More Comments on the Rand Paul Campaign

This is a follow-up to an earlier post about how to retool the Paul campaign:

• KISS principle.  Avoid "the world is complex" rhetoric, overexplaining the nuances of domestic or foreign policy. The basic concept is best illustrated in the context of Romney's initial 59-point economic plan. This is intrinsically too detailed and complex for almost all voters to grasp. I would focus on a high-level statement, based on principle. 

For example, on the economy I would say something like, "Freer markets lead to greater economic growth, better employment prospects, and a higher standard of living. Government can best foster a growth strategy by minimizing the adverse impact of globally noncompetitive tax and regulatory policies and privatizing or devolving nonessential goods and services. We need more open trade and immigration policies which put consumer interests before those of crony corrupt businesses and unions, resulting in greater price competition and variety of goods and services, opening markets for American businesses, and enabling businesses to better control their costs and access the labor resources they need to more effectively compete. We need sound monetary policy, one that is transparent, accountable and more focused. We need to find a way of dealing with the increasing, unsustainable 70% of the budget dealing with mandatory funding and address nearly $100T in unfunded liabilities and over an $18T national debt."

• Develop more of a populist pitch. Voice people's frustration with the federal government: the IRS, the TSA, eminent domain, civil asset forfeiture, etc.
• Run against the failed Obama Administration. Reprise how you've stood up to the lawless Obama Administration; project the differences between the Paul and Obama Administrations.
• Argue for a more balanced military/foreign policy. It's time to distance yourself from the fearmongering, perpetual war neo-cons. Despite spending record money, more money than the next few ranking nations combined, we find ourselves with aging, smaller military assets and personnel burned out from multiple deployments in harm's way. Rand Paul needs to channel more of what what we hear him talk about Cheney's serial failures in foreign policy since the first Gulf War (about two-thirds of the way through the clip below); we can't gamble American treasure and manpower on flawed judgments. We also need to worry about overreliance of Clinton and Obama's reliance on missiles and drones and the tragic consequences of collateral damage, which do little to ensure America's safety in the long run.
  
  We are not the world's unloved policeman; we need to prioritize our Defense needs given the oversubscribed nature of federal revenues and learn to choose our foreign battles, engagements more carefully, never forgetting the unintended consequences over interventions, the unsustainable burdens of nation building. We need to focus Defense in a cost-effective way  on America first; we need to audit the DoD, stop project cost overruns, and end Congressional crony earmarks.                         

• Don't focus as much on social conservatism. Point out that public morals are more of a traditional state responsibility. The logistics of action on the federal level are difficult, without a GOP supermajority of both chambers of Congress, highly unlikely. What we need to see is more devolvement of authority and resources to the states and the selection of pro-liberty, Constitution-principled judges.
• Try to win back the hardcore Ron Paul base. One of the crazy ironies is that Rand Paul, who is hardly a Washington insider, has lost his anti-establishment support to the likes of Trump, Fiorina, and Carson, none of them principled pro-liberty conservatives.