Justin Raimondo: A Rand Paul nomination will be a sea change in politics – he’s the best we have

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Justin Raimondo: It’s a pleasure.

Kurt Wallace: Well, there have been many outspoken critics — you included — of things Rand Paul has said and done in the past.  Do you think expectations on Rand as where his father Ron Paul stands is unfair considering he is a Senator and he’s his own person?

Justin Raimondo:  It’s unfair in one sense and of course as you said he’s not his father. On the other hand, Rand did not hesitate to ask for funding from his father’s followers. Campaign for Liberty, Young Americans for Liberty and the entire Paul network mobilized for Rand.

It’s probably not a good idea to alienate your base especially this early on. Though I understand what his problem is and he has a delicate balancing act here. Rand wants to win and that I admire. Because you know what? I want to win too, I’m sick of losing and Rand is the best we have. So, there you have it.

Kurt Wallace: Well, Rand Paul is in different positions that most politicians as he continues to balance between war hawks and doves.

Justin Raimondo: Right, but there comes when as David Frum said in an essay denouncing me and all the antiwar conservatives and libertarians who oppose the Iraq war. He said “war is the great clarifier,” and it is. You’re either for it or against it. You’ve got to take a stand one way or another. I think what we’re going to see is when the president comes to congress and says I need a new authorization for the use of military force. And that is going to be the issue. So, everybody who votes for that is going to have to own it.

If Rand Paul votes for that then he’s going to have to own this war along with Obama and of course Hilary who’s for it. It all depends on what this resolution says. And I think that Rand can play a key role in making it a narrow resolution — like no boots on the ground. Already we see in today’s news that it’s going to double and this is before he even went to congress. The number of troops on the ground American troops back in Iraq is going to double. There’s been no vote. We’re being pushed into another war in Iraq and Rand has got to stand up against that.

Kurt Wallace: You’ve written a piece “We can’t have perpetual war, the realism of Rand Paul”. Let’s talk about some of the very specifics on Rand Paul vs. what you’re talking about Obama not going to congress. Rand Paul has said yes we have to go to congress.

If Rand Paul ends up being president of the United States I think the big question for libertarians and people that believe in a foreign policy of massive restraint like you and I. Is Rand Paul going to go to congress before he acts? And do we believe this?  And if congress says no we’re not going to war, will Rand Paul go along with the will of the people?

Justin Raimondo: Well, the question is by the time that Rand Paul gets into the White House if he does we’re already going to be at war.  So, it’s going to be Iraq War III.  And of course there’s the question of Iran and that’s really the big question. All of this is a prelude, this is a proxy war. You have Iran in the background. You have Turkey, you have all these countries hovering around falling Iraq which we destroyed.

So, Obama’s legacy will either be a peace agreement with Iran, or it will be let Hillary do it and of course she won’t hesitate to go to war with Iran, I don’t think. She’s been very much pro Israel and so has Rand Paul. Benjamin Netanyahu is depending on the Republicans in congress to stop a peace agreement with Iran.

And that’s another question, what is Rand Paul’s view going to be of that? Is he going to say anything?  Is he going to stand up for America first or is he going to let the Israel faction just steamroll us into war? I don’t know. I have no clue but you’ve got to stand for something. You’ve got to stand on principle. Like I said war is the great clarifier — either you’re for it or you’re against it. And that’s the really big question.

Kurt Wallace: You talked about in your newest article “Lessons of the midterm elections”, you said a pseudo victory for the War Party that Rand Paul “who’s spent the last few months kissing up to the Israel lobby?” is he going to be the guy to stand up to the War Party? and you state “I’m just going to sit back, chill out, and watch the drama unfold.” I was curious about this, what do you mean exactly?

Justin Raimondo: Well, of course,  I have no influence on Rand Paul certainly. So, I’m going to sit back and just watch and see what he does. Because he tends to go back and forth and I think that is not a plus. He is getting a reputation as a flip flopper and I think that’s not good for him. It’s interesting these midterms are being touted as oh yes the hawks are back the hawks are back.

But, as Dan Larison points out in the American Conservative, if you look at the exit polls the people that are against this new war actually voted for people like Joni Earnst and Cory Gardner in Colorado Earnst in Iowa. That they were not voting on their foreign policy stances. Actually, they voted for these guys in spite of their foreign policy views.

It’s going to be interesting but they’re in congress now. And you have Tom Cotton whose a dyed in the wool neocon, a militant, he studied with Harvey Mansfield at Harvard, a Straussian academic, a hardcore neocon. So, Rand is going to have to deal with people like that and there’s going to be a confrontation. I predict it’ll be between Rand Paul and Tom Cotton and you’ll see a battle. The question is Rand going to stand strong because you know Tom Cotton is.

Kurt Wallace: Some of the critics of Rand Paul’s recent speech which I think was one of the most important foreign policy speeches of our time and it revealed quite a bit in terms of the way that he articulated things. There were some things that I was concerned about in terms of defining what American interests are.

But you talk about his position on Islam and if I could extract from that a confusing nature of Rand Paul’s position particularly with the dignity problem and that’s going to be a criticism I believe from Tom Cotton and others of the neocon side of things.

Justin Raimondo: I thought that was a great speech, almost a perfect speech. Of course, dignity problem, that’s what it’s all about. Rand understands this but I think that he may have a wrong idea of what is politically possible. I think that the American people are a lot sicker of interventionism than even he suspects. So, I would get his back and that was a great speech. I had very little problem with that.

Kurt Wallace: In terms of his upcoming battles in the Senate will he stand strong on a sober foreign policy then when it comes to dealing with these people? Is the foreign policy issue the issue to really fight on and take a stand with or will he join and compromise?

Justin Raimondo: I understand that there is some politics involved here and that you have to moderate your rhetoric but you don’t have to moderate your stand. If Paul can translate rhetoric into policy I think that’s the real challenge. Once he gets the nomination then I think the foreign policy is the key to his victory because he can win progressives, he can win young people away from Hilary who is the presumed nominee of the Democratic party, though we’ll see.

Kurt Wallace: Yeah, neocon in blue.

Justin Raimondo:  Right, this could be a Reagan style realignment. If he gets the nomination it will be a sea change in politics.  It will be his opportunity to really create a new Republican majority based on free market economics, a non-interventionist foreign policy and the restoration of our civil liberties which is an issue that we haven’t heard much of lately. So, it’s just a question of getting the nomination and what he thinks he has to do and how he has to compromise his rhetoric in order to do that. And I think that he has to compromise a lot less than he thinks he does. But we’ll see, I could be wrong.

Kurt Wallace:  Justin Raimondo of Antiwar.com thanks for being with us today on Rare.

Justin Raimondo:  Thanks for inviting me.