As part of his ongoing effort to prove that “a Republican with a libertarian twist,” as he described himself, can appeal to groups that don’t tend to lean conservative, Rand Paul accepted an invitation to speak on Wednesday at the University of California, Berkeley. The senator’s remarks were well received, probably because he tailored them to liberal college students, and wasn’t asked about social issues. Paul stuck mainly to privacy concerns, calling for the creation of an independent, bipartisan committee to investigate whether the NSA and CIA have violated the Constitution. “I believe what you do on a cellphone is none of their damn business,” he said in one of his biggest applause lines.
Paul really proved he’s hip to what college kids are talking about during the Q and A section, when he compared the GOP to Domino’s pizza. “Remember when Domino’s finally admitted they had bad crust? Think Republican Party. Admit it; bad crust,” he said. “We need a different kind of party.”
He went on to explain that concerns about individual rights should resonate with minority groups that have been mistreated by the government in the past, then circled back to subpar pizza:
Maybe [if we had] a candidate who would stand up and say, ‘Everybody deserves their day in court. The law should not have a racial outcome.’ Maybe then people would say, ‘I always hated those Republicans and their crust sucks, but maybe there’s some new Republicans.’ Maybe there will be a new GOP.
Unfortunately, Paul did not explain which part of the GOP he considers the old, doughy crust, but we can guess who’s the bacon topping in this analogy.
