Rand Paul (Pro) vs a Republican of Your Choice (Con)

I'd like to remind my opponent that since we're debating two presidential candidates, we will end up debating the issues as well as the candidates themselves. Contention 1: Foreign policy Out of all of the 2016 candidates, Rand Paul has by far the best foreign policy. Most Democrats support exactly what president Obama has been doing which is air strikes, occasional special forces, and diplomacy from a position of weakness. The likely Democratic candidate, Hillary Clinton, supported action in Libya after she failed to prevail in Benghazi. I don't doubt her intentions to serve her country, but Benghazi was a failure of leadership on her part. And she along with many other Democrats have weak solutions to complex issues in the middle east that include drone strikes that kill civilians 98% of the time and arming groups of people that end up using those weapons against us. Most of the other Republican candidates have very flawed foreign policies as well. To varying degrees, they are all internationalists. Lindsey Graham has released statements saying that we need to go to war with Iran. Even fairly moderate candidates like Scott Walker and Marco Rubio have released statements supporting massive increases in military spending and intervention. Rand Paul's foreign policy is much better and it will be very distorted by his Republican challengers. You will hear the term, "Isolationism", but that's not what his philosophy is. That's not even what his father's foreign policy was and his father's policy was more extreme. Rand Paul supports trading with hundreds of nations overseas to benefit the global economy and lift people out of poverty. He also calls for a strong national defense, but one that is wiser than conservative plans of the past fifteen years. He does believe ISIS is a threat to our Iraq embassy and maybe our national security, but he also believes that that is no reason to continue the nation building policies of the past. That will only create more enemies of America overseas. Rand also is a key opponent to the PATRIOT Act, which continuously violates our civil liberties and does not protect us. Many reports say that the law has not stopped one terrorist attack. To sum up this contention, Rand Paul's foreign policy is both strong and wise which is what is needed in today's complex world. Contention 2: Economic policy Rand Paul is one of the most fiscally conservative members of Congress. His economic policy is a big change to what has been happening over the last 15 years and it is friendly to all Americans. Paul supports lowering taxes, lowering regulation on small and big business, and cutting spending. According to CNN Money, he wants America to run on oil and natural gas and advocates for the construction of the Keystone XL Pipeline. But according to an interview with HBO's Bill Maher, he also supports energy independence and deregulation and expansion of renewable fuels. With this energy policy, the environment will be protected and jobs will not be lost. Paul would also cut hundreds of billions of dollars from spending. He would eliminate the departments of housing, commerce, education and energy. He would also make reasonable cuts to entitlements like Medicaid and food stamps. And as most people know, Rand is a huge opponent of the Fed. He hasn't proposed ending the Fed yet, but he has been a loud voice to support auditing and regulating the Fed. Paul is the best choice for fiscal conservatives in 2016. Contention 3: Social Policy Rand Paul is not socially liberal like his father was, but he's not a complete social conservative. He is pro life and has been in support of the Life at Conception Act and repealing Roe vs Wade. He's about as conservative as you're going to get on abortion. On gay marriage and drug policy, he is neither liberal nor conservative. The best way to describe it is intelligent. He opposes gay marriage but he would let states choose. He has stated that in his state, Kentucky, most people oppose gay marriage and that is fine, but he also realizes that in New York, the majority favor gay marriage so they should be able to decide. He has a similar view on marijuana policy where he would let states choose whether or not to legalize it. He also says that the War on Drugs is the main reason that we have so many people in prison today. White and black kids use drugs at very similar rates, yet there are more black kids in prison. The reason for this is that many black kids have less means and therefore get stuck with bad attorneys and end up with long sentences in prison. Rand supports medical marijuana and decriminalization. These are the reasons that Rand Paul should be the next president of the United States. I look forward to my opponent's arguments.