QOTD from Steve M:
Conservatism thrives in America by making people ignorant.
Exhibit A: Rand Paul
The Atlantic's Philip Bump notes that Rand Paul got big laughs in a recent speech joking about the large number of diagnostic codes that will be used under Obamacare. It won't shock you to learn that there's a perfectly reasonable explanation for the new codes, but this is the right doing what it does best -- killing good ideas it doesn't like by making them seem ridiculous to the rubes -- and Senator Paul seems quite good at it:
SNIP
By the way, please note that Rand Paul -- once a regular on Alex Jones's show -- passed up the opportunity to say that these codes are a UN plot. (The World Health Organization is, of course, part of the UN.) That suggests to me that Paul is professionalizing his act, and getting his talking points from the mainstream right-wing noise machine rather than the Jones fringe. I'd say that makes Paul more dangerous -- if he's breaking with the lunatics, he's going to be a serious candidate in 2016. And please note that he made this speech in, um, Iowa. So watch out for him.
As someone who cheered when Paul beat Trey Grayson in the Kentucky repug primary in 2010 because I was so sure that even pathetic Jack Conway could beat that racist clown, I cannot emphasize this enough: Paul can win. Especially when you are certain he can't.
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