And we wonder why people look down on Kentucky from time to time (The ‘Deliverance’ Factor)…
Well, right now is such a time. Kentucky is making news again. And it’s not news of the good kind. If you haven’t heard the name ‘Rand Paul’, yet, make a mental note, because I have a feeling you will hear a lot from him…and of him.
We just had primary elections in Kentucky and the two people vying for the US Senate seat being vacated by Republican Senator Jim Bunning are Democrat Jack Conway (and I am so very happy about that), and Republican Rand Paul.
Rand Paul is a self-proclaimed Libertarian who wants to keep the Federal Government pretty much out of everything. That’s all well and good, except in those little instances, for example when it comes to regulating companies how much poison they can put in our food or air, or destroy our environment; or how about setting federal standards for the minimum wage and overtime pay…and on and on and on…
Then there’s of course the ‘Civil Rights Act’ of 1964, when the Federal Government stepped in to, among other things, prohibit establishments like restaurants, to discriminate against people based on the color of their skin. This paved the way for de-segregation all over the US. And you ought to think, that in the year 2010, it is common belief that that was a good thing.
Well…
On several occasions, one in an interview with the major newspaper in Kentucky, ‘The Courier-Journal’, he opined that, even though he himself does not like the practice of discrimination and would not associate with people who do, he does believe that businesses have a right to do so without government interference. To top it, when pressured, he said that he would have worked to change that specific provision of the ‘Civil Rights Act’. What that means in a nutshell, is that in his world view it would be absolutely okay if restaurant owners refused to serve black people; if black kids would be ordered out of pools; if a private university banned interracial dating (which we actually sadly enough had an instance of until just recently), etc… Turns out, Rand Paul also seems to have problems with ‘The Fair Housing Act’ and ‘The People with Disabilities Act’ which prohibits discrimination in those instances. What a surprise…
Huh???
Is that really what you are advocating here, Rand Paul?
Of course, one can only hope that those opinions are held by very few people. Hmmm…I don’t know. Rand Paul was elected by an overwhelming margin in the Republican primary against his opponent Trey Grayson who was handpicked by Senator Mitch McConnell, the senior senator from Kentucky and the Senate Minority Leader. So, I have to assume that all the good people who voted for Rand Paul either didn’t know about his opinions…or didn’t care…or agree with him… I don’t know which scenario is scarier.
Oh, I forgot to mention… Rand Paul is one of the ‘darlings’ of the ‘Tea Party Movement’…and he mentioned that group nine times in his acceptance speech while mentioning ‘Kentucky’, the state he wants to represent in the Senate…once.
I have written about the ‘diversity’ of the ‘Tea Party Movement’ on other occasions (pretty much… ‘Whites Only’). I wonder why…
As I said, you will hear the name ‘Rand Paul’ a lot…
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