Motley Moose – Archive

Since 2008 – Progress Through Politics

And the Lester Maddox Award for Lunch Counter Maintenance goes to…

…Rand Paul, winner of the Kentucky Republican Senate Primary.

In an interview last night, Paul told Maddow that he agrees with most parts of the Civil Rights Act, except for one (Title II), that made it a crime for private businesses to discriminate against customers on the basis of race. Paul explained that had he been in office during debate of bill, he would have tried to change the legislation. He said that it stifled first amendment rights.

Rachel pushed for specifics:

Maddow:… How about desegregating lunch counters?

   Paul: Well what it gets into then is if you decide that restaurants are publicly owned and not privately owned, then do you say that you should have the right to bring your gun into a restaurant even though the owner of the restaurant says ‘well no, we don’t want to have guns in here’ the bar says ‘we don’t want to have guns in here because people might drink and start fighting and shoot each-other.’ Does the owner of the restaurant own his restaurant? Or does the government own his restaurant? These are important philosophical debates but not a very practical discussion…

   Maddow: Well, it was pretty practical to the people who had the life nearly beaten out of them trying to desegregate Walgreen’s lunch counters despite these esoteric debates about what it means about ownership. This is not a hypothetical Dr. Paul.

Oh Boy… this is going to make Kentucky a real fight. Paul faces Democratic Senate candidate and Kentucky Attorney General Jack Conway in the general election to replace Republican Sen. Jim Bunning on November 2, 2010…

Here’s a big chunk of the Maddow show if you think you haven’t heard enough:

http://underthelobsterscope.wo…


Categories: Uncategorized.

/ 18 Comments

18 comments

  1. Chris Blask

    the rural south registering voters in the sixties.  He couldn’t eat in the black restaurants with his friends because the white cops would come in and smash the place up.

    But, hey, what the heck.  It’s not about getting beaten to death with a baseball bat, it’s about philosophical ideals of property ownership…

  2. HappyinVT

    Dr. Paul’s words as being those of a political neophyte; presumably he should have worded his responses better not changed his opinion.  That’s excusing not just the position on landmark legislation but also letting a guy who has been around politics for decades off the hook way too easy.

    Given that Dr. Paul is a proud libertarian I’m sure he believes that private businesses have the right to exclude patrons for whatever particular reason.  Don’t excuse that based on supposed political naivete.  (Let me also point out as a slight aside that businesses do still exclude people based on gender to a certain degree.  Augusta National doesn’t allow women to become members and still hosts a major golf tournament.  Woohoo we’re good enough to play there but we cannot become members.)

  3. creamer

     I caught part of the NPR interview on my way home last night and told my wife “this guys got a problem.” I don’t know if he was winking at the racist in the Tea Party, or if he himself is a racist. Maybe he’s just so selfish that he doesn’t care or so protected that he doesnt understand the impact his view would have in practice.

     But I’m glad he said it. In my mind it highlights one of my biggest  objections to the Tea Party and Libertarians in general.There is a mean racist side to the tea party and the tend to come across as every man for himself.

     I can’t wait until he talks about abolishing Social Security or tells some small rural school in Nowhereville Kentucky they shouldn’t receive Federal dollars.

     

  5. creamer

      Picking on oil giants?

    The Tea Party favorite, in an interview with ABC’s “Good Morning America” on Friday morning, accused the Obama administration of being too tough on BP — the oil company directly responsible for the massive spill in the Gulf.

    “What I don’t like from the president’s administration is this sort of ‘I’ll put my boot heel on the throat of BP.’ I think that sounds really un-American in his criticism of business,” he said. “I’ve heard nothing from BP about not paying for the spill. And I think it’s part of this sort of blame game society in the sense that it’s always got to be someone’s fault instead of the fact that sometimes accidents happen.”

    (from HP this moring)

    I understand his dad complained that the press wasn’t being fair.

     What is he a Dr of?

     

  6. Chris Blask

    In fact, the conservative publication makes him look stupider than usual.

    The federal government puts limits on pollutants from corporations, monitors the safety of toys and other products and ensures a safe food supply-much of which Mr. Paul’s philosophy could put in question.

    David Boaz, executive vice president of the libertarian Cato Institute, said that in many ways Americans are freer now than they were in any pre-1937 libertarian Halcyon day. Women and black citizens can vote, work and own property. “Micro-regulations” that existed before the Supreme Court shift, which controlled trucking, civil aviation and other private pursuits, are gone.

    This is where the Tea Party is leading: fringe minority thinking among GOP candidates.  Go ahead, elect this wingnut.  Then we can have a few years of clips from him being repeated to the public demonstrating how out of touch with reality the GOP has become.

  7. Chris Blask

    Bring this fever to a head.  Let people (like me) who are not intrinsically anti-Republican see where the GOP has gotten to.  Someday I would like again to be able to vote for a Republican, and everyone has to understand that the GOP has become the party of barking insanity.

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