HAVING YOUR HITLER AND, ER, EATING HIM, TOO

DougJ on the Rand Paul filibuster:

The notion that this indicates some change in the Republican mindset on foreign policy is silly, though. There's always been an isolationist contingent within the party, as is evidenced by Rand's father's strong showings in primaries. I'll admit that the Paul Pere et Fils do seem to do especially among younger voters, and that may mean something, but when the chips are down, most of the party will be happy to whip itself into a frenzy against whoever their overlords decide is the Hitler of the month. Right now, Obama is a bigger Hitler than whatever Hitler the drones might be fighting against.

You go to war against the Hitler you have, not the Hitler you wish you had.

Ron Paul appealed to young people who'd had little or no allegiance to the GOP, as well as to the the hardcore Alex Jones subset of right-wingers, who hate and fear the government even when it's right-wing. Rand Paul, by contrast, is appealing even to core GOP voters, as well as to opinion-shapers like Limbaugh. Why?

It's not because base voters have forgotten that they hate brown foreign enemies. True Paulites are deeply skeptical about America's foreign wars and warlike interventions, but GOP crazy-base voters still hate "Mooslimes" as much as they ever did. Rand broadened the appeal of the Paul message because President Obama gave him an opening by targeting U.S. citizens. When Rand Paul speaks, the base doesn't hear "Stop targeting Mooslimes." This is what the base hears: If Obama can target Awlaki, if he and he and his fellow commie black nationalist Eric Holder can target citizen terrorists on U.S. soil, then nothing prevents them from targeting you if you're stockpiling guns as a bulwark against their socialist/Obamacare/wealth transfer/sharia tyranny.

So the GOP base hasn't really had to give up its Mooslime Hitler to hate Obama Hitler. Because drones can be aimed at Americans, the Paulite denunciation of overseas wars now sounds like a denunciation of the Democratic war against Real Amurricans that every God-fearing wingnut NRA gun owner has believed in for years.