Marco Rubio vs. Rand Paul: Battling for the soul of the GOP
The Struggle for Control of the Right
By ANDREW ROSENTHAL, NYT
The rise of the Tea Party, which burst into national politics in 2009 and scored its first major electoral victories in 2010, set off a struggle within the Republican Party over just how far to the right the G.O.P. was willing to go. With that question settled - really, really far - we are now seeing the outlines of a struggle for control of the far right.
The lines of battle were visible on Tuesday night in the dueling responses to President Obama's State of the Union address.
The official one came from Senator Marco Rubio, who seems to have been anointed by the party to lead its effort to put a more congenial (less old, less white) face on the party. Mr. Rubio smiled warmly and pledged allegiance to working people and the middle class while he advocated the same tired policies that have pounded both of those groups for more than 30 years while enriching the rich. He talked about bipartisanship even if he didn't mean it.
Senator Rand Paul delivered another response to Mr. Obama on behalf of the Tea Party, in which he didn't smile much and outlined about the most radical proposals for gutting the federal government that I've heard. He quoted Ronald Reagan's line that "the government is the problem" but of course neglected to mention that President Reagan raised taxes, increased government spending, and increased the debt. He not only made no pretense at being partisan, he disdained bipartisanship.
(More here.)
By ANDREW ROSENTHAL, NYT
The rise of the Tea Party, which burst into national politics in 2009 and scored its first major electoral victories in 2010, set off a struggle within the Republican Party over just how far to the right the G.O.P. was willing to go. With that question settled - really, really far - we are now seeing the outlines of a struggle for control of the far right.
The lines of battle were visible on Tuesday night in the dueling responses to President Obama's State of the Union address.
The official one came from Senator Marco Rubio, who seems to have been anointed by the party to lead its effort to put a more congenial (less old, less white) face on the party. Mr. Rubio smiled warmly and pledged allegiance to working people and the middle class while he advocated the same tired policies that have pounded both of those groups for more than 30 years while enriching the rich. He talked about bipartisanship even if he didn't mean it.
Senator Rand Paul delivered another response to Mr. Obama on behalf of the Tea Party, in which he didn't smile much and outlined about the most radical proposals for gutting the federal government that I've heard. He quoted Ronald Reagan's line that "the government is the problem" but of course neglected to mention that President Reagan raised taxes, increased government spending, and increased the debt. He not only made no pretense at being partisan, he disdained bipartisanship.
(More here.)
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