As Joan Walsh reports on Salon, Republican nominee Rand Paul took a lot of heat on the Rachel Maddow show. Over the course of a 20 minute interview, Ms. Maddow deftly, politely, and repeatedly asked Dr. Paul if he felt that owners of the Walgreen's lunch counter in the early 1960s had the right to refuse service to black people.
Rand Paul on Racism and the Civil Rights Act of 1964
Rand Paul stated clearly and repeatedly during this interview that he is not a racist and that he finds any form of racism abhorrent. He claims he would have been proud to march next to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and that he supports Dr. King's attempts to desegregate the public sector but not the private sector.
Ms. Maddow introduces Dr. Paul by playing a recording of his interview on National Public Radio's "All Things Considered" in which Dr. Paul admits to Robert Siegel on May 19, 2010 that he had not read the Civil Rights Act because (as he states) it was not currently relevant. He may have reviewed the piece of legislation in the meantime; while being grilled by Ms. Maddow he states that there are ten parts of the bill, and nine out of ten deal with the public sector. Dr. Paul approves of forced desegregation in the public sector.
The other part of the Civil Rights Act deals with the private sector, and Dr. Paul admits that if he had been in politics in 1964, he would have attempted to change or remove this item.
Freedom of Speech
When pressed to answer the question, "Do you think the owners of the Walgreen's lunch counter had the right to refuse service to black people" Rand Paul falls short. He never admits either "yes" or "no".
He does say that all private businesses have freedom of speech, and that their freedom of speech must be protected even if what they say is abhorrent. According to Dr. Paul, freedom of speech protects hate speech both verbal and in writing, as well as people's right to march in parades supporting abhorrent things. He draws the line at physical violence, and states that he is opposed to the beatings that nearly took the lives of black people sitting at the Walgreen's lunch counter less than 50 years ago. but he never expresses support for their right to sit there.
During his interview with Rachel Maddow, Rand Paul equates allowing blacks to eat in private restaurants with allowing patrons to bring guns into private restaurants, drink at the bar and start shooting. The logic is not easy to follow, but it seems to be that if the federal government tells private businesses that they have to serve blacks under the Civil Rights Act, then the federal government must also tell private businesses that they must serve people with guns under the Second Amendment. Toward the end of the interview Dr. Paul claims that desegregation is not an issue today.
In Dr. Paul's acceptance speech, he states clearly "We have come to take our government back." Back from what? From forced civility? From legal remedies? From equality? The devil is in the details.
