After Democratic President Lyndon Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act–which were passed by the Democrats in Congress–and after those acts established the framework for black citizens to exercise the franchise and enjoy equal protection. After those Democratic actions, it was white Dixiecrats who left the party and found refuge among Republicans. Those who refused to support civil rights gains were clear that the best party for them in the modern era was the Republican Party.
So folks like Strom Thurmond and large majorities of white voters in Southern states became reliable Republican voters. Because they opposed civil rights. And Sen. Paul, you know a little about opposition to the Civil Rights Act, don’t you?
Even though you told a [Howard] questioner, “I’ve never been against the Civil Rights Act, ever,” Mother Jones‘ Adam Serwer correctly reminded us that in 2010, during an interview with the Louisville Courier-Journal, you said that even though you “abhor racism”, you do not support bans on discrimination by privately-owned businesses. And that, Sen. Paul, would mean those students from another historically black college, North Carolina A&T, would have just had to live with the private decision to deny them a place to sit at that Woolworth’s lunch counter. Maybe Republicans like you don’t count that as opposition to the Civil Rights Act, but I bet many Howard students do.
And as you said: “Yes. Alright. Alright. You know more than I know… And I don’t mean that to be insulting. I don’t know what you know… you know, I mean I’m trying to find out what the connection is.”
The connection is that Sen. Paul continues to embarrass myself and Kentuckians everywhere with the notion that students from one of the most prestigious historically black institutions of higher learning in the country wouldn't be able to completely see through his transparent nonsense, and challenge him on it in public.
You got called out, Rand: by myself, by authors and pundits, by commentators and historians, and by the students present at the speech. Paul came to Howard and gave his usual glibertarian spiel about how government is awful and destroying African-Americans and other minorities, all while distorting your own record.
Your problem Rand is that you believe the federal government has a place in enforcing the patriarchy and privilege you enjoy so much by telling others that don't have those advantages that it's not fair that the government has its thumb on the scale trying to rectify the situation, which is an argument decades old and just as self-serving and mealy-mouthed now as it was then.
I don't buy it. The students at Howard U didn't buy it. Nobody really should. And if your road to greater political office is going to go over the backs of women and minorities as you lecture how white men are the real victims in this country and that the rest of us should feel shamed into supporting you because "the antidote to racism is worse than the cure" while you're running a very real race hustle yourself? I don't want any part of it.
Please remove yourself from the political spotlight. You're giving the Bluegrass State and constituents like myself a bad name.
Posts
1 comment:
No, Rand Paul and his ilk are wonderful at exposing the core hypocrisy of the Republican Party. He does need to be defeated by a landslide in the next election.
Post a Comment