A Conservative Realist Awakening? Rand Paul Strikes Back

Daniel McCarthy

Domestic Politics, United States

"If Paul does get a boost from his performance last night and heads into the next debate ready to challenge Rubio again, he might yet live up to his early promise of making the Republican contest a battle of ideas."

Economics was the subject of last night’s Republican debate in Milwaukee, hosted by the Fox Business Channel and Wall Street Journal. But foreign policy stole the show—specifically, Rand Paul’s brand of conservative realism, which the Kentucky senator unsparingly deployed against Marco Rubio and Jeb Bush. Paul questioned how Rubio could claim to be a conservative when he was for lavish government spending on defense. “I know that Rand is a committed isolationist,” an irritated Rubio shot back.

But Paul was not to be silenced. “How is it conservative,” he asked again, “to add a trillion dollars in military expenditures? You cannot be a conservative if you're going to keep promoting new programs that you're not going to pay for.” Rubio insisted that “the world is a safer place when America is the strongest military power in the world.” Paul refused to concede: “No. I don't think we're any safer—I do not think we are any safer from bankruptcy court. … This is the most important thing we're going to talk about tonight. Can you be a conservative, and be liberal on military spending? Can you be for unlimited military spending, and say, ‘Oh, I'm going to make the country safe?’ No, we need a safe country, but, you know, we spend more on our military than the next ten countries combined?”