Sen. Rand Paul to GOP: Let’s ‘agree to disagree’ on social issues

Rand Paul is suggesting the GOP has to go neutral on social issues, phrasing it as ‘agree to disagree’, if we want the party to get bigger:

THE HILL – Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) said the Republican Party has to “agree to disagree” with new members on social issues in order to grow the party.

“I think that the Republican Party, in order to get bigger, will have to agree to disagree on social issues,” Paul said in an interview with vocativ.com published Friday. “The Republican Party is not going to give up on having quite a few people who do believe in traditional marriage. But the Republican Party also has to find a place for young people and others who don’t want to be festooned by those issues.”

Returning to social issues, Paul was asked about how his belief in individual liberty squared with letting states decide whether to ban gay marriage.

“On issues that are very contentious, that involve social mores — I think that allowing different parts of the country to make their decision based on the local mores and culture is a good idea,” he answered. “But when it comes to taxes and benefits, the [federal] government [ought] to take a neutral position.”

This reminds me of a few CPACs ago when Mitch Daniels was suggesting the Republican Party put aside the social issues. Honestly, it sounds like Paul is saying the same thing. So I went back to Mark Levin’s commentary on that issue and here’s what he had to say about that:

We are not to distance ourselves from Faith, we are not to distance ourselves from morality. If the culture dies, the society dies. We don’t just debate numbers — although it is absolutely crucial that we do — but they have no meaning if they have no context. Neither does the Declaration of Independence. Neither does the Constitution.

Then we are left standing on the same quicksand as the liberal and allowing the liberal to take us all down and determine the terms.

Many of you listening to me aren’t very religious – that’s fine. Some of you aren’t believers in any kind of god — that’s up to you. And in our great country you can believe whatever you want.

But make no mistake this nation was founded, as set forth in the Declaration of Independence, our founding document, on the belief in divine providence, God-given natural law, and unalienable rights.

If we are to take their term, social conservatives (which I don’t even know what that means, we’re conservatives), and put that aside, then we have to put aside Reagan, the founding fathers. We have to put aside Edmund Burke and we have to write-off the future of the conservative movement and the Republican Party. Forever.

That’s the problem with [those] who embrace such a sterile, disconnected, unmoored approach to conservatism and governing. We are not here to lead a religious revival. Not at all. But we’re not going to stand still while the left and their supporters and the Republican Party try to deny us what the founding fathers ensured us in our founding document would be forever part of this society.

That’s not going to happen.

Amen.


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