By Steve Deace

If Rand Paul goes on to become President of these United States one day, we will look back on the events of March 6^th, 2013 as the catalyst for making that happen. And because of those events, Rand Paul now has more political capital to spend than any elected Republican in the country.

Rand Paul’s 13-hour filibuster on the Senate floor over the issue of whether or not a White House can unilaterally determine to kill Americans using drone strikes, with no regard whatsoever for the 5^th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, did something on a national policy level that hasn’t happened much in recent years—it united the right-of-center coalition in America around principled leadership.

The only other two recent examples of this I can think of were what Scott Walker did to the unionistas in Wisconsin and what Mike Huckabee did for Chick-fil-a. But those events, important as they were, didn’t accomplish what Rand Paul did last week. What we saw was one man’s crusade – if for only one night – bringing the ruling class to its knees. We saw Rand Paul bend Washington, D.C. to his will. We saw him grab them by the throat and force them – milquetoast RINO Mitch McConnell and liberal statist Dick Durbin alike – to respond to him.

When was the last time a Republican in the nation’s capitol did that on a matter of public policy? Has McConnell, the Republican leader in the U.S. Senate, ever done that? What about Republican Speaker of the House John Boehner? We already know the answer. The last time a Republican in the beltway moved heaven and earth on a matter of public policy was when George W. Bush wanted to invade Iraq.

Let’s hope this turns out better than that.

You may wish Rand Paul had done this on an issue you care more about than this one, and you may doubt his sincerity (when isn’t it a good time to doubt a politician’s sincerity?), but you also can’t deny the potential political power of this moment. There were the GOP’s other bright shining and emerging stars, Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz, side-saddling up next to Rand. There was John Thune, who looks like Tarzan but plays like Jane when it comes to politics, hopping on the bandwagon to do something that looked hard for once. Then the next morning, there were the hackneyed symbols of RINO face palms, John “little ball of hate” McCain and Lindsey Graham, predictably lining up to condemn Rand—which only adds to his conservative street cred.

Do you know why what Rand did was so powerful? First, because we are starved for anything that resembles leadership, and leadership is what Rand was showing. We are like parched throats in a desert desperately seeking anything that resembles a drop of water. So many of you have called or emailed me the last few years wondering when someone will stand up and fling the monkey poop right back into the face of a corrupt ruling class. …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Western Journalism