Is Rand Paul Racist?

[Vernon Windsor]

First, here, May 14, 2009, is when Rand Paul announced his intention to run for the Senate in Kentucky.  He made his announcement while appearing on the Rachel Maddow Show. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/05/20/rand-paul-tells-maddow-th_...

He did run and won the Republican Primary to be the candidate for the November 2010 election.  And once again appeared on Rachel Maddow's Show, May 19, 2010, where he made some very controversial remarks about racism and the Civil Rights Act of 1964. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26315908/ns/msnbc_tv-rachel_maddow_show...

Today, on Laura Ingram's show Rand Paul is trying to back pedal.  He made similar remarks against the Civil Rights Legislation on NPR and on Joe Scarborough's show. His back pedaling is amusing, he says he shouldn't  have appeared on Rachel's show. Ok he now insists he would not try to repeal the Civil Rights law.  Still there is much to think about.  Just what does Rand Paul believe and what do the people who voted for him believe?

Politico is reporting his back pedaling: http://www.politico.com/playbook/0510/playbook1054.html

Rand Paul's remarks left other Republicans in tizzy, the racism they promote for vote getting is supposed to be kept swept under the carpet.

Really peculiar part of the Rachel Interview, comparing the right to refuse service similar to the right for a business owner to forbid carrying a firearm into a business.

Personally, I think they, the Republicans, should like Rand Paul, be open about it and let the nation really decide, do we continue the back stroke to the past, with Republicans, or do we move forward, as we Liberal/Commie/Nazi/Marxist/Socialst/Progressive/Democrats have been trying to do since the 1960s?

If I have have seen the racism in Republican Party political campaigns, I am certain others have as well, both those who are for it and those who are against racism.

Be open, tell us what you really think, why hide it if you believe it?

[Madhatterat60]

There's a difference. A VAST difference. Rand Paul is articulate and intelligent. Jethro Bush is about as articulate as the neighbor's cat in heat and intelligent as last year's tomato.

(Frankly, the neighbor's cat is easier to listen to. I know that it will shut up, eventually...and won't smirk!)

[brujo]

You know, I think everybody's a racist. I think a lot of it is hardwired, but that's another discussion. I also think government is supposed to bring out the best in it's citizenry, because sometimes left to our basic natures we act like the knuckle-dragging-opposable-thumbin'-so-we-can-use-clubs primates we are. So Rand Paul thinks unfettered business is the pinnacle of the human expression and we shouldn't do anything to hamper that activity. I think that's wrong. I also believe blow-jobs are actually the pinnacle of human expression. But that's not only a different discussion, it's different forum.

[brujo]

There is a school of economic thought that credits the newly created property and patent rights of the time as being the driving force behind the rennaisance. That without a profit motive and a way to build wealth, no one would have bothered inventing new technologies that made the enlightenment possible.

We are an acquisitive species. Why do you think we adapted so easily to consumerism? While I have no idea what is in Rand Paul's heart when it comes to racism, I also recognize we're a nation of laws and that property rights are a huge part of the equation.

[Westerly_2]

"I also recognize we're a nation of laws and that property rights are a huge part of the equation."

People are always more important than things.

[Vernon Windsor]

I’m sorry, but to defend racism in the name of personal liberty is about as opposite to the principles this nation was founded on than just about anything I can think of. -- Devin Barber

[brujo]

I didn't know we were talking about slavery, and I don't think Rand Paul did either. While he's said he thought segregation was a poor business policy, he also said he didn't think the government had any business telling private businesses how to run their business. Which is a cornerstone of Libertarian thought.

I still don't know what is in Rand Paul's heart as far as racism goes, and I suspect neither do you guys. This seems to be a part of that great unspoken debate on race relations in this country that no one really wants to have happen, because even after Rand Paul PUBLICLY STATED that he thought 9/10's of the Civil Right's legislation was called was right and just; the cry for him to repudiate his views on the 10th part, which orders private business to act in certain ways and is a defining tenet of the Libertarians has been deafening. In 1960 when the Greensboro NC Woolworth Lunch Counter sit-in took place, Woolworth's eventually capitulated because the public outcry to desegregate became loud enough. Rand Paul's argument is that the profit motive will cause people to eventually do the right thing and that we don't need government interference to hasten that. He may be right, I don't know.

I do think the guy makes a really good point in other interviews where he says while the left makes huge allowances for civil rights, it makes very few for an individual's rights. You can sit there and mumble platitudes about how people should trump property, but it's freedom of choice and property rights the philosophers of the enlightenment were really talking about, and ultimately, those were the ideals this country was created from.

And no, I still don't know if Rand Paul is a racist.

[Madhatterat60]

"I do think the guy makes a really good point in other interviews where he says while the left makes huge allowances for civil rights, it makes very few for an individual's rights."

I've forgotten who said it...but I remember the phrase; "The role of government is to protect the minority from the tyranny of the majority." When we cloak "individual's rights" as righteous, we end up with segregated rest rooms, white only restaurants...etc., because the "individual rights" of ownership would trump the powerless minority. We see that happening now in the Southwest.

Well...that and blatant xenophobia.

[brujo]

What we're seeing in Arizona is a combination of things, not just xenophobia. But the one thing I'm postive about is that the controversy is about illegal search and seizure, not the individual rights of a private business owner.

Besides me, is there anyone in here that actually owns a business with employees? We don't have to cloak the individual's rights as being rightous, because the constitution already does that. And for what it's worth, we already have whites only restaurants and I can't remember the last time I saw anyone of color in Aspen since Ed Bradley died.

I think, more than anything, the far sides of either ideology are just looking to be offended.

[Madhatterat60]

Excellent point...especially that last one!

HOWEVER, the one thing I find particularly onerous is that, if I understand the new Arizona law (and please correct me if I'm wrong) can pull anyone over who looks remotely Hispanic and DEMAND papers....and those that don't produce them instantly are subject to jail. Perhaps I'm wrong, but from everything I've seen that means you could be pulled over for DUH....Driving while Hispanic....or stopped in the street...or the market...or church (Are churches still considered sanctuary?). If so, then the law is even uglier than I originally thought.

[brujo]

Me personally? Nah. But my dad's dad was jewish, and that relationship kept my dad out of his country club of choice in 1962 and I'm told he found that really distressing.

I'm a college educated white guy. Generally, I'm treated pretty decently, unless the counter help is a teen-ager, and God knows, they're not nice to anyone.

A few years ago, the CEO of Cristal Champagne told an interviewer that they were trying to distance themselves from the hip-hop people because they didn't want to be associated with those kinds of people. I'm told Sean "P-Diddy" Combs has made it a priority to now dis the product every chance he gets, and the hip-hop/Cristal link has now been severed. Bad corporate decision on Cristal's part if you ask me. They're not selling near the volume of champagne they once were, and if I were a stockholder of the company, I'd want his head on a platter.

My point is, there are mechanisms in place to correct that type of corporate ass-holery. It doesn't happen on a daily basis, it never happens when you want it, or in just the way you want it, but nothing in business philosophy adheres to a time schedule.

Your faulty assumption is that corporations would turn down someone specific's money. And that's just not happening. They're looking for more ways to relieve us from the burdens our wallets carry.

And as a small business owner, the only people I have chosen not to do business with or have fired as clients, have been people who won't let me do the job they hired me to do. But I'm weird that way. I figure if they have the money and the expertise they think they have to by-pass me, they should probably go with that since it will prove to be frustrating for us both. In my off hours, I refer to them distainfully as dumb-asses, but that's ok since we don't actually have a business relationship.

[Vernon Windsor]

Clearly whites couldn't even allow reconstruction to continue in the South after the Civil war. If anyone thinks there is no need for federal intervention in the states implementation of civil rights for all Americans, just look at the primary candidates in Kentucky, Idaho, Nevada, Florida, and Iowa—and those are just the ones I know about.

There are very good reasons why minorities don't trust states to "do the right thing."

[brujo]

Well, I'm not naive enough to believe that markets will correct all social ills, just as I'm pretty sure not all legislation will either.
And we can go on and on about this for days, but I'm already bored with the topic, so this is going to be my last word.
At some point, the conversation digresses to the point of who's less bigoted or more bigoted, and I just don't know what to tell you. I think everyone has some prejudice towards somebody. I think a lot of it is hardwired into the brain, and was designed to make us wary of strangers. That being said, I think race is a pretty stupid thing to judge people by.
And at this point, after watching way too many youtube videos, I bet Rand Paul wishes he had said something else.