AynRandy on "religious freedom:'' Moron or Liar?

The Tribble-Toupeed One is living down to all of our expectations.  From isolationist to warmonger, small-government champion to Pentagon budget-stuffer, anti-banker to Wall Street cocksucker and now liberty-loving brogressive to freakazoid bibble-fucker.

(Sniff!)  I'm so proud!

Steve Benen at Maddowblog:

The religious right movement is looking for a presidential candidate to rally behind. It seems the junior senator from Kentucky believes he can be that candidate – and if that means shameless pandering, so be it.

Speaking to a group of pastors last week, Rand Paul went so far as to say, “The First Amendment says keep government out of religion. It doesn’t say keep religion out of government.”

Oh my.

If the Republican senator is going to quote the First Amendment, he should probably read it first. The first 16 words of the Bill of Rights are as follows: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” As Thomas Jefferson later explained, the point of the language was to “build a wall of separation between church and state.”

I don’t have a problem with Rand Paul swearing fealty to constitutional language, but if he’s going to do so, it’s important that he at least get the language right. The senator claims to have deep, passionate beliefs about the First Amendment, but it appears we now have yet another issue that the Kentucky Republican addresses without any real depth of understanding.

That said, the larger political point of the senator’s efforts is also coming into focus. Social conservatives and so-called “values voters” are looking for a standard bearer, and in general, this constituency doesn’t see Rand Paul as a natural ally. Clearly, the senator hopes to change that impression, emphasizing his opposition to marriage equality, his opposition to reproductive rights, decrying the nation’s moral crisis, misquoting the First Amendment, and even telling pastors, “We need a revival in the country. We need another Great Awakening with tent revivals.”

Time will tell if this has the desired effect on the religious right, but in the meantime, one wonders if Paul’s libertarian-minded allies will stop recognizing their one-time champion.