Rand Paul: BP Should Not Be Held Responsible
From the New York Times:
WASHINGTON — Rand Paul, the newly nominated Republican candidate for Senate from Kentucky, touched off more controversy on Friday by calling the Obama administration “un-American” for taking a tough stance with BP over the company’s handling of the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
A day after he was forced to explain remarks he had made suggesting he was not fully supportive of the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964, Mr. Paul set off yet another round of Twitter, cable television and e-mail chatter by lambasting President Obama and his aides for insisting that BP be held accountable — and pay — for the oil spill cleanup and damage.
“What I don’t like from the president’s administration is this sort of, ‘I’ll put my boot heel on the throat of BP,’ ” Mr. Paul said, referring to a remark by Interior Secretary Ken Salazar about the oil company. “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 sometimes accidents happen.”
This shows the problem with the Ron/Rand Paul ideology: it is naive and incapable of dealing with real world decisions. Next time someone gets in a car accident, they should try out Rand Paul’s suggestion: “accidents happen, therefore, it is not my fault.” The only thing they will get from that is laughter.
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I listened to the interview. Paul doesn’t say that BP shouldn’t be held responsible. He questions the administration’s “gotcha” attitude toward business. In fact, from the quote you provided (“I’ve heard nothing from BP about not paying for the spill”), it’s clear that Paul expects BP to be held responsible.
No, he said it is an “accident.” He said he expects BP will pay, but he also removes guilt from them. Which is absurd for so many reasons. He is indeed promoting a great evil, which is not surprising: the libertarian position is centered on egotism.
Henry:
I think it’s worth quoting the end of the NYT article, which ironically connects this topic with “survival of the fittest” mentioned in Cooperation Benefits All:
Canceling an appearance on the best-known Sunday morning interview show is an extreme damage-control measure. I’m hoping this means Mr. Paul’s politics aren’t “the fittest” but rather the extreme fringe of radical individualism.
Frank
Maybe he is going to have a talk with Sarah Palin to find out how best to deal with the media ;)
Henry, I think you’re trying to fit Paul’s statement into a prepackaged critique of libertarianism. If you look at what he actually said, a reasonable person could agree with it.
Pinky
His words are clear. His outrageous words are clear. He does not belong in political office; he belongs out in the ocean helping to clear that accident.
Henry, do you at least agree that sometimes in modern politics we are too quick to assign blame, and also too quick to play the “gotcha” game and reduce nuanced answers into sound bites?
This has to do with BP and the blame they have. The idea that “it’s an accident” and “no blame” is ludicrous. Especially because of things they didn’t do which could have prevented this.
Rand Paul specifically said that instead of blaming BP or trying to place fault, we should chalk it up to accidents happen. That is where he stands on it. YouTube it. It’s not hard to see what he has said, and the great part about video, is that once the senate race gets closer to election time, they can just replay his video’s over and over for the people to see. He can back track and try to keep the press at bay, and take a break from the media. The only reason one would do that though, is because they know they are in hot water. He wanted a honeymoon from the press and instead he got his words out there, for the American public to see first hand. He is insensitive to Americans with Disabilites, he is insenstive to people that were discrimiated during the civil rights era, and he feels that businesses should be able to refuse someone or discriminate simply because its their right to do so. When you speak like that, you get the press you desearve.
With a disaster this large, someone is to blame. It’s that simple.
Think of it this way. If a company is cutting safety corners and taking short cuts to maximize profits on their rigs, and then an accident this large, this big of a global disaster rusults from those exact short cuts, then they are responsible. It’s an accident that could have been prevented, if the proper course was followed in how they set the rig up. The sad part is, most of it is muddled, because they are not really explaining what happened. They all blame the other guy.
Naming a kid Rand (as in Ayn) is really all you need to know about Mr. Paul. Paul Jr. being a Tea Party icon calling the criticism of British Petrol un-American is, well I don’t even know what that is. The GOP is just an absolute joke these days. A scary one at that.
Gerald
They say his name isn’t after Ayn, but he does say he likes her works.
I think that Paul is complaining about blame as a political tool. The White House has demogogued against industries (insurance, finance, oil, etc.) every chance they’ve gotten. Since BP is going to pay for damages, the question of blame isn’t a matter of finance; it’s a matter of politics. I’d love to see politics become less about scoring points and more about policy.
I wrote the chapter of Ron Paul: A Life of Ideas in which Rand, was born and suggested that he was named after Ayn, but after learned I was wrong. (His name was Randall.) Ron Paul read her works at the time and was influenced by them, but has since renounced her. He’s a practicing Baptist, after all.
Attacking Rand Paul, you might want to keep this in mind:
“Maddow and Paul agree on probably 90 per cent of the BIG issues confronting us, from ending the drug and Afghan war, to ending bail outs & aid to Israel,” says CounterPunch‘s Jeffrey St Clair, quoted by CounterPunch‘s Alexander Cockburn — The Rand and Rachel Show. “But because of their own peculiar prejudices, his doctrinaire libertarian, hers PC progressive, neither of them can talk about anything other than a non-issue such as the Civil Rights Act of 19 — SIXTY-FOUR,” continues Mr. St. Clair. “It’s like a Dadaist play.”
The same party that fetishizes “personal responsibility” also lives in mortal terror of “the blame game.”
Last time we were warned against playing the blame game, it was to protect a (republican) politician.
Conservatives have no moral center at all.
I have a great deal of respect for both Rand Paul and his father, on account of their advocacy of a more pacific American foreign policy. What neither of them seem to understand, however, is that the expansionist American neo-liberal economic policies MANDATE continuous war. The only way we could have both the non-interventionist foreign policy they advocate as well as the libertarian economic theories is if we agreed to be a far poorer society. I’m all for it, but their followers aren’t.
Digby
I don’t think they would be for it, either; I don’t think they really understand economics. And I also get a sense of a lack of social concern from them which is not to be surprised; business trumps everything for them. Of course, there are aspects of Ron Paul’s career which one can affirm without agreeing with the way he got there, nor with what he does beyond those affirmations. This of course is true for anyone. My concern is their principles lead us far away from what we really want.
As an aside, I recommend downloading History 5 from UC Berkeley by Margaret Lavinia Anderson (iTunes U). The lecture on Manchester Liberalism and its philosophical underpinnings was fascinating.
As far as Ayn Rand is concerned, I didn’t last long reading The Fountainhead. It’s simply unbearable. Ron Paul is obviously far better than Sarah Palin. How did sonny fall in with the Tea Party ? I still can’t quite figure out what they want but neither can the teabaggers I guess. A bizarre rag tag amalgamate of paranoia, racism, crazed Christianity sans Christ, populism sponsored by the interests of rich backers. I don’t quite get how big business is essentially different from big government, apart from the fact that government can be voted out of office.
Boot on the throat of BP. Would that be like the boot on the throat of Iraq when BP hopes to get a killer deal ? I’m moved to tears. By the ruined sea and killed animals.
To fully understand Ayn Rand, I think, one has to slog all the way through Atlas Shrugged. That’s an appalling prospect, but it is–strangely enough–well worth the effort. It must be read as an extended parable, and it must be taken very seriously, badly written though it is. I don’t think that many works of fiction have been more influential than Atlas Shrugged. It is dismissed by intellectuals for all the wrong reasons.
Gerald and Phos – I can’t stop you from caricaturing your political opponents, but you do realize that’s what you’re doing, right?
What I can do is request Gerald that he doesn’t use that particular obscene term to describe tea partiers. This is a Catholic website.
The political right in this country is saying simultaneously that Obama is in the bag for BP because of huge campaign contributions he received from Big Oil, and that he is using this disaster to play “gotcha” on corporate America. Which is it? Damned if he do, and damned if he don’t…
Of course he’s “damned,” Rodak; he’s black and they’re atavistic racists.
Yes. There is that.
Louis Farrakhan, Saudi Prince Bandar, and Rand Paul walk into a bar…
Mr. Paul’s politics aren’t “the fittest” but rather the extreme fringe of radical individualism.
Sometimes. But more so, he has exposed the dirty little secret of the Right.
They are not for the freedom of the individual against control by big insitutions like government. They are for the ability of large corporations (notjust BP, but the mining companies Rand defended, and others) to control people’s lives, unbridled by the public-interest restraits parlimentary democracy might put on Big Business.
I think its the Lawyers fault.
Personally the man seems nice and articulate enough to have a shot at getting elected to the Senate. I imagine
it would be good for conservatives to have people like Rand Paul mixing it up a bit. I take him any day over the cynical apparatchiks aka Cheney – speaking of cynical – it will not take long for him to be in some Industries pocket just like most of them I am afraid – the way he calls BP outrageous calculated money saving failures – ‘accidents’ certainly will get him a $ or two. Democracy will continue to be under attack – perhaps now more than ever.
http://www.newsweek.com/id/238323/page/1
I’m just upset beyond belief by this tragedy. Where can I find an realistic assessment of the real size of the oil released? The assessments are widely different from different sources. Thanks for your interesting post.