This is off topic for Hacker News per the guidelines.

http://ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

Standard reply to those posting about going against the guidelines:

"...Anything that good hackers would find interesting. That includes more than hacking and startups."

It got voted up to the front page. Why do you feel it's off topic?

Because a NYT op-ed about how heartless Rand Paul is is not part of an interesting new phenomenon, or even interesting at all in a hacker sense. I feel like people upvoted it because they agree with it and feel strongly about the issue, but it's just partisan politics. Politicians say crazy things all the time and I enjoy being able to go to HN and NOT see politics plastered everywhere.

FWIW I posted it for the social commentary on the perception of the poor in the US. IMO the personal attack on Paul was a minor aspect, more of an inspiration to give commentary than a personal attack.

Social commentary frequently shows up here.