"But always — do not forget this, Winston — always there will be the intoxication of power, constantly increasing and constantly growing subtler. Always, at every moment, there will be the thrill of victory, the sensation of trampling on an enemy who is helpless. If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face — forever." -- 1984, George Orwell (one of the great socialist writers of the 20th century, but that's a rant for another time)
A few years ago, before the teabaggers got ahold of it, I wrote in praise of the Gadsden flag -- the "Don't Tread On Me" rattlesnake -- and of Benjamin Franklin's essay on the rattlesnake as an American symbol.
Now, of course, it's become a symbol for our modern Know Nothings, the Tea Party.
I have to wonder, then, whether the Rand Paul supporters who tackled and then stomped on the head of a MoveOn.org protester have Gadsden flag stickers on their cars. Ah, irony.
Paul is not responsible for his nutcase of a father, Ron Paul, and deserves to be considered on his own merits -- or rather, his own total lack of merit. Because what he is responsible for is his excreable comments about civil rights law, and his fraudlent self-certification in ophthalmology.
And he's responsible for his asinine defense of BP during the oil spill disaster, when he said "What I don't like from the president's administration is this sort of, 'I'll put my boot heel on the throat of BP,'...I think that sounds really un-American in his criticism of business."
Apparently, though, having one of your high level campaign workers put his sneaker heel on the head of your political opponents isn't cause for apology in Paul's mind.