If you are a familiar reader to this blog, you know I've particularly followed 3 pro-liberty conservative members of Congress. Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) and Congressmen Justin Amash (I-MI) and Thomas Massie (R-KY). Rand Paul has been strong on auditing the Fed, prison reform, the Patriot Act and budget cuts, Justin Amash (who turned independent on July 4) has been involved in efforts to reform eminent domain, the Fourth Amendment, ending the Ex-Im Bank, and stopping US collusion with Saudi Arabia over Yemen. Massie has proposed ending the Department of Education, senior citizen tax relief, and Federal Reserve transparency.
I will say I've had a favorite of sorts in that Massie has personally liked 2 or 3 of my own tweet/replies. But I have had my moments with all 3, and this post was motivated by a couple of Massie (embedded below). At one point, I stopped following Rand Paul for a while.
In part, this has to do with politics. These 3 have been tough principled votes that have bucked leadership on tough spending votes. Amash in particular was targeted about 5 years back in a contested primary and more recently (before he left the GOP) by a White House aide. Trump himself lashed at Rand Paul before he left the 2016 primary, implying that Rand Paul had corruptly eagerly taken Trump's money (it turned out this was a contribution towards Rand Paul's charity eye surgery efforts in Central America), and there are rumors that the mainstream GOP may target Massie's seat next year like what had earlier happened to Amash.
Paul and Massie, who did not follow Amash's lead in leaving the GOP, have found ways to embrace the unprincipled . Keep in mind that for most libertarians, Trump is the opposite of a libertarian. He has appointed neocons like Bolton and Pompeo. He has tried to pressure the Federal Reserve to cut rates to bolster the economy through the election. He has continued, even upgraded the drone wars and economic sanctions. Spending is up 22%, in part to maximize already high military budgets in Congressional quid pro quo; we are close to a $1T deficit in a robust economy, and Trump has already added about $2.5T to the national debt. There have been travel bans and "emergencies" for wall building and tariffs, intervention in Syria without Congressional authorization
Rand Paul has sought to back Trump's heavily criticized ("abandon the Kurds") Syria withdrawal. And Massie has written several tweets basically echoing partisan talking points on the impeachment inquiry, pointing out pro-Trump sentiment among his constituents, etc. I don't have an issue with their right to an opinion different than mine, but there isn't a libertarian bone in Trump's body. This guy has no respect for the Bill of Rights and federalism concepts. He has opined on the guilt of the accused (e.g., Bergdahl), his appointees have argued for Snowden's execution, etc. I just see no way to compromise with a man without principles or a conscience, for whom political survival is the only true value.
You have chutzpah talking about Dems accomplishing nothing. Under Trump, spending is up over 20% because the GOP wants to spend even more on defense than the next 7 nations combined. The GOP for decades fought for free trade, immigration, and fiscal conservatism; what happened?— Ronald Guillemette (@raguillem) November 3, 2019
I saw, without the investigation, how Trump tried to quash a Russia probe in which he had a vested interest; it's a prime reason why Comey and Sessions were fired. I have Trump's abridged transcript where he explicitly raised a prosecution of his political opponent, Joe Biden.— Ronald Guillemette (@raguillem) November 3, 2019
