Rand Paul has never been in the mainstream of the Republican Party. And we’ve just been given a fresh reminder.
The Washington Free Beacon this week carried a story on Jack Hunter, who runs the Kentucky senator’s social media and advises him on foreign policy. Turns out Hunter has an interesting past, including a stint as a shock jock in which he was known as the “Southern Avenger” and wore a Confederate mask in public.
In addition, he was chairman of the League of the South, a group that advocates secession from the union and the formation of an independent Southern republic.
Among his comments, he has said Lincoln assassin John Wilkes Booth’s “heart was in the right place” and complained about America losing its special white character through immigration. Since then, Hunter says he has modified some of his views, and so far the senator is sticking with him, calling Hunter an “incredibly talented” writer and discounting some of his earlier views as youthful indiscretion.
Now, Rand Paul is free to hire whomever he wants, whatever that person’s views on the Confederacy. But it’s a heckuva way to advance the cause of limited government and freer markets — especially to African-Americans and other non-traditional Republicans Paul has been trying to appeal to.
For years, many observers have seen two Pauls: one a thoughtful critic of big government; the other a man with a lot of loony baggage. Our guess is that Paul doesn’t distinguish because he doesn’t see a contradiction: They are all expressions of the same principles. And that will be his undoing.