Thursday, May 20, 2010

Yglesias on Paul on Civil Rights

I enjoy reading Matthew Yglesias and more often than not, I learn something new. But when it comes to politics his brain seems to fall out of his head:
....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 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.
No, no he doesn't. Not supporting the law is not the same thing as being indifferent to the injustices of Jim Crow unless you're foolish enough to think that the only instrument of good in this world is government. This isn't to say that the 1964 bill wasn't a good idea but it wasn't the only possible way to eliminate segregation.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

On Maddow's show the Fred Astire wannabe said he wouldn't have voted for the Civil Rights Act. As a congressman it is his job to vote for or against legislation. So not voting yes is the same as voting no.

The Civil Rights Act wasn't the only way true. We could have waited for people to come around and let the injustice continue for decades.