{"id":914,"date":"2013-07-30T11:19:26","date_gmt":"2013-07-30T15:19:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/?p=914"},"modified":"2013-07-30T11:19:26","modified_gmt":"2013-07-30T15:19:26","slug":"rand-paul-michael-gerson-and-logic-101","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/2013\/07\/rand-paul-michael-gerson-and-logic-101.html","title":{"rendered":"Rand Paul, Michael Gerson and Logic 101"},"content":{"rendered":"

In his July 18 article, \u201cRand Paul can never be a mainstream Republican,\u201d former George W. Bush speechwriter and Washington Post <\/i>writer Michael Gerson can barely contain his glee over what he perceives to be the Kentucky Senator\u2019s fall from grace.\u00a0 \u201cFor a while,\u201d Gerson writes, Paul \u201csucceeded in a difficult maneuver: accepting the inheritance of his father\u2019s movement while distancing himself from the loonier aspects of his father\u2019s ideology.\u201d\u00a0 But given recent revelations regarding the \u201cneo-confederate\u201d background of one his senior staff members, Paul \u201chas fallen spectacularly off the tightrope.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yet his staffer\u2019s \u201cdisdain for Lincoln is not a quirk or coincidence,\u201d Gerson is quick to note. What he calls \u201cPaulism\u201d demands \u201cmore than the repeal of Obamacare.\u00a0 It is a form of libertarianism that categorically objects to 150 years of expanding federal power,\u201d the \u201cmain domestic justification\u201d of which \u201chas been opposition to slavery and segregation.\u201d From this perspective, \u201cLincoln\u2026exercised tyrannical powers to pursue an unnecessary war,\u201d and the 1964 Civil Rights Act \u201cviolates both states\u2019 rights and individual property rights [.]\u201d<\/p>\n

None of this means that the \u201cPaulites\u201d are \u201cracists,\u201d Gerson assures us.\u00a0 However, it does mean that they are \u201copponents of the legal methods that ended state-sanctioned racism.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gerson is not yet finished. Paul and his supporters \u201ctend to hate war and federal coercion in any form, even in causes generally regarded as good. They opposed the Cold War and nearly every post-World War II American exercise of power. They equate the war on terror with militarism, imperialism and empire. And they remain unhappy with the War of Northern Aggression.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gerson\u2019s verdict is unambiguous: It is \u201cimpossible for Rand Paul to join the Republican mainstream.\u201d<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s simplify Gerson\u2019s argument.\u00a0 It goes like this:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Rand Paul\u2019s supporters \u201ctend to hate war and federal coercion in any form [.]\u201d<\/li>\n
  2. They also tend toward \u201cneo-confederacy\u201d inasmuch as they are \u201copponents of the legal methods that ended state-sanctioned racism.\u201d<\/li>\n
  3. Therefore, Rand Paul can never \u201cjoin the Republican mainstream.\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Considered individually, the inaccuracy of Gerson\u2019s claims can easily be exposed.\u00a0 The largest problem with his argument, though, isn\u2019t the substance of its parts, but its incoherence.<\/i><\/p>\n

    If Paul\u2019s supporters were the \u201cneo-confederate\u201d quasi-racists who Gerson says they are, defenders of \u201ca regime founded on slavery\u201d and de facto defenders of \u201cstate-sanctioned racism,\u201d then we would surely have to consider carefully Gerson\u2019s admonishment regarding Paul.<\/p>\n

    And if Paul\u2019s supporters really did \u201chate war and federal coercion\u201d under and any and all circumstances, then, again, the wise would have to take to heart Gerson\u2019s counsel against backing Paul.<\/p>\n

    But Gerson would have us think that these libertarians are at once<\/i> consumed by an inordinate passion for liberty as well as<\/i> an equally inordinate passion for \u201ca regime founded on slavery,\u201d a burning hatred for war, the penultimate emblem of coercion, and<\/i> a comparably intense affection for the coercion required by \u201cstate-sanctioned\u201d racism.<\/p>\n

    Paul and his supporters love liberty and they hate liberty. They love coercion and they hate coercion.\u00a0 They are statists and anti-statists.<\/p>\n

    Gerson\u2019s position is what we may call an \u201cargument from the Kitchen Sink,\u201d an argument in which the arguer tries to throw everything and the proverbial kitchen sink against his target in the hopes that, eventually, something will stick.<\/p>\n

    It is also what logicians have long recognized as an argument against the person, the old ad hominem attack.<\/p>\n

    Whatever name we choose to give to it, Gerson\u2019s argument is bad, even pathetic.\u00a0 We should, unfortunately, get used to it, for Rand Paul\u2019s rivals\u2014the Gersonians of the Republican Party\u2014promise to haunt us with it in one form or another until Paul has been discredited.<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    In his July 18 article, \u201cRand Paul can never be a mainstream Republican,\u201d former George W. Bush speechwriter and Washington Post writer Michael Gerson can barely contain his glee over what he perceives to be the Kentucky Senator\u2019s fall from grace.\u00a0 \u201cFor a while,\u201d Gerson writes, Paul \u201csucceeded in a difficult maneuver: accepting the inheritance…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":399,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-914","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nRand Paul, Michael Gerson and Logic 101<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/2013\/07\/rand-paul-michael-gerson-and-logic-101.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Rand Paul, Michael Gerson and Logic 101\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In his July 18 article, \u201cRand Paul can never be a mainstream Republican,\u201d former George W. Bush speechwriter and Washington Post writer Michael Gerson can barely contain his glee over what he perceives to be the Kentucky Senator\u2019s fall from grace.\u00a0 \u201cFor a while,\u201d Gerson writes, Paul \u201csucceeded in a difficult maneuver: accepting the inheritance…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/2013\/07\/rand-paul-michael-gerson-and-logic-101.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"At the Intersection of Faith and Culture\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2013-07-30T15:19:26+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jack Kerwick\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Rand Paul, Michael Gerson and Logic 101","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/2013\/07\/rand-paul-michael-gerson-and-logic-101.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Rand Paul, Michael Gerson and Logic 101","og_description":"In his July 18 article, \u201cRand Paul can never be a mainstream Republican,\u201d former George W. 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I teach philosophy at several colleges in the New Jersey and Pennsylvania areas.","sameAs":["http:\/\/www.jackkerwick.com"],"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/author\/jkerwick"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/914","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/399"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=914"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/914\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":915,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/914\/revisions\/915"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=914"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=914"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=914"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}