Rand Paul, Marco Rubio, and the new era of conservative policy ideas

Both senators have teamed with Mike Lee to reshape the GOP brand

Rand Paul
(Image credit: (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images))

The Rand Paul–Mike Lee policy partnership has been the most important Republican collaboration in Washington in recent memory. They have tried subtly — and sometimes not so subtly — to change the Republican brand by applying conservative and libertarian principles differently than the party has in the past.

The two Tea Party senators have worked together on civil liberties, opposing the Patriot Act, attempting to rein in the National Security Agency, speaking out against extrajudicial killings of American citizens, protesting warrantless searches, and trying to strip indefinite detention from the National Defense Authorization Act.

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W. James Antle III

W. James Antle III is the politics editor of the Washington Examiner, the former editor of The American Conservative, and author of Devouring Freedom: Can Big Government Ever Be Stopped?.