Thomas Kubica: A letter to Sen. Rand Paul

The following is a letter to Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul:

Dear Sen. Paul,

I read a recent Washington Examiner editorial which included comments you made regarding the impeachment trial, former ambassador and national security advisor John Bolton, and the political future of other Republican senators. You disparaged Bolton, who I am no fan of, but facts are facts and the truth is the truth. And no amount of complaining about suspiciously timed book deals can change that.

I was an early supporter of your father, Congressman Ron Paul, and you as well. As you know. Your comments have disturbed me, though, because they are nakedly partisan and intentionally distracting.

One of the reasons I supported you was your independence and willingness to stand alone and to buck the GOP machine. If you remember, they did everything they could to destroy your Senate campaign and supporters. And they successfully crushed your father’s multiracial, multi-class, young people-dominated national movement (like Bernie Sanders’) that tried to reform the GOP and move it into a more positive direction.

When you ran for the presidential nomination, many of us hoped you would win and fulfill your father’s dreams, and Paulism as it was would reform the Republican Party for the better. It would have made the GOP viable for generations to come. Instead, Trumpism took hold and now the Republican Party and the country are on an increasingly dark path.

From the article: “Paul also warned that Republicans considering voting with Democrats for witnesses are jeopardizing the political future, noting that they could lose their own GOP voting base. ‘They would be better off to have it over politically too because what they don’t understand and what I’ve tried to say through the media is that, if you live in a purple state, sure you need independent voters, but you cannot win without your Republican base. So I really think that if anybody votes for impeachment [conviction] they won’t get their Republican base,’ Paul said. ‘The question is, will voting for witnesses, which looks like a vote that’s sympathetic to [Rep.] Adam Schiff, [the lead House impeachment manager], is that going to be a vote that the base abandons you over?’ Paul asked.”

This line of thinking disappoints and disturbs me. I think you have lost your way. It appears you were only thinking of partisan politics and “the base.” You are not a senator of “the base.” You are supposed to be a senator for 4.468 million Kentuckians and 327.2 million Americans.

Why have you become a blind loyalist to Trump? He is a dangerous demagogue. He thinks he is above the law. Have you forgotten the way he spoke to and about you in 2015 and 2016? You owe no allegiance to the president or Mitch McConnell — ours is not a feudal system but a republic. If we can keep it.

I truly don’t recognize the new Rand Paul. The Rand Paul I supported wasn’t a Fox News- and Breitbart-approved GOP partisan. The Sen. Paul I supported stood up to and called Donald J. Trump what he really is.

When they write the history books, they will say Sen. Rand Paul voted with his party for purely political partisan reasons. To protect a criminal who corrupted and betrayed his country to win an election to stay in power at any cost — something not even Richard Nixon would ever do because although many things, he was a patriot.

As a student of history like I think you are, I recognize that this is something that did in the ancient Roman republic. In the dying days of the republic, things became so bad that politicians would do anything to stay in power. Because while in power they had legal immunity. Like the Justice Department now horrifyingly says the presidency has.

And so rather than give up power and face the consequences of their criminal actions, they would even go so far as to cross the Rubicon river and declare war on the republic itself as Julius Caesar did.

Trump is facing legal battles for the rest of his earthly life and for good reason. He is desperate, and desperate men with power are dangerous.

I do not question the motivation of the representatives and senators who defended the president’s actions, but they are wrong. And democracy does not survive without those willing to sacrifice all to protect it. This was the American crisis of our time. These are the times that try men’s souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot shrunk from the service of their country; but he that stood by it deserves the love and thanks of man and woman.

President Trump will be gone in one year or five years. What we have left after he is gone is the question. Will we still be a functioning democracy, or will we have effectively morphed into an elective monarchy where the ruler is the state? The presidency is already too powerful, as you know, and this would cement it. This is bigger than one man.

If truly all you thought about is the Trump base, then you have broken your sacred oath.

I hope this letter finds its way to your Senate desk.

Thomas Kubica of New Brighton worked on Rand Paul’s Senate campaign.