Ill-Timed Headline of the Week: 'Rand Paul's Fatal Pacifism'

Richard Epstein misreads Rand Paul.

While various Reasoners take Rand Paul to task for his ISIL flip-flop (I'd join in, but Jacob has already said the things I'd say), Richard Epstein has the misfortune to have just attacked Paul for his "fatal pacifism."

Really. Look, here's the headline:

To be fair, Epstein's article went up on Tuesday, and it wasn't fully clear until Wednesday that Sen. Paul would be going all-in on the latest war fever.

Still, Tuesday was four days after Paul told the AP that if he were president, he'd "seek congressional authorization to destroy ISIS militarily." There may have been some question at the time about what exactly he meant by that, but it's certainly the sort of language that might prompt one to pause before tossing the word "pacifism" into the debate. (For some more problems with Epstein's argument, see Daniel Larison's comments here.)

This isn't the first time Epstein has had a hard time discerning Paul's positions. Earlier this year, he published an essay that seemed to suggest the senator favored the abolition of all taxes and an end to intellectual property laws. I'm used to seeing Paul's libertarian-leaning fans convince themselves that the man is more radical than he actually is. Apparently, some of his libertarian-leaning critics have the same problem.

Comments

[Swiss Servator, Bern baby Bern]

Alt-text WIN.

[Brandon]

Richard Epstein is still a moron.

[Cytotoxic]

Reasoners take Rand Paul to task for his ISIL flip-flop

Reasoners aren't taking Rand to task so much as having an overly dramatic freakout in response to a lack of piety to and faith in The Cult of Noninterventionism. No fury like a libertarian scorned.

[HazelMeade]

So, this is like the second time someone has criticized Paul for saying/not-saying the right thing the day before Paul says exactly what they are critiquing him for not saying.

[Coeus]

I'll say what I always say in these Rand articles. Look at his voting record. This is where it's gonna start getting really infuriating. It'll only get worse as the election nears. Just take a deep breath and look at his voting record.

[Dread Pirate Roberts]

Epstein also claimed, rather incredibly, that the NSA is largely free of systematic abuses.

[Rock Action]

I read Epstein's article, and even as a bit more of an interventionist than most libertarians, I found it really quite hawkish. Dread Pirate's point up above about how Epstein defended the NSA was a bit -- well, I clutched my own oyster pearls at that one.

[Rock Action]

I should say I read it a day or two ago and that I'm a bit more interventionist than your average libertarian

[eyeroller]

Ill-Timed Headline of the Week:

I would suggest "Rand Paul vs. the Hawks".