Charles Booker: Rand Paul ‘weaponizes hate’ rather than uniting Kentuckians.

Last week, I found myself listening to the harrowing testimony of police officers charged with defending the U.S. Capitol Building from an angry, violent mob. As they spoke to lawmakers in Congress about being beaten, tased, and degraded with racial epithets, I was speechless, glued to the screen in awe of their bravery and sacrifice, and crushed by this traumatic reminder of the deep ills we still face as a nation.

Not so long afterwards, in the waiting room for a prenatal appointment with my expecting wife, I saw Sen. Rand Paul’s response to the testimony of Capitol Police Officers scroll across my phone. I couldn’t believe what I saw: He called the insurrectionists, the ones who carried zip ties looking to hold Sen. Paul and his colleagues hostage, the ones who killed one police officer and beat another until he lost consciousness, the ones who carried Confederate flags into the Capitol and used flagpoles to bludgeon officers, Sen. Paul called them “non-violent trespassers.” To make matters worse, he invoked the letters BLM, seeking to draw a comparison between ongoing protests for racial justice with an outright attempt to overthrow democracy.

It made me pause, but it didn’t surprise me. Rand Paul has tried to hold himself out as a law and order candidate, but it was always theater. Just like he failed to muster the strength to applaud the sacrifice of those Capitol officers or even listen to the harrowing testimonies of officers beat within inches of death in efforts to protect him, his comments now are just another painful reminder that he genuinely does not care about any of us at all. Not our men and women in uniform, injustice in our neighborhoods, or the security of our nation. He repeats the words “Defund the Police” whenever he speaks about me, not because cares about men and women in uniform or my record as an advocate for fully funding community safety. He’s invented lies about me in the tradition of the infamous Willie Horton to do what he does best: Manufacture controversy and fuel racial animus to try to divide Kentuckians and turn us against each other.

Rand Paul has spoken about public safety in the past and showed up for some photo ops, but we see him clearly. At his core, Rand Paul is a privileged politician with no sense of responsibility to the people of Kentucky at all. He might talk about public safety, but he voted to block anti-lynching legislation and he also voted against government relief funding to cities, hurting their emergency service agencies. He might talk about the national debt, but he happily voted for billions of dollars in new tax cuts for his wealthy corporate friends while our families suffered from historic levels of unemployment. He might act like he is concerned with corruption, but he didn’t hesitate to break campaign finance rules to pad his pockets.

That’s who Rand Paul is: a profoundly unserious politician who says one thing and does another, who thrives on division and weaponizes hate, rather than uniting us to confront our shared challenges. He sees Kentucky as a ladder, stepping on our backs to do what’s best for him and his wealthy donors. And he believes racism is a winning political strategy, which is why he keeps trying to make his campaign about the color of my skin. But he’s wrong, and we are going to prove just how wrong he is.

Kentuckians understand the violent terrorist attack on the United States Capitol was not a mere tourist visit. Kentuckians also understand that what happened to Breonna Taylor was wrong and a failure of justice. We don’t watch a video of Eric Garner or George Floyd and think there isn’t a problem in this country. We understand that we can change a system that has long devalued the lives of people like me and my daughters. From the Hood to the Holler, I know Kentuckians across our commonwealth believe we all deserve the freedom and liberty to be safe in our homes and to be heard at the ballot box no matter the color of our skin or how much money we have in our pocket.

That isn’t controversial, as much as Sen. Paul would like to make it seem. Neither is this: we deserve real leadership able to speak the truth, call out structural racism, stand up for democracy, and call upon our better angels in service of working people, instead of dutifully enriching themselves while the rest of us are ignored and kicked off the cliff.

Charles Booker is a community advocate, former state legislator, and candidate for U.S. Senate in 2022.