Rand Paul: The Loom-Smashers Were Wrong. So Are the People Who Want an AI Kill Switch

After the Senate blocked Kennedy’s bill he went on Fox and reached for history — the rioters against machines and electricity lost, and they deserved toRand Paul posted the moral of the segment in one shot.History is full of people who smashed looms and rioted against electricity. None of them were right.The chyron behind him was the fight. The Senate blocked Kennedy’s AI “kill switch” bill. Paul was there to explain why Washington should not get a panic button on the next machine.Get 50% off a full year of the Rand Paul Substack.The Old Fear in a New SuitEvery generation finds a technology that looks like the end of work, the end of safety, or the end of the species. The loom was going to starve the weaver. The wire was going to burn the house down. Both became ordinary.Paul’s point is not that tools have no risk. It is that Congress is a terrible inventor of off switches. A kill switch written by people who still lose hearings to their own phones is not prudence. It is a lobby for whoever already has power.If the last two centuries of machine-breaking were a mistake, why is the same instinct suddenly wisdom?What the Bill Was Asking ForA federal kill switch is not a seatbelt. It is a claim that a committee should be able to freeze an industry because a scenario in a white paper got loud.Paul has spent a career telling the same branch of government it does not get to run medicine, money, or speech by emergency. AI is the new excuse to try.Markets, liability, and competition punish bad tools. A statute that can darken the whole field punishes the country that still wanted to build.Kentucky’s HabitHe is the senator who will say the unpopular half. Do not hand the state a veto over the future because a hearing needed a villain.Who should decide whether Americans get the next engine — engineers and customers, or a panic clause?Stay with Paul. The loom-smashers always sounded serious. They were still wrong. Readers who want that case before the next “emergency” bill already know the cheap way to keep the senator in the inbox.Get 50% off a full year of the Rand Paul Substack. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.randpaulreview.com/subscribe