OPINION: What’s Up With Rand Paul

Rand Paul is getting a whole lot of criticism for his recent statements concerning civil rights and racial discrimination.  A recent article from the Washington Post extracts: “Paul lives in Libertarian La-La Land, where a purist philosophy leads people to believe in the purest nonsense” (Robinson, 2010).

This, in my opinion, is reaction to a little thing we call “liberty” and “freedom of speech”.  America – meet a candidate that IS NOT HAND-PICKED FROM THE ESTABLISHMENT.  Meet a man who embraces libertarian ideals.  Meet a man who speaks his mind.  Meet a man that will not say everything that you want to hear… wait… doesn’t that mean he is like every other person in the world?  Can’t we agree that we NEVER agree with everyone 100%?  Isn’t this a normal reaction to something?  Why in the world is Rand Paul getting so much you-know-what for expressing his political philosophy?  I’ll tell you why – he is an American and he going to be a real American in his role as Senator.

Rand Paul is not your average politician.  That is something that any freedom-loving, truth-seeking citizen may admire and respect.  Are his ideals lofty?  Arguable.  I tend to want to believe in liberty to its fullest extent and to allow human beings to find their purist ideals by exercising love and truth – not being forced by the heavy hand of government.  Liberty, in its purist of forms, does not allow for people to be weak and it does not allow for people to make stupid business decisions.

Rand Paul expresses this, and I wish that the media that blasts him with charges of inhumane words and acts would stop their bashing and do a little more vetting.  The point of our political system is to have discourse, disagreements,  and checks and balances.  This shows that the system is working.

My fellow Americans, the system is working.

Reference:

Robinson, E. (2010). Rand Paul’s Libertarian La-La Land. The Washington Post.  Retrieved on May 26, 2010 from http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/05/24/AR2010052402991.html

- Tisha Casida

Knowledge Vs. Presumptions

Reading through Thomas Sowell’s book, Basic Economics, it is easy to see that letting the market work is essential to having a sustainable and productive economy.

The reason “the market” works so well is that there are millions of people with specialized knowledge making decision about what to buy and what to sell.  These people – the 300+million consumers in the United States of America – each have their own individualized knowledge that helps them to make decisions

Knowledge, in itself, is a scarce resource.

When government officials start making decisions that affect the market, they are doing this based on PRESUMPTIONS.  Presumptions about what is best ARE NOT the same as specialized knowledge coming from the market, of the 300+ million people that make up our economy.

Presumptions are what get people in trouble – it is KNOWLEDGE that we need.  And thus, less government intervention, red tape, and bureaucracy in our free market would allow for more efficient and more specialized decisions from WE THE PEOPLE.  That’s the whole idea of a FREE MARKET!

-Tisha Casida