No shade, but Rand Paul says he's a new kind of GOP, but HOW do his policies differ? I saw this list of his policies based on recent quotes.
Quote:
opposing same-sex marriage, backing the "Life Begins at Conception Act" (which would make abortion illegal), and keeping marijuana illegal. Rand Paul also has a big new idea about climate change: it's not happening and Paul opposes efforts to regulate carbon emissions! Rand Paul wants to increase defense spending by $190 billion! He opposes Obama's nukes deal with Iran, and he fully backs the Supreme Court's Citizens United decision that allows unregulated and unlimited contributions to flow into campaigns! Rand Paul also supports the Supreme Court decision that gutted the Voting Rights Act! Paul opposes all gun control measures, has pledged to repeal Obamacare, and wants to use drones to police our border with Mexico and increase the number of deportations.
He doesn't necessarily oppose same sex marriage. He thinks government should be left out of marriage and it should be left to each individual state to decide.
He doesn't necessarily oppose same sex marriage. He thinks government should be left out of marriage and it should be left to each individual state to decide.
"We didn't have to call it marriage, which offends myself and a lot of people...." - Fox News interview and this:
He said call it civil union maybe which is a step up from many in the party, but as for marriage marriage it's still a no from him.
What about his other issues? What's one of his views that's really different from the rest of the party?
Because Obama and the dems are the reason for everything that's wrong with this nation. And Hillary has proven her ineptitude when it comes to being a leader [Benghazi]
We need the GOP back. And I don't care I'm never gonna marry so **** I look like caring about that dated concept
See that's why the Gays never win. You all bandwagon behind anyone who gives you even some validation
'yas i support gay marriage' 'omg hillaryyyy queen!!! yaaasssss 2016 release a single slay those polls mama!'
I wish Elizabeth Warren would run, but Hilary is fine as well. I wonder who will be the other democrat candidates.
I feel like Warren will def be attacked for her Native American scandal though, which many Americans will think is worse than any of Hillary's controversies (since, no offense to the GP, they won't get the details about stuff like Benghazi).
LYNCHBURG, Va. — Senator Ted Cruz of Texas announced on Monday morning that he would run for president in 2016, becoming the first Republican candidate to declare himself officially in the race.
Linking the determination of his immigrant father with the resolve of the founding fathers and his own faith in “the promise of America,” Mr. Cruz spoke at length about his family and his faith as he laid out a case for his candidacy.
“God’s blessing has been on America from the very beginning of this nation, and I believe God isn’t done with America yet,” Mr. Cruz said before thousands of cheering students here at Liberty University. “I believe in you. I believe in the power of millions of courageous conservatives rising up to re-ignite the promise of America.”
“Today, I am announcing that I am running for president of the United States,” Mr. Cruz added. “It is a time for truth, it is a time for liberty, it is a time to reclaim the Constitution of the United States.”
Mr. Cruz, a first-term senator, is seen by Republicans and Democrats as a divisive figure in Washington, but as a truth-telling hero to many conservatives and evangelical Americans.
His speech was packed with calls to “imagine a president” who would repeal the Affordable Care Act, abolish the Internal Revenue Service, “defend the sanctity of human life and uphold the sacrament of marriage.”
At times a history lesson — he invoked both Franklin D. Roosevelt and Patrick Henry — and at times a call to action, Mr. Cruz sought to position himself as the candidate who would give the Republican Party’s right wing the country they desire. He spoke directly to conservatives, with no real broad appeal to the more moderate wing of his party.
“The power of the American people when we rise up and stand for liberty knows no bounds,” Mr. Cruz said, before asking those in attendance to “break a rule” and text the word “Constitution” to his campaign.
With his two daughters and wife, Heidi, in attendance, Mr. Cruz opened his speech by providing a biography not of himself, but of his parents, and describing his connection to his faith.
Mr. Cruz told the story of his mom, a “little girl” growing up in Delaware who became a “pioneering computer programmer,” and his dad, the teenage rebel fighter in Cuba who fled at age 18 to America. Mr. Cruz was candid about his parents’ alcohol abuse and marital troubles, and he told the story of how his parents found their faith. He also presented himself as dedicated to hard work, noting he took two jobs to pay for school as a teenager and took out $100,000 in student loans, paying them off just a few years ago.
”There are people who wonder if faith is real,” Mr. Cruz said. “I can tell you, in my family there is not a second of doubt.”
Several Republicans said on Monday that given Mr. Cruz’s rhetorical skills and passion, and his ability to inspire restless or disenchanted conservatives and evangelical Americans, his candidacy should not be underestimated.
“He has had the single best sound bite over the last three years, saying that the big problem in Washington is we don’t listen,” said Frank Luntz, a longtime Republican pollster. “That message transcends ideology and partisanship, because so many in the public think Washington is out of touch.”
Mr. Cruz’s chief downside, Mr. Luntz said, is reflected in his relationships with other Republicans in the Senate.
“His colleagues really don’t like him, and it’s very difficult when your own colleagues won’t stand up for you,” Mr. Luntz said. “There’s a subtle message that there is something wrong.”
Or, as Steve Elmendorf, a veteran Democratic strategist and Washington lobbyist, put it on Monday: “The question for Republicans is: Can an unlikable candidate who holds positions unappealing for the general election be viable?”
Republican Party leaders in several states welcomed Mr. Cruz to the nominating contest, but they declined to analyze his chances since their primaries and caucuses are at least 10 months away.
“There was a lot of energy in his speech, and he laid out a full vision for the future of our country,” said Jennifer Horn, the Republican Party chairman in New Hampshire, which is expected to hold its first-in-the-nation presidential primary in February 2016. “The folks in New Hampshire are going to be eager to start asking detailed questions about his vision. He’s coming back to visit here later this week, and there a lot of people looking forward to that.”
Jeff Kaufmann, chairman of the Republican Party in Iowa, which holds the first caucuses, said the location for Mr. Cruz’s speech was telling.
“It’s clear he wants to run as the Christian evangelical candidate and the liberty candidate — in both senses of liberty — which will definitely hold appeal for some Iowa voters,” Mr. Kaufmann said. “How he tries to position and separate himself from other Republicans trying to appeal to the same groups of Iowans, that will be interesting to watch.”
Mr. Cruz’s early entry into the race, according to people briefed on his strategy, is a deliberate effort to recapture the attention of his party’s right wing as he seeks to build a coalition of Tea Party conservatives and evangelical Christians to try to cut through a crowded field of Republican contenders.
The decision to announce the campaign on Monday was made about a month ago, according to a senior adviser to the Cruz campaign. Though there was some consideration given to making a simple announcement on social media, the decision was ultimately made to deliver a speech at Liberty.
In part, financial urgency prompted the accelerated timetable: advisers to Mr. Cruz have seen donors of the party flock to other potential candidates, including Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin, who since January has won the most notice among Republicans clamoring for a nominee other than former Gov. Jeb Bush of Florida. Mr. Cruz’s advisers say his goal is to raise at least $40 million, with roughly $1 million in the first week.
Mr. Cruz’s recent pronouncements have been rich with the sort of proposals popular with the Tea Party conservatives who helped start his career in elected office. He has called for abolishing the Internal Revenue Service, and he has joked about sending tax agents to help secure the nation’s border instead. He has denied the prevailing science on climate change, most recently in an interview last week with the talk show host Seth Meyers.
Notably, however, Mr. Cruz has also begun championing a message of economic populism, denouncing income inequality and borrowing the “two Americas” metaphor used most famously by former Senator John Edwards in two unsuccessful campaigns for the Democratic presidential nomination.
Since starting his campaign for the Senate in 2011, Mr. Cruz has often defied and battled his party’s establishment. He defeated David Dewhurst, the sitting lieutenant governor of Texas at the time, in a Republican primary in which Gov. Rick Perry and others campaigned hard for Mr. Dewhurst. In a runoff, Mr. Cruz beat Mr. Dewhurst by 14 percentage points.
Mr. Cruz’s tenure in Washington has been marked by accusations of demagogy. He sometimes deploys the soaring diction of a preacher while staking out uncompromising and rigid conservative positions, often playing the role of political flamethrower.
He championed the government shutdown of 2013, infuriating many in his party, and some, like Representative Peter T. King of New York, accused him of bringing the country “to the edge of ruin.” Mr. Cruz, however, stood firm, saying that he was elected to shake up the status quo in Washington, and that he was doing just that.
Mr. Cruz has an evident flair for the theatric: His 21-hour speech on the Senate floor in 2013, delivered under the veil of a filibuster against the Affordable Care Act — except that the Senate had already scheduled a vote for later in the day — featured Mr. Cruz criticizing politicians in “cheap suits” and “bad haircuts,” and later reading “Green Eggs and Ham” in its entirety. He compared his fight against the president’s signature health care legislation to the efforts of those who resisted the Nazis, ended the Cold War or started the American Revolution.
Despite his frequently antagonistic approach toward the Republican establishment, Mr. Cruz is indebted to it in one important way: He met his wife, Heidi, while working on the 2000 campaign of George W. Bush.
After his speech, Mr. Cruz spent more than 30 minutes taking photos, signing autographs and meeting students before bumping into Jerry Falwell Jr., the Liberty University president and chancellor, in the scrum.
“These students are so grateful,” Mr. Falwell said. “I can’t say how much we appreciate it.”
“I’ll tell you, your students lift up my spirits and they inspire me,” Mr. Cruz responded. “There’s an energy. I think the young men and women in the auditorium today have the power literally to turn the country around.”
so based.
I saw this list of his policies based on recent quotes.
His wife ha impact
