Virginia Postrel, Columnist

The Deep Question Behind Rand Paul's 'Trivial' Dispute

A neighbor assaulted the senator -- reportedly over the meaning of property rights.

November 8, 2017 at 5:00 PM UTC

Virginia Postrel is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist. She is a visiting fellow at the Smith Institute for Political Economy and Philosophy at Chapman University and author, most recently, of “The Fabric of Civilization: How Textiles Made the World.”

All politics is local.
Photographer: Anne Cusack/LA Times via Getty Images

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When a neighbor known as a liberal Democrat puts a beat-down on a prominent Republican senator, leaving him with lung contusions and five broken ribs, it’s natural to assume political differences must be the cause.

But the leading theory for why retired anesthesiologist Rene Boucher pounded Senator Rand Paul, his next door neighbor, has nothing to do with Obamacare, tax reform or identity politics. Boucher’s lawyer called it “a very regrettable dispute between two neighbors over a matter that most people would regard as trivial.” Reports from in-the-know locals say that means lawn care.