So, here's the interview. I used bold to highlight some lines that I thought were interesting. At no time in this interview does Rand Paul come across as a racist. He seems to be trying very hard to make the point that he abhors discrimination and would not patronize any place that discriminates. His point is that the government should not tell people who they can serve and not serve if it is a PRIVATE institution. It borders on the government being thought police. It is also a two way street. Black business owners could refuse to serve whites. Hooters could refuse to hire waiters since that's not the type of service people they are famous for.
PAUL: Thank you, Rachel, and thank you for that wonderful intro piece, quite a collection. MADDOW: I know this must feel like frying pan and into the fire here, so soon after the election with really being the focus of this national storm right now. Everybody is trying to figure out what you meant by these things. But let's talk about it. PAUL: Yes. MADDOW: Was "The Courier-Journal" right? Do you believe that private business people should be able to decide whether they want to serve black people or gays or any other minority group, as they said? PAUL: Well, I think to put things in perspective, when "The Courier-Journal" does not endorse a Republican, that's not something very unusual in our state. They typically don't endorse Republicans, and it's a very Democratic paper. *But with regard to racism, I don`t believe in any racism. I don`t think we should have any government racism, any institutional form of racism. *You know, one interesting historical tidbit, one of my favorite historical characters is William Lloyd Garrison. And one of the interesting things about desegregation and putting people together, do you know when it happened in Boston? MADDOW: What do you mean, the desegregation? In general? PAUL: You know when we got -- you know, when we got rid of the Jim Crow laws and when we got rid of segregation and a lot of the abhorrent practices in the South, do you know when we got rid of it in Boston? MADDOW: I -- why don't you tell me what you`re getting at? PAUL: Well, it was in 1840. So I think it is sort of a stain on the history of America that 120 years to desegregate the South. But William Lloyd Garrison was a champion and abolitionist who wrote about freeing the slaves back in the 1810s, '20s and '30s and labored in obscurity (ph) to do this. He was flagged, put in jails. He was with Frederick Douglass being thrown off trains. *But, you know, they desegregated transportation in Boston in 1840, and I think that was an impressive and amazing thing. But also points out the sadness that it took us 120 years to desegregate the South. And a lot of that was institutional racism was absolutely wrong and something that I absolutely oppose.* MADDOW: In terms of legal remedies for persistent discrimination, though, if there was a private business, say, in Louisville, say, somewhere in your home state, that wanted to not serve black patrons and wanted to not serve gay patrons, or somebody else on the basis of their -- on the basis of a characteristic that they decided they didn't like as a private business owner -- would you think they had a legal right to do so, to put up a "blacks not served here" sign? PAUL: Well, the interesting thing is, you know, you look back to the 1950s and 1960s at the problems we faced. There were incredible problems. You know, the problems had to do with mostly voting, they had to do with schools, they had to do with public housing. And so, this is what the civil rights largely addressed, and all things that I largely agree with. MADDOW: But what about private businesses? I mean, I hate to -- I don`t want to be badgering you on this, but I do want an answer. PAUL: I'm not -- I'm not -- MADDOW: Do you think that a private business has the right to say we don't serve black people? PAUL: Yes. *I'm not in favor of any discrimination of any form. I would never belong to any club that excluded anybody for race. *We still do have private clubs in America that can discriminate based on race. But I think what's important about this debate is not written into any specific "gotcha" on this, but asking the question: what about freedom of speech? Should we limit speech from people we find abhorrent? Should we limit racists from speaking? *I don't want to be associated with those people, but I also don't want to limit their speech in any way in the sense that we tolerate boorish and uncivilized behavior because that's one of the things freedom requires is that we allow people to be boorish and uncivilized, but that doesn't mean we approve of it. I think the problem with this debate is by getting muddled down into it, the implication is somehow that I would approve of any racism or discrimination, and I don't in any form or fashion.* MADDOW: But isn't being in favor of civil rights but against the Civil Rights Act a little like saying you're against high cholesterol but you're in favor of fried cheese? PAUL: *But I'm not against --* MADDOW: I mean, the Civil Rights Act was the federal government stepping in to protect civil rights because they weren't otherwise being protected. It wasn't a hypothetical. There were businesses that were saying black people cannot be served here and the federal government stepped in and said, no, you actually don't have that choice to make. The federal government is coming in and saying you can't make that choice as a business owner. Which side of that debate would you put yourself on? PAUL: In the totality of it, I'm in favor of the federal government being involved in civil rights and that's, you know, mostly what the Civil Rights Act was about. And that was ending institutional racism. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Order the Adobe Coldfusion Anthology now! http://www.amazon.com/Adobe-Coldfusion-Anthology-Michael-Dinowitz/dp/1430272155/?tag=houseoffusion Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/message.cfm/messageid:319378 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/unsubscribe.cfm
