Rand Paul / Photo Credit: Gage Skidmore

Rand Paul’s election may very well mean the beginning of the end of the neo-conservative movement in the Republican Party.  It also might mark the beginning of the end of the social conservative wing of the Republican Party.

During the nomination process of the Presidential election two years ago, I wrote about the impact of the Ron Paul insurgency and its potential impact.  Paul was a fundraising sensation, and he had a cadre of committed followers who believed profoundly that the Federal Government had grown too big, had become too intrusive, had gone to war for all the wrong reasons, and was too involved in the daily lives of the American people.

Paul went after some pretty significant sacred cows in the Republican orthodoxy.  He thought the Iraq War was stupid, and that our foreign policy presence in the Middle East was a big reason why we were attacked on 9/11.  He thinks that the war on drugs is a waste of time, and that if people want to smoke pot, well, that is up to them.  He thinks that the security apparatus of the United States makes America more of a police state and should be down-sized dramatically.  Read more...