#StandWithRand: Two Ways to Transcend the Hash Tag

Posted by Crissy Brown March 12, 2013 1 Comment 565 views

Wednesday, March 6th, more than a few Americans sat glued to their screens and watched Rand Paul ream the president’s drone policy for 13 hours, filibustering the nomination of John Brennan for Director of the CIA.

The effects were immediate. A national conversation erupted; “#StandwithRand” began trending globally as Americans of all ideologies witnessed Rand Paul hold President Obama accountable for his drone policy, elected officials accountable for assuming a position of “don’t ask, don’t tell,” and the people accountable for what comes next. Rand shed light on the mischievous machinations of the White House and paved the path to doing something about it.

But that’s not enough. As my fellow blogger Gina Luttrell so aptly marked:

“Rand Paul stood up and spoke for 13 hours. What are we going to do? If we’re not asking ourselves that question today, then the filibuster failed.”

With Rand garnering new support from all ideologies – Rachel Maddow, Rush Limbaugh, Justin Raimondo – the post-filibuster political atmosphere definitely feels different today. It is up to us, we the people of liberty, to ensure this feeling resounds into tomorrow. I offer two pieces of friendly advice as to how:

Don’t be a political liability to the “movement”

As Ron Paul once said, “it’s obvious to me that the Libertarian Party would be a lot bigger than it is now if its image were perceived as more libertarian and less libertine.” The internal sectarianism in the movement is a gross hindrance to its efficiency. Libertarians have splintered into factions of ideology, often fighting with one another instead of their real political enemies. The tendency to enclose and surround ourselves with people of similar beliefs is understandable; shunning those that don’t fit your brand of libertarianism isn’t.

Infiltrate the bureaucracy

Rand Paul proves how successful just one libertarian in the GOP can be. Where one is good, two is better; and to the glee of libertarians everywhere, Rep. Justin Amash has announced he may be running for the senate. Let this merely be the beginning.

If we want to lead – if we want our movement to lead – we must produce and elect leaders. Such a statement seems redundant, yet it is pertinent to note considering the collective view that because voting is aggression we should abstain; that because our political model is corrupt we should ignore it until it may be replaced with another. But think how easily we could fix the system if we were running it.

“I believe the support I received this past week shows that Americans are looking for someone to really stand up and fight for them,” Rand Paul wrote in an article for the Washington Post, “And I’m prepared to do just that.”

Seize this opportunity, liberty lovers. Let’s band together, revolutionize the GOP, and really Stand with Rand.

About Crissy Brown

Crissy is studying political science and journalism at the University of Alabama and the president of her Young Americans for Liberty chapter. She has been interviewed on the Lars Larson Show and her work has appeared at openmarket.org, The American Thinker, and in The Washington Times.

activism blog bureaucracy Crissy Brown drone policy filibuster Gina Luttrell john brennan Rand Paul stand with rand standwithrand

http://thoughtsonliberty.com/ Gina Luttrell

Crissy, this is a great post and well-put, but I really have to disagree that reforming the GOP is the best way to enact change. People tend to forget that the most recent advances of liberty (drug policy reform, LGBT equality) have come with the help of democrats and other liberals.

I’m not so far gone as to say that working within the political process is useless, but when libertarians chain themselves to making changes within one party or another, I think we inherently limit the amount of change we can make and in what direction.