Freedom as White Supremacy

[kpete]

Freedom as White Supremacy
"he doesn’t actually favor segregated lunch counters,
he just thinks it would be wrong to do anything about them."


http://tpmlivewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/05/rand-paul-defends-criticism-of-civil-rights-act-to-rachel-maddow.php?ref=fpa

It seems that yesterday US Senate candidate Rand Paul let the cat out of the bag and admitted that under his brand of libertarian conservatism he can’t support the 1964 Civil Rights Act http://thinkprogress.org/2010/05/19/paul-civil-rights/ or other non-discrimination legislation as applied to private businesses. He goes out of his way to explain that he doesn’t actually favor segregated lunch counters, he just thinks it would be wrong to do anything about them. Similarly, I suppose the Cato Institute’s Dan Mitchell would tell you he doesn’t actually want poor children to suffer from starvation or malnourishment he just thinks it’s folly to try to do anything about it collectively. Maybe private charity will feed kids, or maybe not. Maybe voluntary action will undue Jim Crow, or maybe not.

The point to make about Paul, however, is that what he suffers from here is an excess of honesty and ideological rigor not an unusual degree of racism. Basic free market principles really do lead one to the absurd conclusion that government regulation of private business is a greater evil than institutionalized segregation. That’s why Barry Goldwater, William F Buckley, the Young Americans for Freedom, and the other progenitors of the postwar conservative movement all opposed the Civil Rights Act and the civil rights movement. And, indeed, under the kind of hyper-restrictive construction of the constitution that today’s rightwingers use to say the Affordable Care Act is unconstitutional, the Civil Rights Act would probably also be invalidated.

Update It's worth noting that not only does Paul oppose the Civil Rights Act, but plenty of mainstream libertarian institutions that are far too savvy to actually spend time denouncing the Civil Rights Act are enthusiastic about Paul and his brand of politics.

more:
http://yglesias.thinkprogress.org/archives/2010/05/freedom-as-white-supremacy.php
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/05/20/rand-paul-tells-maddow-th_n_582872.html
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/politics/wire/sns-ap-us-rand-paul-civil-rights,0,4122237.story
Rand Paul Aide Quits Over MySpace Racism, ‘Afro-Americans’ Have ‘KKK Radar’
http://chattahbox.com/us/2009/12/18/rand-paul-aide-quits-over-myspace-racism-afro-americans-have-kkk-radar/
VIDEO:
http://www.queerty.com/rand-paul-abhors-racism-supports-private-businesses-right-to-discriminate-on-race-20100520/
The trouble with Dr. Paul is that despite his independent thinking, much of what he stands for is repulsive to people in the mainstream. For instance, he holds an unacceptable view of civil rights, saying that while the federal government can enforce integration of government jobs and facilities, private business people should be able to decide whether they want to serve black people, or gays, or any other minority group.
http://www.capitolhillblue.com/node/27155
http://barefootandprogressive.blogspot.com/2010/01/chip-saltsman-rumors-are-true.html

[unpossibles]

1. I've been hearing more and more of this type of BS

I had a friend's dad tell me, after ranting all night about how taxes are oppression and theft and ignoring my point that things like the subway which he had just been marveling at were possible largely through taxation, that ... (wait for it).... slavery wasn't so bad for the slaves!

I was stunned! My immediate response was "but they were slaves!" and he went on about biblical slavery and how slaves in America were treated well, etc., and I repeated the rather large major objection and finally had to walk away before I got really pissed.

Can't wrap my brain around that one, how someone could see taxes as being oppressive to his freedom, but actually owning another human was excusable. WTHF?

And to make it worse, I've heard similar arguments more than I want to.

[EFerrari]

2. I'm beginning to think that most people can't think their way out of a paper bag

and have less empathy than one, too.

[raccoon]

3. Some right-wingers think the white people in the US did the slaves a favor by bringing

them here from Africa and enslaving them. I kid you not. Such convoluted logic boggles the mind.

[Z_I_Peevey]

4. I heard it just last month from an elderly white woman...

that slavery wasn't really so bad for the slaves. Stunned speechless, truly.

[Chulanowa]

9. I've got my hands on an interesting book...

"Runaway Slaves; Rebels on the Plantation" by John Hope Franklin and Loren Schweinger. It's a big thick book, and is almost entirely simple documentation, from plantation records, witness testimony, legal cases, etc. about runaway slaves, where they ran, how they ran, and importantly, why they did so, as well as the response they got.

You know your friend's dad is wrong, but just how wrong he is is staggering.

[Adsos Letter]

11. I would add to that...

Roll, Jordan, Roll: The World the Slaves Made by Eugene Genovese; and The Civil War as a Theological Crisis by Mark Noll.

Or, Frederick Douglass' narrative on his own life.

Edited to add: I hear the same crap from my FIL; it's simply the same old psychological garbage the Southern slaveholders used to psychologically justify their "peculiar institution" to themselves.

[Brewman_Jax]

5. I've hit a few knuckle-draggers with this question...

If slavery was so great, why didn't YOUR ancestors CHOOSE to be slaves?


To date, I've never received an answer--I have no idea why. :shrug:

[unpossibles]

6. I actually tried that response

and the guy started talking about how since he's Christian (Italian American), and since Christianity came from Judaism, and since the Bible said the Jews were slaves, then his ancestors WERE slaves too!

It would be funny if it didn't make my brain hurt so much.

[yowzayowzayowza]

10. I've had more success personalizing the crotch politics of it:

'So you wouldn't have a problem with my owning yer family, having my way with your kinfolk however I want, sellin 'em off like chattel? Should you choose to get uppity 'bout it, I'll beat you within an inch of your life, throw you in a hole til you get over it. If thatz not enuf, I'll pawn you off too. Howz that sound?'

[unpossibles]

12. good point. Maybe sweeten the deal with...

... "hey, at least you won't have to pay any taxes!"

[yowzayowzayowza]

13. Hey, even a non-responsive interruption is a victory in Red State Hell! n/t

[HillWilliam]

7. Perzakkaly

"If slavery isn't so bad, then I guess you won't mind getting up off your big ass and cleaning my windows, mowing my yard (I've got 3 acres to cut), weeding the gardens, doing my dishes, mopping my floors, washing my clothes, oh! it'll be fun for you! Where are you going? I haven't even STARTED the list of shit that needs doing."

Nope, never got any more than a blank look, either. They're "not racist" but somehow they're "the wrong color" to be a slave.

Mmm-hmm. They out themselves so easily.

[BolivarianHero]

8. Perfect for Kentucky...

The White evangelical morons will love him.