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Ryan Lizza and Hendrik Hertzberg join host Dorothy Wickenden on this week’s podcast to discuss Rand Paul’s political resurgence, and what it might mean for the future of the Republican Party. As Lizza explains in the magazine this week, if Paul is to run for President in 2016, he faces a challenge: how to avenge his father, who is still seen as a fringe figure, while distancing himself from his father’s image.

“His father is arguably the biggest obstacle to getting to the White House,” Lizza says. “I mean, he obviously loves his father very much; his father was the best man at his wedding. … How do you somehow distance yourself from your father without publicly chastising him?” On social issues, Paul seems to be getting creative. He’s using the libertarian emphasis on individual rights to appeal to African-American voters who are fed up with unfair treatment by the criminal-justice system. “That’s a place where Rand Paul can really aim a smart bomb,” Hertzberg says.

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