A lot of the criticism of Rand Paul's anti-interventionist foreign policy pronouncements, as well as his high profile opposition to the NSA's spying on Americans, is couched in terms of "that was then, this is now." The argument goes something like this: with ISIS on the rise in the Middle East, and in light of effective fear-mongering by government officials and their media echo chamber, Sen. Paul's views are out of fashion. In a piece confidently entitled "Rand Paul Just Sacrificed His Presidential Campaign For His Libertarian Principles," Peter Weber, senior writer and "curator" of The Week, opined:

"[H]is chances of becoming the 2016 Republican nominee just went from unlikely to long-shot.