Rand Paul and the Tsunami of Biblical Proportions
Probably the most astute journalist commenting on Rand Paul's sweep in Kentucky is friend of The Revealer, Adele Stan. At AlterNet, Stan writes that Paul's victory, "represents the first real toe-hold that the old lions of the New Right have really gotten inside the Republican Party proper," and puts his recent criticism of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and lightening-speed walk-back, into perspective by tracing Rand's affiliations to some alarming but deep-rooted political organizations like the John Birch Society and Howard Phillips' Conservative Caucus.
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Probably the most astute journalist commenting on Rand Paul’s sweep in Kentucky is friend of The Revealer, Adele Stan. At AlterNet, Stan writes that Paul’s victory, “represents the first real toe-hold that the old lions of the New Right have really gotten inside the Republican Party proper,” and puts his recent criticism of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and lightening-speed walk-back, into perspective by tracing Rand’s affiliations to some alarming but deep-rooted political organizations like the John Birch Society (established during the Cold War, communism-fixated, historically pro-segregation, and partially founded and funded by Fred Koch of Koch Industries “whose son, David, is now a major funder of the Americans For Prosperity Foundation, one of the two notable astroturfing groups organizing the Tea Party’s discontented.”) and Howard Phillips’ Conservative Caucus.
Bruce Wilson at Talk to Action fills us in on Phillips and the Christian Reconstructionism that Rand and his father Ron represent:
The odd thing about Rand and Ron Paul’s political tendency is that it offers liberals and progressives a number of points of agreement, probably more than with more ‘mainstream’ conservative GOP politicians. For example, Ron Paul has been a principled opponent of the invasion of Iraq and US military adventurism in the Mideast generally, and Ran Paul espouses the same position.
But it’s hard to get much more extreme than Christian Reconstructionism, whose founder Rushdoony was a Holocaust denier, a racist, a creationist, and an advocate for slavery who claimed that African-American slaves were lucky.
Weigh it for yourself – Howard Phillips, who founded the Constitution Party, has, according to journalist Frederick Clarkson, described Rousas J. Rushdoony as “my wise counseler.”
For more history on Christian Reconstructionism, read an article by Frederick Clarkson here; and for more here and here. Read Sarah Posner at Religion Dispatches here.
Jeff Sharlet, The Revealer‘s founder, also gives an account of the rise and fall of Christian Reconstructionism and it’s adherents in his book, The Family. See particularly pages 346-349.