Rand Paul was right to highlight US drone policy

{mosads}Only Eric Holder could put it so
eloquently, “President Barack Obama has the legal authority to
unleash deadly force, such as drone strikes, against Americans on
U.S. soil without first putting them on trial…”

But not every senator praised Paul’s
leadership. South Carolina’s very own U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham,
chided Paul for his outspoken leadership. Instead, he patronized Paul
as “ridiculous.”

Graham was against Brennan before the
filibuster, calling him “arrogant, kind of a bit shifty.” But a
few hours after dinner with the president, Graham was suddenly in
favor of him, determining that the nomination was instead a
referendum on the drone program.

As South Carolinians, we are no
stranger to controversy. Our politics are notorious for it, for
better or worse. Oftentimes for worse.

In a state with many active duty
military and veterans alike, we pride ourselves in our patriotism of
God and country. But what’s the price for freedom? Is opposing a
drone program against U.S. Citizens on U.S. soil really opposing our
military? I would argue opposing “judge, jury and executioner”
style drone strikes is standing up for the constitutionally
guaranteed principles our military has been protecting for more than
200 years. Would someone please clarify that for Lindsey Graham.

This is a fundamental issue about our
individual liberties. It’s about the guidon for the federal
government, our constitution. It’s about the ever growing arm of the
federal government, encroaching into our lives.

So as Graham continues
rehabilitating his liberal voting record by appearing on Meet the
Press and FOX News every week, remember, he is a republican senator
who voted for liberal supreme court justices Sonia Sotomayer and
Elena Kagan.

When he says things like “Foreign
relations are not a Democrat or Republican issue, but an American
issue,” yet he still votes to send foreign aid to countries that
teach their children to hate our culture and freedom, burn the
American flag and support terrorism. We should realize that more and
more Americans want to shield their sons and daughters from harms way
when they go to war.

When he campaigns against a republican
senator in a general election, take democrat Joe Manchin for
instance, we will continue to hurt the republican party.

As he works in a “bipartisan”
manner on a “grand bargain” that includes higher taxes, and
when he decides that he “will violate the tax pledge” for the
“good of the country,” he waters down our fiscal conservative
values in the process.

So as we continue to dismember the
republican party, when we should be coming together on the basic
tenets of individual liberty and the free-market, remember this:

Paul’s filibuster is the reason the
president no longer has the authority to use an unmanned aerial craft
to kill an American on U.S. soil “who was not engaged in combat.”

Thank you Rand Paul and true
conservatives like Ted Cruz, Mike Lee and others who backed him, for
your leadership on a fundamental issue facing our nation, and that is
our right to individual freedom and liberty.

Your courage under fire, even from
moderates in your own party, sets the example for how to reclaim
constitutional government and God given rights for every American.

Mace is the first woman to
graduate from The Citadel, the military college of South Carolina.
She is the author of In the Company of Men published by Simon and
Schuster. She is a small business owner of a public relations,
marketing and political consulting firm, The Mace Group, based in
Charleston, South Carolina.