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Rand Paul: GOP Base (And I) Are Republican Because Of Social Issues Like Banning Gay Marriage

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Rand Paul this week announced he supports a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage because social issues like banning marriage equality and abortion define the GOP.

Rand Paul, aside from being widely mocked this week by the news media for literally running away from an immigrant activist, was also mocked this week by Ann Coulter for his varying positions on aid to Israel.

Referring to Senator Paul’s method of choosing positions, Coulter opined, “I think it’s a little like a compass. It used to be whatever would please 15-year-old Ayn Rand readers was his position. Now, it’s whatever will please basically the mainstream media.”

That “flip-flopping” is also seemingly apparent in his positions on same-sex marriage as well — at least to a point.

Paul has the great privilege of being on the cover of The New York Times Magazine this Sunday.

In the cover story interview, which was published in the online version of the Times today, the Tea Party libertarian offers these thoughts on same-sex marriage.

“The party can’t become the opposite of what it is,” he told me. “If you tell people from Alabama, Mississippi or Georgia, ‘You know what, guys, we’ve been wrong, and we’re gonna be the pro-gay-marriage party,’ they’re either gonna stay home or — I mean, many of these people joined the Republican Party because of these social issues. So I don’t think we can completely flip. But can we become, to use the overused term, a bigger tent? I think we can and can agree to disagree on a lot of these issues. I think the party will evolve. It’ll either continue to lose, or it’ll become a bigger place where there’s a mixture of opinions.”

In other words, the Republican base is inherently anti-gay, but he would like it if same-sex marriage and equality supporters could ignore that pivotal issue and join the Grand Old Party anyway.

The Human Rights Campaign chose to identify what they see as Paul taking two sides on marriage — or, as they put it in their title, “Rand Paul on Marriage Equality: ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

In less than 48 hours, U.S. Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) has staked out a perilous position on the issue of marriage equality. After telling a group of Republicans yesterday that he is “in favor of the concept” of a Federal Marriage Amendment, in a new interview released today, the presumptive 2016 GOP presidential candidate seemed to offer an odd shrug.

HRC Vice President for Communications Fred Sainz described his reaction to Paul’s staking out dual positions as “confused.”

“I just hope that when the libertarian from Kentucky heads to Iowa and New Hampshire, he doesn’t leave his love of liberty at home. The Republican party must move forward on this issue. The clock is ticking, three marriage cases have already reached the Supreme Court, and there is no doubt that this issue will cause the GOP enormous pain in 2016 if they don’t engage in a meaningful way, and fast.”

But is Senator Rand Paul staking a claim to both sides?

Hardly.

Like his father’s denial of any knowledge of horrible racist and anti-gay attacks in the newsletters that bear his name, his son, the Senator from Kentucky, is perfectly willing to let the public decide what his positions are.

Anyone who supports writing discrimination into the U.S. Constitution has already spoken loud and clear.

 

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‘You’re a Loser Dude’: Carville Scorches Trump as ‘Done’

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James Carville, the veteran political consultant, blasted President Donald Trump after Democrats had another strong showing in Tuesday night’s elections.

In several contests — including Miami’s mayoral race, where the Democrat won by a wide margin — Democrats overperformed, continuing the streak they’ve had for much of the entire year. According to elections news site Bolts, Democrats “flipped 21 percent of all the GOP-held seats that were on the ballot throughout 2025.”

“He’s done,” Carville said of Trump on Wednesday’s Politics War Room podcast. “We just got to butter this toast and slice it and eat it. He’s done.”

READ MORE: ‘Special Kind of Delusion’: Top Democrat Mocks Trump ‘Train Wreck’

“He’s done in Florida,” Carville continued. “He’s done in Pennsylvania. He’s done in New Jersey. He’s done in Virginia. He’s done in Mississippi. He was done in Georgia. He’s done.”

“It’s over. You’re a loser, dude,” Carville declared. “You’re losing everywhere. And you’re gonna lose more, because you, my friend, are a loser.”

The Democratic pundit began the segment by saying that Trump is “trying to argue that you’re not feeling what you’re feeling.”

“But understand this. People are seeing this and people are voting on this. Understand that. He’s not getting away with it. He’s caught onto. He’s not getting away with it. He’s paying for it. And he’s gonna continue to pay for it.”

“And we got to stop looking at him as some kind of political Svengali, a political Houdini, or anything like that.”

READ MORE: ‘His Heart Just Ain’t in It’: Report Reveals Trump’s ‘Achilles Heel’

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‘Special Kind of Delusion’: Top Democrat Mocks Trump ‘Train Wreck’

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Tuesday night was the first stop on President Donald Trump’s new affordability messaging tour, but it was a “train wreck,” U.S. Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer said.

Trump may have read all his lines at his Pennsylvania rally, but he also ad-libbed a lot, mocking the affordability crisis in America as a “hoax.”

Leader Schumer on Wednesday told his Senate colleagues that Trump “simply doesn’t get what people are struggling through,” because he’s “trapped in his billionaire bubble.”

READ MORE: How Trump Could Try to Undermine the 2026 Elections — and Fail: Columnist

“It takes a special kind of delusion to tell parents to buy their kids fewer toys and pencils while bragging about new ballrooms and gold in the Oval Office,” the New York Democratic lawmaker explained.

“In his speech, that was supposed to be about affordability, Donald Trump kept making fun of the word ‘affordability,'” Schumer noted. “Does he have to go shop for groceries and not be able to buy the things his family needs?”

The Democratic Leader explained that the president doesn’t understand what it’s like when your car gets damaged in an accident, “and you don’t have money for the deductible, and you don’t have a car.”

“People are struggling,” Schumer said. “They can’t afford basic needs, and Donald Trump keeps making fun of it by calling it all a giant hoax. But Americans know affordability is not a hoax. They see it as very real every time they go to the grocery store, pay their bills, pay the rent.”

A recent poll found that 77% of Americans concerned about the economy and inflation believe the president is not spending enough time managing those problems.

READ MORE: ‘His Heart Just Ain’t in It’: Report Reveals Trump’s ‘Achilles Heel’

“What was Donald Trump’s solution to affordability?” Senator Schumer asked. “Well, last night, Trump said parents should buy their kids fewer dolls for Christmas. We’re not talking about fewer dolls for Christmas. We’re talking about necessities like food. Like medicine. Like fixing your car when it gets damaged.”

A just released Politico poll found that “Half of those surveyed said they find it difficult to pay for food. And a majority, 55 percent, blame the Trump administration for the high prices.”

Schumer continued to blast Trump, noting that he “said kids at school should have fewer pencils. And then he repeated his favorite, that his favorite word was tariffs. What kind of world does he live in? Does he understand that these tariffs are raising prices? Through the roof?”

Schumer also pointed to Trump’s Politico interview this week — where the president gave himself an “A+++++” on the economy — and warned that “the American people are giving him an F.”

“Over the last year, the price of beef has gone up at the grocery store by 20%,” Schumer noted. “That’s an F. Today, Americans pay 40% more for a single cup of coffee on their way to work than they did last year. That’s an F. People are paying more on electricity bills while Donald Trump has cut domestic energy jobs. That’s a massive F.”

“The final grade, big fat F. In no universe does Donald Trump deserve anywhere close to an A, or a B, or even a C, for his job on the economy.”

READ MORE: ‘Reality Problem’: Columnist Says Trump ‘Isn’t Even Trying’ to Honor His Promises

 

Image via Reuters

 

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How Trump Could Try to Undermine the 2026 Elections — and Fail: Columnist

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The Atlantic’s David Frum sat down with Michael Waldman, president of the Brennan Center at New York University, to discuss how President Donald Trump and his administration might try to undermine the 2026 midterm elections, and what is in place that could prevent them from succeeding.

“What can a president and a party that is still in control of Congress do to bend things their way?” Frum asked.

“Well,” Waldman replied, “there is much they can do to try to undermine the way the system works, but there are limits as well.”

“I want to stress that,” he added, “in each of these areas, there are things that can be attempted, and there are potentially effective pushbacks that can make sure that the election actually does happen, as we would hope it happens, where the voters, however they choose, get the last word.”

READ MORE: ‘His Heart Just Ain’t in It’: Report Reveals Trump’s ‘Achilles Heel’

But Waldman also warned Frum that “for the first time, I think, in American history, the federal government and the Trump administration are actively waging an effort to undermine the 2026 elections.”

“One thing that President Trump has tried to do already,” Waldman noted, “is to take personal control of the election system.”

Frum and Waldman discussed several activities Trump and his administration have tried, could try, or are trying, including issuing an executive order requiring passports as ID to vote — which the courts blocked. Similar legislation, requiring a passport or birth certificate to vote, passed the House but stalled in the Senate (the SAVE Act).

There is also the purging of federal election security experts, the weaponization of law enforcement, the use of federal agents — including, for instance, ICE and CBP near polling locations — and the use of the courts.

“When Congress blocked the SAVE Act,” Waldman noted, “the president put out another, rather, another post on social media saying, ‘I’m going to do an executive order ending vote by mail.'” Paraphrasing the president, he suggested that Trump claimed, “I’m gonna do this, and, by the way, the state election officials are merely agents who work for the president, and their job is merely to count the votes as agents for the president.”

“They are threatening to use the tools of law enforcement to scare off people in the election machinery,” Waldman explained.

READ MORE: ‘Reality Problem’: Columnist Says Trump ‘Isn’t Even Trying’ to Honor His Promises

Frum warned that National Guard troops, for example, operating near polling locations, could “detain” people for a few hours, “at least until after the polls close.”

“Those are known as ‘Kavanaugh stops,'” Waldman interjected, referring to the U.S. Supreme Court justice.

There is also the use of gerrymandering and the possibility that the U.S. Supreme Court will further gut the Voting Rights Act, they noted.

On gerrymandering, Waldman explained, “sometimes, if the voters have what’s called a wave election, where people are all rushing to the polls to vote, you know, their opposition to the current party in power, it can actually not only not have the desired impact, it can actually create more victories for the other party. That is, in technical terms, called a ‘dummymander.'”

Waldman noted that the Trump administration may be trying many different things to sow doubt about free and fair elections.

He said, “ultimately … they are trying to stir doubt, and create a cloud of suspicion, to make it easier, should there be, you know, the opportunity to push election officials and others to cave.”

READ MORE: ‘Appearance of Quid Pro Quo’: Sotomayor Confronts GOP Lawyer in Campaign Finance Argument

 

Image via Reuters

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