this dingbat will be the GOP candidate in 2016. Or run with his senate doppleganger, Paul Ryan.

Just think, PR & RP. Or RP & PR.

What is it about the GOP and the letter R, anyway?

I think they should run some people with several K's in their names.

[babylonsister]

6. K's!!!

What is it about the gop, period? They are so nutty, but dangerously so. It's the people who think nothing wrong is happening who worry me.

[freshwest]

7. Oh, just look a few pages deep into my Journal. It's all there...

[Blue Owl]

8. K&R

[hatrack]

9. Or, as was so eloquently stated at Romney's appearance at the NAACP in 2012 . . . .