NSA reform bill goes down in flames

[🐒Gods of Prosperity🔱🐲💸]

I highly doubt Rand voted against this because of cowardice. Ted Cruz voted in favor so it's not like he would be attacked for it.

Rand voted against it supposedly because it didn't go far enough.
Which is of course a load of bull. He did that because he doesn't want to get attacked in the Republican primary as being "soft on terrorism".

Except that, a) Ted Cruz voted in favor of the bill (did you even read my post?), and b) as I've already pointed out, this bill would extend the Patriot Act's expiration date by several years but would supposedly protect civil liberties by "hiring privacy advocates." That clearly isn't a worthwhile trade-off to anyone who cares more about civil liberties than making it seem like Democrats actually give a sh**t about the government spying on people.

Also, this disingenuous bill was opposed in the House by Justin Amash, so unless you think him and Rand Paul are part of a libertarian conspiracy to support government surveillance, there are clearly principled anti-surveillance reasons for opposing this.

I believe the bill was actually put forward by Amash to begin with, before it got amended to death and he turned against it.

[🐒Gods of Prosperity🔱🐲💸]

Bill Nelson didn't vote with his party and Rand Paul was a coward. These are the reasons this bill failed today.

You could argue that he is a fool, making the perfect the enemy of the good, but there's nothing here to suggest he is being cowardly on this issue.  It's not only cynical to suggest Paul voted the way he did to sell out for his political future, it's also a misreading of the political landscape.  A more accurate cynicism is to note that Republicans generally had little problem with an intrusive security apparatus so long as there was a Republican president, but that with a Democrat in the WH a Republican seeking to get support from the base risks next to nothing opposing the NSA.