The GOP ‘sucks,’ but the establishment likes it

Establishment Republicans have doubled down on criticism of 2016 presidential contender Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) on the heels of his recent government spying filibuster. But Paul doesn’t seem too concerned about his colleagues’ attempts to smear him because, as he put it: “Right now, the Republican brand sucks.”

Paul’s harsh words for the party at large come from his new book “Taking a Stand: Moving beyond partisan politics to unite America,” released throughout the nation on Tuesday. The Kentucky senator, who has billed himself as “libertarian-ish” and a “different” kind of Republican, argues in the book that environmental conservation, sensible and constitutional national defense and support for minorities are all key conservative values somehow lost on the current GOP establishment.

“Right now, the Republican brand sucks. I promised Reince Priebus, the chairman of the Republican National Committee, that I would stop saying the GOP sucks, and I will (except for this last time),” Paul writes.

The lawmaker tells readers how much he enjoys recycling and planting trees on his property.

“You’ll find I’m a tree hugger, literally … I’m a Republican who wants clean air, clean water, and the life-extending miracle of electricity. I compost,” Paul writes.

The lawmaker also muses about how the GOP has become known as the de facto anti-environment party despite the historically significant conservation efforts of Republicans like Teddy Roosevelt: “It boggles my mind to think that somehow Republicans have been branded as a party that doesn’t like the environment.”

Besides environmentalists, Paul also reaches out the minorities, justice reform advocates, Wall Street critics and other groups not traditionally aligned with the GOP establishment with the message: “My Republican Party, the Republican Party I hope to lead to the White House, is willing to change.”

For his efforts to broaden the GOP base, his establishment colleagues and the media establishment have mocked Paul and declared his presidential bid dead in the water.

For instance, Paul said in a recent interview that the GOP shares some blame for the rise of ISIS: “ISIS exists and grew stronger because of the hawks in our party who gave arms indiscriminately, and most of those arms were snatched up by ISIS. They created these people.”

Louisiana Gov. and generic GOP politician Bobby Jindal promptly took to Twitter to criticize Paul for blasphemy against the Republican Party line:

Sen. Paul’s comments on ISIS take the weakest, most liberal Dem position, showing he is unsuited to be Commander-in-Chief…

U.S. weakness, not strength, emboldens our enemies. His illogical argument clouds a situation that should provide pure moral clarity…

Let’s be clear; evil and Radical Islam are at fault for the rise of ISIS, and people like Pres. Obama & Hillary Clinton exacerbate it…

The next President must have the discipline and strength to wipe ISIS off the face of the earth…

It has become impossible to imagine a President Paul defeating Radical Islam and it’s time for the rest of us to say it…

Evidently, Jindal slept through the part of recent U.S. history where Republican hawks like Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) spewed rhetoric mostly indistinguishable from that coming out of the Clinton State Department on arming rebels in Syria and other now FUBAR Arab Spring nations.

New Jersey generic GOP Gov. Chris Christie similarly attacked Paul, along with Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah), this week for efforts to block renewal of the NSA’s ability to spy on Americans without warrant via the Patriot Act.

Appearing on Fox, Christie said the two were siding with NSA leaker Edward Snowden.

“He’s a criminal, he’s a criminal and he’s hiding in Russia, and he’s lecturing to us about the evils of authoritarian government, while he lives under the protective umbrella of Vladimir Putin,” Christie said. “That’s who Mike Lee and Rand Paul are siding with — with Edward Snowden? Come on.”

The Washington Post’s Dana Milbank declared Wednesday that Paul is in trouble, writing, “Paul has a problem: He isn’t running for the Democratic nomination. And though Paul may think his Republican Party’s brand sucks, the primary voters don’t necessarily share his view that the party is too old and too white. His candidacy has so far failed to ignite — and, indeed, he seems to be fading as a force within the party.”

The GOP establishment doesn’t want to change and if Paul keeps pushing it the party will do whatever it can to destroy him. His biggest challenge ahead of the primary will be making sure voters continue to hear his message as his colleagues shout over him with party slogans, uninformed voters like slogans.

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