Mr. Paul Goes to Washington

Hollywood has produced some fine political dramas over the years including Citizen Kane, which is widely considered the greatest movie of all time. One of my personal favorites is The Candidate, but if I could only watch one film with a political theme it would be Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.

The movie stars Jimmy Stewart as Jefferson Smith, a politically naïve westerner who is appointed to the U.S. Senate because the powerbrokers think he will be easy to control. However, Smith proves to be a man of integrity and so, the political machine (and those behind it) try to frame him with false corruption charges. The climax of the film is Smith’s 25-hour filibuster – dramatically portrayed by Stewart in the role that made him a star – after which he is finally vindicated.

From my perspective, the person in the U.S Senate who most closely resembles the fictional Jefferson Smith is Rand Paul, the junior senator from Kentucky.

When Paul was first elected to the Senate in 2010, his first legislative proposal was to cut $500 billion from the federal budget in one year. Paul’s proposal included reducing the Department of Education by a whopping 83% and the Department of Homeland Security by 43%, the latter because he opposed widespread domestic wiretapping and the collection of phone records of American citizens in the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Paul’s plan also called for folding the Department of Energy into the Department of Defense, eliminating the Department of Housing and Urban Development, and shutting down seven independent governmental agencies that he saw as nonessential. Finally, Paul sought to reduce food stamps by 30% and defense spending by 6.5% while discontinuing all foreign aid.

Whether you agree with Paul’s ambitious proposals or not, you have to give him credit for standing by his principles and being willing to go after some of the federal government’s most sacred cows. Personally, I love a guy who shoots high, such as when Paul later introduced a five-year budget plan intended to balance the budget.

During his first term in office, Paul consistently voted against stopgap measures meant to prevent a government shutdown. His reasoning was that the bills didn’t cut federal spending enough. Paul also refused to raise the debt ceiling unless it was linked to a balanced budget amendment and vigorously opposed American involvement in Libya’s civil war as well as President Obama’s unauthorized use of U.S forces there.

On March 6-7, 2013, Sen. Paul engaged in a filibuster to draw attention to drones being used to spy on American citizens, holding the floor for 12 hours and 52 minutes. That same year, he opposed bailing out Detroit after it declared bankruptcy because he felt it would send the wrong message to other financially strapped U.S. cities. Paul was quoted as saying that a bailout would only take place “over my dead body because we don't have any money in Washington.”

The following year, Paul pushed for the immediate approval of the Keystone XL pipeline after Russia invaded Ukraine and annexed Crimea, citing that – in addition to international sanctions – the best way to punish Russia for its aggression was to reduce Europe’s dependency on Russian oil.

During the 115th Congress (2017-2019), Paul opposed the reauthorization of the Patriot Act over concerns it violated Americans’ privacy. He also criticized President Trump’s missile strikes against Syria without congressional approval while strongly encouraging him to pull out of the international climate treaty known as the Paris Agreement.

In an October 2017 interview, Paul said he would not vote for the Republican budget in the Senate unless billions in spending were removed from the plan. “If leadership is unwilling to compromise with somebody who is concerned about the debt,” he told the reporter, “then they deserve to lose." That same year, Paul introduced a bill that sought to replace the Affordable Care Act with a $5,000 per person healthcare tax credit while, unlike Obamacare, not requiring everyone to have coverage.

Throughout President Trump’s term in office, Paul only supported his policies roughly 75% of the time. However, he ardently defended President Trump in his two impeachment trials and also refused to accept the 2020 election results, citing gross election law violations.

Paul is a self-described “constitutional conservative” who helped launch the Tea Party movement. He is also “100% pro-life”, believes that life begins at conception, and co-sponsored the No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act in 2011. As a social conservative, Sen. Paul has vigorously opposed same-sex marriage and gender reassignment surgery, calling it “genital mutilation”.

Unlike his stridently isolationist father, Paul concedes a role for American armed forces abroad, including permanent foreign military bases. However, he has consistently denounced “neoconservatism” as being too pro-intervention, a position that appears to be growing in popularity within the Republican Party.

Perhaps my favorite Rand Paul moments have been his relentless questioning of Dr. Anthony Fauci throughout the Covid pandemic. One libertarian-leaning doctor calling out a 40-year government bureaucrat made for some great political theater… and proved Dr. Paul right every time.

Rand Paul is not a perfect man nor a perfect senator. However, even his most vocal critics admit that he is a man of unyielding principle, kind of like the fictional Jefferson Smith.

For my money, we could use a lot more people in Washington like Jimmy Stewart... I mean Rand Paul.