After having witnessed Sen. Rand Paul in action over these past 11 years, listened to his unsettling attempts at oratory and trying to get a fix on his rather obscure political philosophy, if that’s what you choose to call it, anyone with the sense of a gnat would walk away with one obvious conclusion.
In the words of the immortal Deputy Sheriff Barney Fife, in reference to Earnest T. Bass, “He’s a nut.”
More precisely, perhaps, to quote the late John McCain, the Bowling Green Republican is a “whacko bird,” and his persistently off-kilter soliloquies are becoming increasingly disturbing as he implores constituents and God-fearing Americans alike to rise up like some super-powered phoenix and shed the chains affixed to them by their evil potentates.
In this instance, the chains our boy Rand demands we free ourselves from are the simple cloth masks the Centers for Disease Control and other healthcare organizations are recommending folks wear during the ongoing battle against COVID-19.
Bill Straub hard at work in Belmont, Maine. (Photo provided)
Yep, that’s it. Not exactly Steve Reeves as Hercules territory. But like Lenin leading the Bolsheviks against Tsarist tyranny, Paul is urging, nay, insisting, that people get rid of their masks and enjoy the pure, unfiltered air of freedom – assuming, of course, they aren’t connected to a respirator as they battle for their lives having contracted said virus.
It’s all there in a three-minute and thirty-seven-second video in what serves as Rand’s call to arms.
“It’s time for us to resist,” Paul starts off in this truly remarkable display. “They can’t arrest all of us.”
Paul declares during his stunning diatribe that the American people “don’t have to accept the mandates, lockdowns and harmful policies of the petty tyrants and bureaucrats. We can simply say no, not again.”
Well pass the Aqua Buddha and up the revolution!
The video then takes a really weird turn, unsurprisingly, when he speaks directly to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-CA, and strenuously informs her she will never arrest him for refusing to wear a mask or any of the other incredibly stupid doings he’s undertaken in defiance of those charged with protecting the public health.
“We will make our own health choices,” he said. “We will not show you a passport. We will not wear a mask. We will not be forced into random screenings or testings so you can continue your drunk with power reign over the capitol.”
(Sorry for the interruption, but I’m reminded here of the old Mark Twain bon mot that the only people empowered to use the royal we are the pope, the queen of England and a man with a tapeworm. Now leave us to proceed.)
Our boy prattles on, turning his attention to President Biden, asserting that “no one should follow the CDC’s anti-science mask mandates.” And he threatens schools if they remain closed because of the virus, although indications are most, if not all, public schools across the country will open for business with certain requirements – masks and distancing – in place.
“Do I sound fed up to you? That’s because I am,” Paul said, finally delivering the pitch after the extended windup.
Paul, as modest as ever, then insists his anti-health efforts have led any number of people to approach wherever he is to thank him for “standing up for them.”
“They thank me for standing up for actual science, for standing up for freedom, for standing against mandates, lockdowns and bureaucratic power grabs,” he said. “I think the tide is turning as more and more people are willing to stand up.”
At least they’re standing up on those days they’re not confined to a hospital bed.
At one point, in that, personable, aw-shucks manner he has perfected, Paul insists he’s been right “time and time again.”
The NKyTribune’s Washington columnist Bill Straub served 11 years as the Frankfort Bureau chief for The Kentucky Post. He also is the former White House/political correspondent for Scripps Howard News Service. A member of the Kentucky Journalism Hall of Fame, he currently resides in Silver Spring, Maryland, and writes frequently about the federal government and politics. Email him at williamgstraub@gmail.comOh really? To cite Warner Wolf, let’s go to the videotape.
Just last month, Paul introduced legislation to prohibit the imposition of mask mandates on public transportation, maintaining that, “The federal government forcing the American people to continue to wear masks despite the fact that we’ve already reached herd immunity is ridiculous and needs to end immediately.”
No one with a lick of sense believes the United States has reached herd immunity. Nobody. Nada.
According to Webster’s, herd immunity is “resistance to the spread of an infectious disease within a population that is based on pre-existing immunity of a high proportion of individuals as a result of previous infection or vaccination.” It further states a vaccination level of 83 to 94 percent is usually required to achieve that goal. Experts at one point thought that perhaps some level of immunity could be achieved at around 70 percent but the Delta variant changed all that.
As of Aug. 7, 48 percent of the population has been fully vaccinated, a shockingly low number that can be attributed to some degree to nitwits like Rand Paul yelling freedom. All you need do is look at the latest numbers and witness the skyrocketing number of positive test cases — from 1.46 percent on June 19 to 9.75 percent on Aug. 8 — to understand that. The country may never achieve herd immunity at this rate.
Paul has long held that masks are as useless as, well, there’s an analogy involving mammary glands and a warthog but we’ll just let it go at that. His abhorrence is rather peculiar given that he’s an eye surgeon and he, presumably, wears one while he’s digging into a patient’s orbs. If not, well, you may want to consider an alternate sawbones.
Regardless, our boy Rand won’t shut up about how people ought to toss their masks away and breathe on perfect strangers to their hearts’ content. No risk, right?
This from the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, which, I emphasize, is not a governmental agency:
“A primary route of transmission of COVID-19 is via respiratory particles, and it is known to be transmissible from presymptomatic, paucisymptomatic, and asymptomatic individuals. Reducing disease spread requires two things: limiting contacts of infected individuals via physical distancing and other measures and reducing the transmission probability per contact. The preponderance of evidence indicates that mask-wearing reduces transmissibility per contact by reducing transmission of infected respiratory particles in both laboratory and clinical contexts. Public mask-wearing is most effective at reducing spread of the virus when compliance is high.”
And this from the American Association for the Advancement of Science, in the June 25 edition of Science magazine:
“The probability of infection changes nonlinearly with the amount of respiratory matter to which a person is exposed. If most people in the wider community wear even simple surgical masks, then the probability of an encounter with a virus particle is even further limited.”
Now you choose, science or Rand Paul.
And then there’s his claim that “the tide is turning as more and more people are willing to stand up.”
Here he’s right, but opposite of the way he intends. A POLITICO/Morning Consult poll published Aug. 11 shows a majority of voters support mandatory coronavirus vaccines and indoor mask-wearing requirements.
According to the POLITICO article, “The survey also found that about half of all voters blame the new wave of infections that have sent numbers spiking equally on the unvaccinated and on political leaders opposed to mask-wearing and social-distancing mandates.”
You don’t suppose Rand Paul could possibly be one of those political leaders, do you?
And that’s strike three.
Now our boy is in a snit. YouTube has suspended him for seven days over videos he posted questioning the efficacy of facemasks. That led ol’ Rand to whine that he views the action as a “badge of honor,” recalling the time another nincompoop, former Vice President Dan Quayle, said he considered the well-deserved scorn of “the cultural elite” as a similar “badge of honor.” Paul attributed the insult to “liberal cretins.”
Or maybe they just got tired of his horse manure.
Rand Paul is a ridiculous figure. The most recent data from the Centers for Disease Control reveal that 628,268 people have died from the virus and the number of confirmed cases is rising, mostly from the impact of the Delta strain. The situation isn’t helped by other morons like Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott who are banning mask mandates while witnessing a staggering increase in cases.
All the while, with this going on, our boy Rand is still bellyaching about masks and flipping the bird to science.
Rand Paul, the rock-throwing Earnest T. Bass of the United States Senate.
And he voted against the infrastructure bill. Kentuckians must be proud, especially us in Northern Kentucky. We don’t need no stinkin’ bridge. What will Massie do when he has to make this choice?
Sounds like Senator Rand Paul is suffering from Covid brain, a long term effect from having the virus.
Hey, it’s not like he’s a doctor, right?
Why the personal smear vs stating your own opinion?