As Rand Paul starts to move ahead in running for the Republican presidential nomination in 2016, he is going in a very different direction than his father during his time on the national stage.
The two men have charted different paths during their time on Capitol Hill. Ron Paul often went out of his way to vote against the Republican leadership in Congress, which won him cheers from his supporters but little help in passing legislation or winning coveted spots on committees. Despite being in the House for decades, Ron Paul scored more successes in his last years on the Hill and he often served as a lone voice crying out against big-government legislation and American military actions.
Rand Paul has not rocked the boat quite like his father and, when he did make waves, he was often strategic about it. Witness the applause he garnered from Republicans across the nation for his filibuster earlier in the year. Rand Paul has also had quite a different relationship with the Republican establishment than his father. For example, though he stood on different sides of GOP Senate boss Mitch McConnell in Kentucky primaries, Rand Paul has often worked with the Republican leader on key issues.
During his two attempts for the Republican nomination, Ron Paul built a loyal following attracted by his principles and calls for less government intervention in the marketplace and his calls for lessintervention overseas. Despite not coming close to winning the nominations in either 2008 or 2012, Ron Paul remained a candidate until the end of both contests. His supporters continued to back him financially and kept him in the race until the Republican conventions.
Rand Paul stands to inherit some of his fathers support but he wont be able to claim all of it. Since being elected to the Senate in 2010, Rand Paul has shown himself to be a very different politician than his father. While he often votes on the same lines as his father, Rand Paul has drifted more towards the Republican mainstream than his father. Ron Paul was often the lone vote against bills in Congress that he thought were unconstitutional, grew government or wasted taxpayers money.
Ron Paul will certainly do his best to keep the liberty movement behind his son come 2016, but there are some differences between the two men. Besides having a much larger pragmatic streak than his father, Rand Paul is less of a non-interventionist than Ron Paul.
The two men also differ on some federal spending issues. Ron Paul went out of his way to avoid dealing with Medicare patients for his medical practice but Rand Paul accepted that patients enrolled in that federal program. Those differences extend when it comes to federal agencies. While his father wants to abolish the TSA, Rand Paul wants to reduce its funding. Ron Paul has proposed abolishing the departments of Energy and Housing and Urban Development but his son wants to reduce their funding.
But while Ron Pauls most ideological supporters may have problems with the way his son has positioned himself, they cant deny his effectiveness. At this early point in the 2016 elections, Rand Paul is well-positioned to be one of the top candidates to win the Republican presidential nomination. He is in better shape to defeat the likes of Marco Rubio and Paul Ryan in 2016 than Ron Paul was against John McCain and Mitt Romney. Ron Paul may have burned a lot of bridges with Republican primary voters in the past and it says something about how shrewd a politician his son is since he is one of the early favorites for 2016.
Tallahassee political writer Jeff Henderson wrote this analysis exclusively for Sunshine State News.
