“Does anybody remember Charlie Sheen when he was kind of going crazy…and he was going around, jumping around saying ‘Winning, winning, we’re winning.’ Well I kind of feel like that, we are winning. And I’m not on any drugs.” Rand Paul, September 19, 2013
With just a few sentences in an address to Liberty PAC, Rand Paul displayed just how out of touch he and his fellow Tea Party Republicans are.
Charlie Sheen was wrong in 2011. He was not winning. He was careening out of control. He may have been losing his mind. Charlie Sheen was crazy-talking himself out of a job which paid $2,000,000 per episode. But just put a microphone in front of him, and pay him to show up, and he would regale you with tales of tiger blood, and Adonis DNA, and of course, WINNING.
Rand Paul thinks President Obama coming to Congress for permission to bomb Syria was a win for Republicans, and that they should maximize their chance to capitalize on it. I guess that is the advantage of being the party that is out of power? If the President bombs Syria on his own, he is overstepping his authority, maybe even committing an offense Republicans would spend the next three years seeking to impeach him for? But if he goes to Congress, he is considered weak, having to come hat in hand to ask permission for something he likely could have done without permission?
Rand Paul thinks that Edward Snowden revealing the vast scope of NSA spying is a win for Republicans as well. And despite not giving any details as to why he thinks so, he wants you to know that Hillary Clinton would be the Democrat least likely to protect your privacy in the future.
Did this NSA spying not go on under a Republican President as well? Was the Patriot Act, the greatest intrusion into the private lives of American citizens, not passed while George Bush and his neo-cons manned the White House?
Rand Paul even spoke out against mandatory prison sentences, and suggested Republicans should take this opposition to African-American communities to speak directly to those who have been treated most unfairly by the justice system.
Yes, Rand Paul still thinks Republicans are winning. He still thinks painting Democrats as the party of spying, of warmongering, as the party responsible for keeping African Americans down, could be the perfect way to appeal to young and impressionable voters to win them over to the Republican side.
The simple truth is this: Republicans have lost the popular vote in 5 of the last 6 Presidential elections. The Senate, which currently stands at 52-46 with two Independents, would have 58 Democrats if Senate seats were awarded by population instead of two per state. And the only reason Republicans have held the House was the awesome gerrymandering (or as they call it, redistricting) which took place after the 2010 census that created a lot more secure Republican districts. How else do you explain a body with a 13% approval rating having a 95% re-election rate, other than there being no competitive districts left?
Republicans are not winning. The Tea Party is not winning. They do not represent the majority of Americans. They do not represent the opinions of the majority of Americans. They are bereft of ideas, but have no need for ideas anyway.
Blame the other party. Demonize the very ideas you once espoused as your own. Spend more money and scream louder and say no to everything. Tell the majority of Americans they are wrong, or immoral, or lazy.
Winning?