With 100 Days Until Iowa, Paul is Poised to Begin Climb
The last few weeks have been excellent for the Rand Paul campaign. After being left for dead by numerous media outlets, Paul has experienced new-found momentum, polling in the top five both nationally and in Iowa. He has energized thousands of college students through Students for Rand, and is gaining exposure which he had previously been unable to obtain. However, with this good news, Paul must capitalize in next week’s debate to catapult his candidacy into the top tier. Here’s what he has to do:
1. The Only True Fiscal Conservative
The topic of the CNBC debate is to be economics, and Senator Paul needs to make it clear that he is the only true fiscal conservative on the stage. While others may talk a big game, Paul is the lone candidate with the credentials to back up his statements. This is in large part because Paul is seemingly the only Republican willing to discuss even a reconsideration of the massive amount spent on defense. He has in the past proposed outright cuts to military spending and an audit of the Pentagon.
His principled stance in reducing waste was best exemplified when earlier this year, Paul proposed a budget amendment that actually increased the budget for defense at the amount requested by hawks in the GOP, but differed in that it at least made offsetting cuts to other areas. His plan was rejected almost unanimously by the Senate, most notably by Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio. Other important differences that Paul has with his Presidential competitors is his desire to end foreign aid entirely and his plan to end the War on Drugs, thus spending far less on the costs of incarceration. He has also consistently supported a Balanced Budget Amendment.
2. Appeal to Older Voters
Senator Paul has done exceptionally well building a campaign infrastructure with younger people, just as his father did. The demographic break-downs of his successes in polling reflect as much. However, in order to continue improvement, he must expand his base and begin to make appeals to older voters. There is no cut-and-dry way to go about this, but it involves connecting on a personal level with baby boomers on issues which they truly care about. This could include making moral pleas for his brand of libertarianism with a Christian tilt, as he has sometimes done when discussing military interventionism and the War on Drugs. These arguments can also be posited well when discussing them in the context of doing what’s best for the children of these older Americans.
Undoubtedly, any attempts to garner the votes of older Americans must also include a discussion about Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. In this area, Paul must be very careful, as he cannot be seen as against these programs. However, he could use his experiences as a physician to exemplify how he would be better than others at resolving high medical costs. He could also take the lead in the current field in proposing a concrete, market-based solution to replace the Affordable Care Act.
3. Make the Fair and Flat Tax Plan Well-Known
Americans rightfully despise the current tax code. However, very few candidates have come up with an alternative. In this CNBC debate about the economy, there is no better venue to put front-and-center Senator Paul’s plan to eliminate the IRS and dramatically simplify the tax code, while eliminating loopholes. As Paul has many times discussed, his plan would entail a system quite like Hong Kong’s, where the pertinent information can be filled out on a form no larger than a post-card.
No matter what sect of the American electorate hears and sees this plan, they are likely to be impressed. The thought of paying a significantly smaller amount in taxes is appealing to even the least politically-engaged. Paul has become easily one of the most issue-oriented candidates in the Presidential race thus far, and there is no better example than with his tax plan, endorsed by Art Laffer and Steve Forbes. Perhaps one of the great latent results of Paul’s tax plan is that it drastically shrinks the amount of revenue taken in by the government, thereby mandating the number of tasks which the state may perform.
4. Audit the Fed
One area where Senator Paul is sure to have a monopoly on discussion points is the Federal Reserve. Many libertarians feel that there is no more important topic when talking about the economy than the Fed. Recently, Senator Paul once again brought light to the topic when he challenged Ben Bernanke to a debate. This was after the former Fed Chairman decried Paul’s plan to Audit the Fed as being “very deceptive.” Paul could certainly bring the Federal Reserve into discussion if any mention of the 2008 recession is made by moderators or other candidates, thereby very much distinguishing himself from the field.
Perhaps no single issue defined Ron Paul‘s legacy as much as the Federal Reserve. By bringing this mysterious institution into the discussion on Wednesday, he can not only bring much-needed attention to the topic, but he can also excite libertarian voters who have been waiting to hear reasons to enthusiastically support the younger Paul. Because of the relatively few people who are knowledgeable on the issue, Paul incurs little-to-no risk of alienating any voting sect by taking time to explain the specifics of the Fed. Conversely, he could possibly make huge gains with those who note the crisis of the current monetary structure.
5. Make Hypocrisy Front and Center
In the last debate, one of the most memorable moments was when Senator Paul took Jeb Bush and others to task for supporting the War on Drugs while claiming to be staunch proponents of the Tenth Amendment (and in some cases, actually having used drugs themselves). By remaining calm and logical throughout, Paul was able to put a new spin on the arguments that viewers may have otherwise never heard. While the issue of drugs is unlikely to be discussed on Wednesday, Paul can effectively use this tactic when discussing a host of other issues.
Paul could, for example, question how others can claim to despise bureaucracy and big government when they so consistently vote for it to continue abroad and in the military. In addition, Paul would be wise to link the beliefs of other Republicans on stage to those of Hillary Clinton, the candidate who is so consistently attacked by every member of the Republican Party. In addition to criticisms of the military industrial complex, Paul could also question the utility of agricultural subsidies and a criminal justice system which spends billions dollars putting people behind bars, two other programs that many Republicans staunchly support.