A Republican deer in the headlights
The Republican Party is in deep, deep trouble. Watch as Tea Party leader Rand Paul talks with Rachel Maddow about the Civil Rights act:
Maddow: Do you think a private business has the right to put up a ‘Blacks Not Served Sign?’
Rand Paul: Well the interesting thing is if you look back to the 1950’s, 1960’s, that the problems we faced, there were incredible problems. The problems had to do with voting…blah, blah, blah.
Maddow: I don’t want to badger you, but I do want an answer on this sir, do you think a private business has the right not to serve black people?
Rand Paul: I’m against all discrimination of any kind, I wouldn’t join a club .(my golf club is cool, though) but I think what’s important about this debate is not to get into any gotcha on this but asking the question. What about freedom of speech. Should we limit speech. Should we limit racists from speaking?
Maddow: I’m asking straight you forward questions. Do you realize that businesses wouldn’t let black people use the bathroom?
Rand Paul: I abhor racism. Am I a bad person because I hate racism?
Maddow: I’m asking you a yes or no question, Rand Paul. What about lunch counters? It’s not a hypothetical.
Rand Paul: I’ll give you a hypothetical. What about the owner of the restaurant? Should the government tell him that AK-47’s aren’t permitted in his place of business? That’s when we’re in a slippery slope, Rachel…
This goes on for 19 minutes as Rand Paul, the Kentucky Republican nominee for US Senate tries not to answer a simple, “yes-no” question.
If he were capable of a straight answer (he’s not, because he knows how it would sound) then he’d say that the law shouldn’t prevent a swim club from excluding Jews, or banks from denying loans to qualified black home buyers. There shouldn’t be any law that says real estate agents can’t white-list entire neighborhoods, keeping blacks out, or against discriminatory hiring practices. For all his protests of “abhorring racism” (I’d love to see a count of how many times he said that in the interview) he also describes it as a “non-issue”. He thinks government shouldn’t tell businesses they can’t discriminate; the free market will do it.
Now I’ll be the first to admit the Democrats have not been progressive enough in office. Obama should never have encouraged offshore drilling, DADT should be gone, and for good measure Dick Cheney should be in prison. But before you think about “punishing” the Democrats at the polls in November, think about this guy winning an election… and a whole lot of others like him.
You may think: “That’s no excuse for the Democrats to be spineless” and you’re right. This is why I miss the real Republican party. If there were real Republicans (as opposed to these loonies) then Democrats couldn’t get lazy as they have. I don’t know how to fix it from the Democrat side either. Only Republicans can fix it, and time is running out.
To put it another way, Republicans: you don’t like Barack Obama? Blame Alan Keyes and Sarah Palin.