Rand Paul: a caricature of libertarian views on energy
Unfortunately, on energy issues Rand Paul, Republican candidate for the US Senate from Kentucky, sounds like very much like the classic Republican statist/apologist for corporate irresponsibility.
I find myself agreeing with “investigative satirist” Harry Shearer:
What’s escaping public notice so far, though, is his take on a far more contemporary issue: accountability. Here’s Rand Paul on the BP oil spill:
I think it’s part of this sort of blame game society in the sense that it’s always got to be someone’s fault instead of the fact that sometimes accidents happen.
The reason this quote isn’t inflaming debate the way Paul’s Libertarian dance around the Civil Rights Act has is simple: on this issue, Paul is not fringe-y or extremist or unusual; he’s spouting a line we’ve heard incessantly, from defenders of BP, from apologists for the US Army Corps of Engineers (in the case of the flooding of New Orleans), from architects of the Iraq War. Paul is channeling Donald Rumsfeld: “Stuff happens.” Nothing to see here, move on.
The deeper meaning of the quote is the standard Republican assault against lawyers who have the temerity to challenge, in court, established power. Just this week, the Louisiana legislature defeated a bill that would have punished the Tulane Legal Clinic for its work taking government agencies to court. The bill had the support of the Louisiana Chemical Association.
The political spin on Paul is that he’s worrisome because he’s not within the standard lines of the modern political debate. I’d suggest he’s worrisome because he is.
Paul made similar statements in support of BigCoal:
Earlier this year, for example, Paul told the Fox Business Channel that he believes government agencies should reduce their regulation of the energy industry. “Get the EPA out of our coal business down here,
Unfortunately, Paul’s calls for less federal regulation are not counter-balanced by calls for other means to ensure corporate responsibility, much less by any awareness of how BigCoal has effectively captured the levers of government in the Appalachians, including the courts.
As a result, on this area at least, Paul is giving libertarians a bad name:
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