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If Rand Paul weren’t the son of his famous father, how many libertarians would be enthusiastic about him? He would be one of the less-offensive members of Congress, but he would ultimately be just another politician who’s defending the fundamentals of the status quo.

When Rand Paul ran for the U.S. Senate and his father, Ron Paul, retired from politics, many long-time Paul supporters saw the son as the natural successor to the man they had idolized for years. As much as I admire certain things about Ron Paul, I couldn’t support his candidacy, as I explained two years ago. What’s worse, no outsider candidate of the Ron Paul sort has any chance of being elected president running with libertarian principles.

Ron Paul was the ultimate outsider as a member of Congress. His fellow congressmen called him “Dr. No” because he voted against anything that wasn’t specifically authorized by the Constitution. He didn’t compromise and he didn’t play political games. He spoke the truth as he understood it and people thought he was a nut. And he left with a bang, asking a series of questions that statists are still ignoring.

His son is taking a very different path. Anyone who expected a principled libertarian has to be badly disappointed by Sen. Rand Paul.

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It was about 10 p.m. Wednesday. I was taking my nightly walk through my quiet suburban neighborhood when I realized that something seemed wrong at a house just ahead.

I couldn’t tell what was going on, but I heard the low murmur of voices that didn’t sound happy. There was a car that seemed to be about half packed. The trunk and the doors were open. It was dark, so I couldn’t see much, but I knew there were people in the driveway.

I heard the low sound of a child sobbing. Then I heard a man’s voice. He wasn’t shouting or angry, but the voice was firm.

“I don’t want Mommy to leave, Amber, but that’s her choice.”

The soft, muffled sobbing continued. Then I was far enough past that I couldn’t hear what else might have been said.

And with that, I was a child again — just for a few minutes — reliving similar scenes from my own dysfunctional family’s past. Even though it’s been decades since I experienced those things, I could feel the feelings as if they were fresh. Hurt. Fear. Anger. Betrayal. Confusion. Mostly fear that I was being abandoned, although the child-size version of me didn’t have had the words to call it that.

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Tyler Weaver loves to read. The 9-year-old in Hudson Falls, N.Y., has been entering his local library’s summer reading contest for years. In fact, he’s been the winner of the reading contest for five years now, reading 373 books along the way.

In any rational universe, Tyler would be celebrated and encouraged. Instead, the director of the local library wants to change the rules of the contest. She wants to draw a random name out of a hat instead of allowing a child’s work and merit to determine the winner.

Tyler comes from a reading family. His 7-year-old brother, Jonathan, has taken second place for two years running now. Their mother, Katie, is proud of Tyler and Jonathan.

“I’ve told them God makes all of us different. There are some things that are hard and some that are easy, but they should excel at what they enjoy doing and Tyler just loves to read,” she told the local newspaper. “Everybody he tells, he gets high-fives. Everybody’s so proud of him.”

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