Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) is criticizing the Trump administration for blowing up alleged drug-smuggling boats. Here he was explaining to Bloomberg TV why he’s concerned about this:  

“About 25 percent of the time, the boat that they board doesn’t have drugs on it. So they have made an error but they don’t kill them. We’ve blown up four boats now, and if the percentages hold true, did one of those four boats not have drug dealers on it? … I don’t think you can have a universal Coast Guard policy of just blowing up boats before they’re interdicted.” 

Seems like a pretty reasonable point to me! 

I for one am glad that one of the only principled civil libertarians in Congress is asking questions about the administration’s new policy of simply blowing up ships in the Caribbean on suspicion of smuggling drugs between Venezuela and other countries. 

This is all happening, of course, as the Maduro regime of Venezuela is increasingly vulnerable. Nicolás Maduro is a reprehensible dictator, and his failed socialist policies have impoverished his country and immiserated his people. There’s a lesson in that: Socialism does not work. We shouldn’t try it here. Maybe someone should tell New York City voters that before they elect Zohran Mamdani. 

But I digress. 

Here’s the thing, though: Just because Maduro is bad doesn’t mean the U.S. has some obligation to dethrone him. Time and time again, we have toppled dictators in hopes that they will be replaced with pliant, U.S.-supporting governments. How’s that working out lately? In Iraq? In Libya? Maybe it’s working out in Syria, but a lot of people are still dying in that country as the new regime takes power. 

I’d be very happy if Venezuelans overthrew Maduro and replaced him with someone like Argentina’s Javier Milei. But if the U.S. installs a replacement, we could end up making the problem worse, as we did in the Middle East over and over again. 

And in any case, the U.S. can’t take this action without a declaration of war. It is not the president’s role to unilaterally take action against drug smugglers and foreign governments and so on, without a proper declaration from Congress. It doesn’t matter that Congress has no interest in doing its job whatsoever. We can’t simply ignore the Constitution. 

I’m grateful to Rand Paul that at least there’s one senator who still remembers that. 

Robby Soave is co-host of The Hill’s commentary show “Rising” and a senior editor for Reason Magazine. This column is an edited transcription of his daily commentary.