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One of the big mysteries of the Koch brothers lavish gala this past weekend is the fact that Rand Paul was not in attendance. Youd think that the Kochs would at least insist that Paul come to the fete to do a dramatic reading of John Galts Atlas Shrugged speech for the billionaires in attendance, but he didnt show. Some reports suggest that he was invited, but declined. Perhaps his feelings are hurt that they also invited Scott Walker, Ted Cruz, Jeb Bush, Marco Rubio and even Carly Fiorina, when he believes that he should have been anointed by all the rich men in the world by acclamation. He is, after all, the One True Libertarian of the bunch.

Or is he? Paul has been spending so much time in recent days talking about the horrors of Planned Parenthood, youd think he was a Catholic priest or a member of Ralph Reeds Bible study group. In fact, both of the Pauls, father and son, have always played fast and loose with their libertarian principles when it comes to reproductive health; the only individual property right they dont recognize is a womans ownership of her own body. Since the followers of the Pauls tend to be those who find such concerns irrelevant to their own freedom being that they are mostly young, white males that may make some sense from a practical standpoint. Rand has to build a coalition withsomeone,so why not the religious right, since their main concern in life is keeping women in their place, and the Paulites seem to find this to be a position they can work with.

And so it is becoming clear that for all the former Beltway excitement over Pauls alleged magical ability to transform the Republican Party from its aggressively hawkish global ambitions and theocratic, authoritarian domestic aspirations into an isolationist, tolerant, pluralistic party, he just cant seem to make any headway. He cant raise much money and nobody, it turns out, is very interested in his ideas.

Thus, the true believers are depressed. One of them wrote a piece for Politico about whats gone wrong, titled,Why Im tired of defending Rand Paul.The piece was written byJonathan Bydlak, someone whos been with the Paul family for years, serving as director of fundraising on Rons 2008 campaign; a loyal lieutenant who truly believes that Rand Paul could be president. But unfortunately for Bydlak, it turns out that Rand Paul also believes that, which means that these days hes acting like just another Republican.

Bydlak writes:

After months of skepticism of U.S. involvement in Syria and Iraq, Rand Paul called for airstrikesauthorized by Congress. He later sought to declare war on ISIL and put boots on the ground. Hes done a complete 180 on the threat from Iran, signing the Tom Cotton letter opposing the recent nuclear deal. And while being one of the more nuanced voices opposing the deal, hes still relied on the sort of fear mongering and misleading rhetoric his father rejected.

Ron Paul proudly thumbed his nose at Republican orthodoxy, fearlessly voicing his beliefs no matter how hated his position might make him among the GOP. His son, of course, cannot win a primary by following that exact model. But he has failed to make the Republican base trust him, while risking losing his own.

He said gay marriage offends him, and called for tent revivals to combat Americas moral crisis while simultaneously supporting ending marriage licenses altogether. He supports lowering sentences for drug offenses, and is publicly courting the marijuana industry, while very consistently making clear he opposes legalization. And in recent weeks, hes gone so far as to apparently jump onto the Trump bandwagon in seeking to defund sanctuary cities.

He spent months reaching out to minority communities and branding himself as a different kind of Republican on police brutality and criminal justice reformbut when Baltimore was burning following Freddie Grays suspicious death in police custody, Paul couldnt have been more tone deaf, scoffing how glad he was his train didnt stop in Baltimore, and offering what seemed to be 1990s-era Moral Majority musings on the downfall of the family.

Now, its hard to have pity for this fellow. While Paul may be out there talking about outreach to African Americans and Hispanics, his views on race have never exactly been obscure. Up until last year, he employed someone known asThe Southern Avenger in his inner circle. But you do have to feel a little bit of sympathy for him about the rest of it. The incoherenceon foreign policy and national security is downright dizzyingcoming from the man who made his national reputation delivering scorching speeches against the drone war and NSA surveillance. He couldnt even bring himself to defy freshman warmonger Tom Cotton and refuse to sign on to that daft Iran letter. And refusing to support marijuana legalization even as the country is moving rapidly in that direction is as cowardly as it gets. If a libertarian cant even stand up for the stoners, you have to wonder if he has any rationale for his campaign at all.

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Rand Paul is basically doomed: How the man who was ...