Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul is one of the few Republicans who would be welcome on a left-wing college campus like Berkeley, according to the
British Guardian newspaper.
The progressive newspaper said there is substantial political overlap on such issues as privacy, mandatory drug sentencing policy, prison reform, the use of military drones, foreign policy, and gay rights between liberals and Paul's libertarian camp.
The paper says that Paul's brand of libertarianism "is suddenly a political force to be reckoned with, disrupting the political establishment by sparking unusual alliances between Republicans and Democrats."
The Guardian,
which served as a conduit for publicizing material purloined by Edward Snowden, noted that Paul has filed a lawsuit against the NSA and that he told the recent Conservative Political Action Conference, "I believe what you do on your cell phone is none of their damn business."
While those on the political left oppose the lower tax and smaller government planks of libertarianism, they embrace libertarian ideas when it comes to gay rights, gun ownership, privacy and marijuana, according to Carroll Doherty of Pew Research, the Guardian reported.
John Samples, an adjunct professor at Johns Hopkins University, said that Paul's ascendancy has benefited from the troubles faced by the other wings of the GOP. Social conservatives, who oppose abortion and single-sex marriage, are pursuing generally unpopular causes, while neoconservatives are generally identified with the unpopular wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
There is a sense that, in contrast to his father Ron Paul, Rand Paul's political moment may have arrived, the Guardian concluded.
Meanwhile,
Fox News reported that Paul won the Northeast Republican Leadership Conference straw poll on Saturday. New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, came in second with third place tied between Dr. Ben Carson, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, and former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum.
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