Rand Paul brander sig som Washington-outsideren

Anti-kandidaten: Umiddelbart er der ikke meget outsider over Rand Paul. Faren Ron Paul har to gange forsøgt sig i de republikanske primærvalg, var det libertarianske partis præsidentkandidat i 1988 og har siddet i Repræsentanternes Hus i tre omgange for Republikanerne i 1976-1977, 1979-1985 og 1997-2013.

Rand Paul selv er senator fra delstaten Kentucky siden 2010. Paul-familien har Washington i blodet.

Men sådan ser Rand Paul ikke sig selv. Han er outsideren og den jævne amerikaners repræsentant i hovedstaden.

- For example, if you asked people anywhere in America whether or not we should send money to countries that hate us, burn our flag, persecute Christians or put Christians in jail for interfaith marriage or blasphemy, not one American will say we should do that. But I had a vote in committee up here, where I introduced an amendment that read, ‘Any country that puts to death Christians by law or imprisons them for life for those things shouldn't get any of our money,' and it got only two votes. So really, what happens up here is not only disconnected from the rest of the country, it is completely the opposite of what would be common sense, udtalte han til Triblive.

Anti-anti-anti
Flere politiske forskere hæfter endda mærkatet anti-anti-anti-kandidaten på ham.

Flere vælgere kan lide, at hans isolationisme i udenrigspolitikken adskiller ham markant fra en neokonservativt præget præsident som George W. Bush. Der er heller ikke andre mulige republikanske præsidentkandidater, der er udpræget isolationistske.

Samtidig adskiller Rand Pauls økonomiske politik, der har et tydeligt libertariansk præg, sig fra de fleste kandidater. Særligt kampen mod USA's massivt stigende gæld er vigtig for Paul.

- If I run for president, it is for the same reason that I ran for the Senate — because I am worried about the direction of the country The debt grows by $1 million a minute, and it appears no one in Congress has the wherewithal to actually cut spending, reduce the size of government and really to get our economy growing.

Paul skiller sig også ud, når det kommer til den traditionelle "tough on crime-"linje, som de konservative republikanere typisk forfølger. Paul mener, det amerikanske justitssystem har alvorlige problemer, og at hælde flere og flere borgere i fængsel er ikke løsningen.

- It is important that everybody believes that our justice system is just — whether you are white, black, brown, rich or poor — that all people are treated the same. Twenty years ago, we had 300,000 people in prison in the United States. Now we have 2½ million people in jails. If you look at the percentages, three out of four people for nonviolent drug crimes are black or brown, but if you survey people who are using illegal drugs ... it is really way more white people are using drugs than black people.

Han fortsætter til Triblive:

- The system needs to be reformed because people who are poor, or who have less representation, and people who live in communities that have more police activity get arrested more often. I don't say that there is any purposeful racism, but there has been an inadvertent racial outcome to it.

Svært i South Carolina
Det forventes, at Rand Paul melder officielt ud, at han stiller op som præsidentkandidat i løbet af foråret. Allerede nu er han dog i fuld gang med at gøde jorden i de tidlige primærvalgsstater Iowa, New Hampshire og South Carolina. Sidstnævnte bliver hans største udfordring. Delstatens mange soldater, stærke militærengagement og hundredetusindvis af veteraner siger ikke HUA til Pauls isolationistiske udenrigspolitik.