Rand Paul, the gift that keeps on giving:
In the face of the environmental catastrophe in the Gulf of Mexico, Paul rushed to the defense of BP on Good Morning America. When George Stephanopolous asked, “But you don’t want to get rid of the EPA?” Dr. Paul’s diagnosis was that the Obama administration was persecuting the oil giant and the American free enterprise system. Accidents, he insisted, “happen”:
“No, the thing is is that drilling right now and the problem we’re having now is in international waters and I think there needs to be regulation of that and always has been regulation. What I don’t like from the president’s administration is this sort of, you know, “I’ll put my boot heel on the throat of BP.” I think that sounds really un-American in his criticism of business. I’ve heard nothing from BP about not paying for the spill. And I think it’s part of this sort of blame game society in the sense that it’s always got to be someone’s fault. Instead of the fact that maybe sometimes accidents happen. I mean, we had a mining accident that was very tragic and I’ve met a lot of these miners and their families. They’re very brave people to do a dangerous job. But then we come in and it’s always someone’s fault. Maybe sometimes accidents happen.”
Away from Planet Paul, however, Massey Energy CEO Don Blankenship, whose company is facing possible criminal charges over its Upper Big Branch disaster that killed 29 miners in West Virginia, testified before Congress Thursday. And while public rage against BP’s negligence and duplicity mounted this week, its executives last week made very clear that they may not pay for the spill. As CBS reported, any compensation from BP beyond “legitimate claims” was a “question mark”.
Rand Paul’s ideology is a left-over from the pre-industrial, pre-scientific age of culture, where the society is a simple one based on individuals, families and villages. This is why he and his friends are so fixated on the original meaning and context of the constitution.
He does not conceive of individuals in the expanded structure of an industrial/financial society where society is as real and fundamental to reality as individuals. In a primitive village a lot of things really were accidents and just happened like the weather or natural disasters; nobody could be identified as the one at fault.
But in a complex society and economy an individuals identity is partially made of the person’s role in society, events in life are as social as they are “individual”. It makes no sense to distinguish “private” from “public” the way Paul and his cohort want to.
Anyone interested in this should read Jane Addams “Democracy and Social Ethics”.
Beautifully put.
Another Massey miner dies after another Massey mine accident.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5iO_X7k-MO-knk1VTmPu8lqOSDkFAD9FRB1BO0
I hope the motherfucker drops out of the Senate race, period. But if he stays in I hope and pray that the bastard keeps his eye gig before he tries to take us back the the days of hunting and gathering.