For the second consecutive year, Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) has taken to Twitter to celebrate Festivus with the traditional airing of grievances—and he dropped a hint to about his plans for 2016 while he was at it.
Originating on the sitcom Seinfeld, Festivus is a holiday “for the rest of us” that’s an alternative to the commercialized merrymaking of Christmas and Hanukkah. Instead of trading nicely wrapped presents around the Christmas tree, celebrating Festivus involves standing next to a metal pole and letting everyone around you know precisely what they do that pisses you off.
On Tuesday, Paul took to Twitter, the Internet’s premiere venue for complaining about everything to no one in particular, and sent out a series of tweets letting his followers (and everyone in the media) know his upcoming stream of sarcastic invectives was part of something planned and not an Aqua Buddha-fueled, TweetDeck-enabled celebrity Twitter meltdown.
Christmas is a time for joy. For sharing blessings w/family & friends. It is not a time to air grievances. That’s what #Festivus is for.
— Rand Paul (@RandPaul) December 23, 2014
He started off by complaining about politics in general:
First, politics in general: As a Doctor, I was trained first to do no harm. Wouldn’t it be nice if politicians started from that premise?
— Rand Paul (@RandPaul) December 23, 2014
But we get”politics is the art of looking 4 trouble, finding it everywhere, diagnosing it incorrectly&applying wrong remedies.” #Festivus
— Rand Paul (@RandPaul) December 23, 2014
That’s a Groucho Marx quote by the way @BuzzFeedAndrew, you can stop googling #Festivus
— Rand Paul (@RandPaul) December 23, 2014
He then took a few light-hearted pot shots at the sartorial choices of his fellow Republicans, inserting a nod to his rumored 2016 presidential candidacy along the way:
On to my side of the aisle…#Festivus
— Rand Paul (@RandPaul) December 23, 2014
No matter how many times I ask @Team_Mitch, he won’t let me borrow this awesome sweater vest pic.twitter.com/VACHu6RdVY
— Rand Paul (@RandPaul) December 23, 2014
We all know having a fashion forward campaign is important to success, as @RickSantorum showed us in 2012 #Festivus pic.twitter.com/qAeGIp2wpo
— Rand Paul (@RandPaul) December 23, 2014
Of course, everyone has to be themselves, and I have my own style. I think this will be a popular item this year pic.twitter.com/ejuPwOAb6E
— Rand Paul (@RandPaul) December 23, 2014
Paul, the scion of America’s first family of libertarian non-interventionists, did hint at a more substantial criticism he levied at fellow Republican Senator Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) earlier this week as part of an increasingly pointed war of words that’s arisen between the two lawmakers:
Tempting to air a grievance @marcorubio again, but we’ve done that enough for this week. Instead I will say an early Merry Christmas.
— Rand Paul (@RandPaul) December 23, 2014
.@marcorubio forgot to mention his support for Obama’s funding of Musl. Brotherhood, arming Islamic rebels, and Hillary’s war in Libya.
— Rand Paul (@RandPaul) December 21, 2014
Paul embarked on a similar endeavor last year, tweeting a whole host of grievances—most notably, he complained about a bipartisan comfort with increasing the national debt and the Senate cafeteria never serving the regional Kentucky “delicacy” burgoo. However, after Paul complained that Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) didn’t retweet him often enough, Booker jumped in and the two eventually pledged to work together on ending the drug war.
Last year in the spirit of #Festivus, I reached out to @CoryBooker complaining he didn’t RT me enough. He still doesn’t by the way. But…
— Rand Paul (@RandPaul) December 23, 2014
We discussed hemp, med marijuana, crim justice reform. Some of that has now passed, all of it we’ve worked on together this year #Festivus
— Rand Paul (@RandPaul) December 23, 2014
My grievance there though remains the same. Not enough looking for agreement in Washington. @CoryBooker and I will keep trying.#Festivus
— Rand Paul (@RandPaul) December 23, 2014
For anyone looking for what present to get Paul for the holidays, FestivusPoles.com might be a good place to start.
Photo by Gage Skidmore/Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 2.0)
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