When you look into the libertarian movement in America, you pretty much run into the Paul family, beginning with Republican Texas congressman Ron Paul who ran for President in 2008 but sadly did not get elected, though he put forth a better showing effort than previous “thirds” like Ross Perot have.

So to see one of his sons, Rand Paul, not only defeat a fellow Republican for the Kentucky primary senate race, but be put in position for possibly winning the election in the fall, it’s a pretty big deal to the Tea Party and other pro-libertarian parties in this country that they have the chance to get someone in on the Senate side to combat “politics as usual” in Washington.

But when you listen to Paul speak, for many established liberals and conservatives, his words are nothing new, but for moderate liberals and conservatives, they wonder how he will politically survive in the “politics as usual” field. After all, “The One” campaigned on bi-partisanship and working together, right?

So how does a very blunt, very straightforward voice like Rand Paul work for the GOP and government as a whole?

Well, so far of the newly elected conservatives after the 2008 elections, none of them have put their mouth where their campaign speeches were. Scott Brown of Massachusetts was pretty much given the late Senator Ted Kennedy’s seat by the Tea Party and then he went and voted not only for the bloated health care bill, but Dodd’s unbelievable regulation bill for Wall Street. If I were a Massachusetts conservative, or a Tea Party supporter, I’d be furious over the fact that he pretty much just used the grassroots establishment to play right into “politics as usual”. Yes he is representing a mostly blue state, but that just means he is giving up his ideology to keep his seat.

Another hopeful is New Jersey governor Chris Christie, who has spoken recently of his goals to eliminate the state’s budget deficit by more conservative means, such as forcing school districts to dip into their own surpluses instead of state funds, and examining the costs for public housing. While his record is not squeaky clean as a politician, he is, in my opinion, taking the right steps in trying to right a ship that has been sliding for many years. Everyone deals with tough times during economic depressions, and governments should also be making sacrifices and cuts just like the people are.

Many libertarians like Paul advocate a return to the Constitution, and the laws and framework that our founding fathers created when this country was founded, for a basis of government. Small government, free market economy, and personal freedoms are among the core list of ideas supported. To that end, Paul took note of objecting to the government’s role in the oil spill in the Gulf, citing that BP has taken responsibility for the accident and is doing what they can to contain and restore the area, but that the “blame game” is unneeded and unnecessary for government to partake in with a mostly private company.

He is right of course.

Ever since Katrina we have been put into this notion that the government needs to be picking up the pieces for every major disaster that occurs on American soil. Hurricanes, floods, tornadoes, oil spills, if the government is not sending in FEMA and handing you a check, they are forsaking you. Does anyone remember the flooding in Tennessee? No? The media sure doesn’t, it didn’t involve minority liberals in Louisiana. Despite that, those folks did what they needed to do to get through it and help each other rebuild. How about flooding in Connecticut a month or so ago. Our governor asked for emergency funds and was denied, why? Well I suppose if it affected inner-city Hartford then they might’ve, but no one worries about the towns outside of the city around here.

So why does the GOP need Paul this year?

Well they don’t need him, but I think they need his ideals, or some of them.

The thing is, many of the principals that Paul and libertarians stand for are going to be crucial to the GOP base this election, because the traditional base is still pinned under the legacy of Bush and his Republican congress, as well as current members who voted for the bank bailouts in 2008. Democrats will use any opportunity Republicans would have to pitch traditional conservative values as an excuse to go back to the “Bush” era, where traditional conservatives see that as the “Reagan” era. Both eras had their gains and losses, and to me I still think there is a middle ground to conservative and liberal values, however neither side will agree to find that ground so long as one of the other holds control of Capitol Hill. Many libertarians have conservative values, but many are willing to accept some liberal values so long as it does not undermine the core principles of the Constitution and expand government beyond it’s control.

Paul himself may not bring much to the table, but he has the potential to open the Pandora’s Box for some real change in this country, change that I don’t think either party can handle yet. Hell, it’s not even new change, common sense values have been the driving force of this country since it’s founding, but since the Industrial Revolution and most especially the Technology Revolution, we’ve become a country and society of complacent beings who feel entitled to government handouts and control, but also complacent to corporate control and loss of personal freedoms. Obama had the chance to seize this when he won, and really, I voted for him because I bought into his fantastic speaking ability, but almost two years later, he has done nothing but play lapdog for Pelosi and a liberal Congress to open the floodgates of government spending. Worse of all, he agrees with it, gloats over it, and still has the balls to ask for Republican help, then ignore them anyway. Granted the President really has little control over the actual lawmaking process, if Congress were mostly Republican, he would have a much harder time pushing his agenda, but what is his agenda? It certainly isn’t what he advertised during the election, he is posed to increase government spending ten-fold over the next ten years, and for what, health care to a lot of people who don’t even need it? Dare I say, maybe he was listening to his old Rev. Wright after all.

The biggest hurdle to the idea of libertarian values in government are human rights and race rights. The only reason is because in the eyes of Paul, private citizens and private businesses shouldn’t be subjected or forced to comply with anti-discrimination laws. This isn’t to say that people should be allowed to openly discriminate, but private discrimination happens anyway, it even happens by minorities. Instead we should be promoting the idea that everyone is free, everyone is American, and we do not need laws that force someone else’s will upon people to take up the act of acting or reacting to others in a certain way. Making everyone truly equal without racial barriers would be the ultimate step in eliminating race wars and racial tensions. Just as with the immigration law in Arizona, something that exists to protect ALL citizens of the state of Arizona, regardless of their race, should not be viewed as racist or discriminatory to people who are ILLEGAL and not citizens of this country, they do not even DESERVE to be in our country in that manner. Events like the Cambridge Police incident with Professor Gates, a police officer doing his job, should not warrant even a word from President Obama, but did anyway, because he’s black. If you think that the racial divide doesn’t exist in this country today, you are retarded, it will continue to exist until everyone wakes the fuck up and realizes that every effort made from the local to federal level to “make things fair” for everyone, is being counter-productive and holding our country back from regaining it’s once-held glory of being the “Land of Opportunity”, all because a bunch of people simply don’t want to buckle down, help out, and get along.

In reality, Paul does not need the GOP so much as the GOP needs Paul, they need his ideals, his values, and they need to seriously stop and listen to what the American people want, because I’ll tell you the vast majority of people, of all races, don’t want to place such a large financial burden on their children and grandchildren simply to give the baby boomers a grand retirement.

TL;DR: Term limits. Common sense. Balanced budgets. Within means. Border control AND immigration reform. Smaller government. Free markets with common sense regulation. Less reliance on foreign oil– more nuclear power planets domestically while funding clean energy technologies. No bailouts– you fail you fall. These are just some of MY political values. What are yours?