Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Tea Party Pick Causes Uproar on Civil Rights
The New York Times ^ | May 20, 2010 | ADAM NAGOURNEY and CARL HULSE

Posted on 05/24/2010 4:34:15 PM PDT by grand wazoo

WASHINGTON — Rand Paul, the Tea Party candidate who challenged the Republican establishment to win the party’s Senate nomination in Kentucky two days ago, criticized a landmark civil rights law on Thursday, landing himself in a potentially damaging dispute over civil rights and race.

In doing so, he provided Democrats an opportunity to portray him as extreme and renewed concern among Republicans that his views made him vulnerable in a general election.

Mr. Paul, in a series of television and radio interviews, suggested that the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was too broad and should not apply to private businesses, such as luncheonettes. As his statements drew a swarm of attacks from his opponents, Mr. Paul issued a statement declaring that he would not support repealing the landmark 1964 statute and blaming political opponents for trying to distort his views by saying he favored repeal.

“Let me be clear: I support the Civil Rights Act because I overwhelmingly agree with the intent of the legislation, which was to stop discrimination in the public sphere and halt the abhorrent practice of segregation and Jim Crow laws,” he said. Later, in an interview on CNN, he said that if he had been in the Senate in 1964, he would have supported the act.

(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Editorial; Government; US: Kentucky
KEYWORDS: 2010midterms; civilrights; issues; randpaul; teaparty
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-57 next last
To: grand wazoo

“No amount of nuance will satisfy the leftists. The civil rights bill of 1964 is sacred text to them.”

Not true. He just needed to say what he’s said since the controversy erupted:

“I support the Civil Rights Act because I overwhelmingly agree with the intent of the legislation, which was to stop discrimination in the public sphere and halt the abhorrent practice of segregation and Jim Crow laws,” he said. Later, in an interview on CNN, he said that if he had been in the Senate in 1964, he would have supported the act.”

Would that have been so hard?


21 posted on 05/24/2010 5:30:53 PM PDT by sam_whiskey (Peace through Strength)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 18 | View Replies]

To: grand wazoo

God save us...........


22 posted on 05/24/2010 5:34:20 PM PDT by rrrod
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 12 | View Replies]

To: grand wazoo
landing himself in a potentially damaging dispute over civil rights

"Damaging" only to those voters who get a case of the fainting fantods any time the MSM or a liberal accuse them of "racism". Few of whom are likely to vote for Paul anyway.

23 posted on 05/24/2010 6:12:12 PM PDT by Notary Sojac (I've been ionized, but I'm okay now.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: grand wazoo

The fact, which has been posted numerous times on this topic that the Tea Party has no leader, does not matter to the Government Run Press, i.e. MSM. Their attempts to tar Conservatives, Libertarians, and Tea Party supporters as racists is a deliberate political ploy that seeks to destroy all opposition to Socialism. The sad reality is that we can no longer discuss the proper role of government in America, especially with anything that has to do with race. In a free society, people have a right to be stupid. If a business owner decides that he does not want the business from a specific group of people, regardless of whether or not it has anything to do with race or religion, he should have the right to make bad business decisions without government intervention. The idea that the government has the authority to tell someone who they can and cannot serve is the worst sort of totalitarianism. This is what happens when equality rather than freedom is the basis for government. Equality can only be obtained by governmental force. Of course, the government gets to decide what qualifies a equality. As we have seen, Congress excludes itself from the laws that it imposes on everyone else, and that includes racial quotas and regulations. In a society that is grounded on individual freedom, which includes freedom from an intrusive government, people would respect the freedom of others to make their own decisions, even if those decisions hurt the individual that makes them.


24 posted on 05/24/2010 6:12:54 PM PDT by Nosterrex
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Nosterrex

Well said. And worth repeating:

” This is what happens when equality rather than freedom is the basis for government. Equality can only be obtained by governmental force.”


25 posted on 05/24/2010 6:15:08 PM PDT by Pelham (without Deporting 20 million illegals, border control is meaningless.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 24 | View Replies]

To: sam_whiskey

Yes, he could have just said “Barry Goldwater was wrong to have voted against the 1964 Civil Rights Act. And Ronald Reagan was wrong to have boldly supported Goldwater for President that year.”

Then Rand Paul would have clearly identified himself as being a modern politically correct individual who has assimilated 1960s liberalism and now calls it “conservative”.

God bless Lyndon Johnson, founding father of 21st century conservatism.


26 posted on 05/24/2010 6:23:20 PM PDT by Pelham (without Deporting 20 million illegals, border control is meaningless.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 21 | View Replies]

To: grand wazoo

Rand Paul is right.

Law was needed to prevent blacks from being forced to the back of public government-run buses, from being forced to drink from public government-supplied drinking fountains, and from being forced to segregate and not attend public schools.

Private lunch counters were a different thing. The Government had no authority to tell private businesses to integrate, private homeowners to sell homes to blacks, etc.

Now, I think the practice of discluding blacks was despicable, but then I am not going to revise history or judge those from a different time when values and mores were different from our modern values and mores.

That said, the market would have fixed the lunch counters.

Once upon a time no blacks were allowed in sports, then Jackie Robinson kicked ass and the rest is history. Heck, it is only very recently that NFL teams finally overcame racism to allow black quarterbacks and head coaches.

The market is self-leveling. Restaurants and stores that allowed in blacks and Hispanics would get their business and make more profit, pressuring other vendors to do the same or go bankrupt.

Paul Rand is right. This isn’t that hard. The 1964 Civil Rights bill should have ended all forms of public discrimination, but not addressed private discrimination. The man is right.


27 posted on 05/24/2010 6:31:45 PM PDT by Freedom_Is_Not_Free (Liberal are like termites eating away our cultural foundations.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: sam_whiskey
Not true. He just needed to say what he’s said since the controversy erupted:

“I support the Civil Rights Act because I overwhelmingly agree with the intent of the legislation, which was to stop discrimination in the public sphere and halt the abhorrent practice of segregation and Jim Crow laws,” he said. Later, in an interview on CNN, he said that if he had been in the Senate in 1964, he would have supported the act.”

So you think they are now satisfied with his explanation? They attacked his position on Meet the Press.

28 posted on 05/24/2010 7:27:31 PM PDT by grand wazoo
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 21 | View Replies]

To: snowrip

...when the NYT moves down here to Kain-tuc to vote for the senate seat in November, I might be a might concerned. Fer now, I’ma gut laughin’ that they’re scared SH!TLESS!!!

...Jest’a keep on talkin’ ya city slickers...


29 posted on 05/24/2010 7:58:03 PM PDT by gargoyle (..."I have not yet begun to fight" John Paul Jones...)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: snowrip

yeah, ‘Tea Party’ is not an organization. that Rand Paul is running under. Very misleading reporting.


30 posted on 05/24/2010 8:14:47 PM PDT by WOSG (OPERATION RESTORE AMERICAN FREEDOM - NOVEMBER, 2010 - DO YOUR PART!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: grand wazoo

“He is only walking into a “trap” if you disagree with him.”

No. Agree or disagree with what he said, liberals in the media wanted to bring him down and used a question designed to make him sound extreme. They succeeded and his answers were the ammunition.


31 posted on 05/24/2010 8:16:21 PM PDT by WOSG (OPERATION RESTORE AMERICAN FREEDOM - NOVEMBER, 2010 - DO YOUR PART!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]

To: grand wazoo
Tea Party Pick Causes Uproar on Civil Rights

--> Tea Party Pick Predictably Attacked by DNC Media

32 posted on 05/24/2010 8:17:26 PM PDT by Interesting Times (For the truth about "swift boating" see ToSetTheRecordStraight.com)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: grand wazoo

Not. Any. More!

Bush was tagged as a racist by the NAACP merely for having a racial attack in his STATE.

Please stop digging the hole deeper. He’s saying he’d vote for civil rights bill, lets move on.


33 posted on 05/24/2010 8:17:59 PM PDT by WOSG (OPERATION RESTORE AMERICAN FREEDOM - NOVEMBER, 2010 - DO YOUR PART!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 12 | View Replies]

To: Kenny

“I am amazed at the national effort by the media to defeat conservative candidates.”

Why are you still amazed, after years and years of media bias that just gets worse and worse. Only 2 months back the outright lies of “tea partiers” using the n-word, a lie reported as fact and not retracted.
8 years of blame bush, and now obama hasnt had a press conference in 6 MONTHS and no peep from the press on it.

Still Amazed?!>

” It’ too brazen to not be noticed so does anyone still buy into it?”
If they do, they are just drinking the koolaid along with the media.


34 posted on 05/24/2010 8:21:11 PM PDT by WOSG (OPERATION RESTORE AMERICAN FREEDOM - NOVEMBER, 2010 - DO YOUR PART!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 15 | View Replies]

To: grand wazoo; sam_whiskey

People are missing the point if they are yammering about agreeing or not with what he said.

This was a political media setup from the get-go, a trap, and only a stupid politician would whine about it or fall into it. Rand Paul made a ‘newbie’ mistake and his walk-balk is an attempt to get out of the hole. Good for him for digging out. Next step is to move on.

He may say something you may agree with, but the liberals wanted some excuse to distort his words to make him out to be a racist loon. Even if he is not.

He did come around to the right answer, and NOW, anytime the issue is raised, he needs to say the EXACT SAME THING every single time it is raised so that NO NEW NEWS is made on the issue, and he pivots and says “Can we get back to the real issues of this race, such as ....” and talk about his real agenda.

Will the liberal media be ‘satisfied’ with the above strategy? Heck no, because they will have no more news to use this to beat him up.


35 posted on 05/24/2010 8:30:51 PM PDT by WOSG (OPERATION RESTORE AMERICAN FREEDOM - NOVEMBER, 2010 - DO YOUR PART!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 28 | View Replies]

To: snowrip
Uhhhh, note to NYT... there is no Tea Party candidate, primarily because they are not a political party.

BINGO

36 posted on 05/24/2010 8:33:34 PM PDT by GOPJ (...man was meant to be doubtful about himself, but undoubting about the truth-Gilbert K. Chesterton)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: sam_whiskey

Well, yes, if you want to completely avoid controversy, and the national spotlight that comes with it, that would be a safe answer.

He wins in Kentucky, it’s a Republican seat in a state that went for McCain handily in a year that the Democrats are going to do very badly.

And now, because of this controversy, conservatives / grass roots / tea partiers are more aware of Rand Paul and more on his side than ever before. If he was going to run for President at some time, and win, he would initially have to be the guy that the conservatives / grass roots / tea party supports. He’s not going to be getting the votes of people who prefer Romney or Gingrich at this point. He’d be going after the votes of people who like Palin. In any given year, there would likely be a number of candidates vying to be the true conservative candidate. Rand Paul has taken a step toward the front of that pack.


37 posted on 05/25/2010 2:31:49 AM PDT by truthfreedom
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 21 | View Replies]

To: WOSG

I don’t know. He may come up with a better answer. I assume that he’s paying close attention to whatever effects his words might have in Kentucky. He could mention that those Jim Crow laws that forced businesses to segregate were all passed by Democrats.

And every time the reporters ask him about it - they’ll know that Rand Paul will tell them that the Democrats caused segregated lunch counters.

He could chuckle about it. “Ha ha, why do you keep asking me about this when you know that I’m just going to tell you that the part of the Civil Rights Act that I loved the most was the part that removed the Jim Crow laws. You know the Jim Crow laws that were, in every single case, signed by Democrat Governors, that forced private businesses to discriminate, to segregate. Yeah, I would’ve loved removing those Democrat segregationist laws. (Other parts, I didn’t like as much, but), Yeah, I would’ve voted for it, especially since it removed or nullified the Democrat Jim Crow laws forcing private businesses to segregate.”


38 posted on 05/25/2010 2:42:38 AM PDT by truthfreedom
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 35 | View Replies]

To: WOSG

In order to get a really good President, we’re going to have to get someone who is willing to fight the media. If Rand Paul does run for President, he will have to be prepared to discuss, in a convincing way, issues surrounding the Civil Rights Act.

If he chooses to run for President, he will be able to explain, in his own way, on his own terms, the problems with the 64 Civil Rights Act. He will be able to make the most persuasive argument possible in favor of liberty and the Constitution possible and he will inspire many who might’ve otherwise not given the matter much thought or might’ve thought that Rand might be mildly racist in some way.

And, although Bush was tagged as a racist, he did win 2 terms.

The problem I see with Rand Paul 2016 is the 2016 part. In 2016, we’re looking at a good Republican Incumbent.


39 posted on 05/25/2010 3:00:05 AM PDT by truthfreedom
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 33 | View Replies]

To: truthfreedom

“Yeah, I would’ve voted for it, especially since it removed or nullified the Democrat Jim Crow laws forcing private businesses to segregate.”

When they nullified the State Laws enforcing Segregation, they immediatly passed Federal Laws enforcing Integration. This quickly led to such “Goodies” as Affirmative Action AKA “Legal Anti White Laws”. Our children and Grand Children now don’t have a chance. Thanks, Leftists!


40 posted on 05/25/2010 3:28:41 AM PDT by BnBlFlag (Deo Vindice/Semper Fidelis "Ya gotta saddle up your boys; Ya gotta draw a hard line")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 38 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-57 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson