Longtime TPM Reader JL tries a hypothetical with himelf. What would Rand Paul have to do, have to propose to get him to abandon the Democratic candidate in 2016?
I’m just one person and this is about just one moment in time but …
Yesterday, reading the NYT article on FISA Court, I found myself thinking, if Rand Paul were to make GWOT reform the, or at least a, centerpiece of his campaign … and if he were to get the nomination … what would he have to include, and perhaps more importantly exclude or downplay, to get me to vote for him over Hillary, assuming Hillary runs and defends the GWOT status quo.
Not that in the real world, there is a measurable probability that I would actually vote for Rand Paul. But my little fantasy over coffee is an indication of how disgusting I find the whole surveillance thing. I’m not really talking about the new revelations. I’m in the camp that they didn’t tell us a lot that we didn’t either know or have reason to believe. But still the whole thing is just horrible. Not so much what is being done now. But the fact that we have created a mechanism under which an incredibly broad array of surveillance can potentially take place at the whim of the President and a handful of henchmen operating in conjunction with a secret branch of the judiciary.
What are the chances that over a number of decades grotesque infringements of our liberties DON’T take place? I’m not all that horrified about the type of data gathering that has happened. But the likelihood that horrible things happen in the future just seems awfully close to 100% if the current arrangement is left in place.
