<commit_before>---
title: "The 1964 Civil Rights Act and Rand Paul Libertarians"
date: 2013-07-11 12:32 PDT
external_url: "http://www.slate.com/blogs/moneybox/2013/06/21/civil_rights_act_good_rand_paul_bad.html"
tags: "politics"

description: "Commentary on <NAME>' post about <NAME>'s ideological opposition to the 1964 Civil Rights Act."
---

> The "respectable" thing to say about people like Paul or the late <NAME>, I suppose, is simply that they are ideologues rather than people driven by some kind of racial animosity. But I think it's selling free market ideology short to suggest that government regulations meant to undue the outcome of a century long campaign of terrorist violence is just a straightforward consequence of a general support for free enterprise. You need to combine that ideology with a sincere indifference to black people's welfare to reach that conclusion, just as you need to combine Paul's ideology with genuine indifference to the history of race in America to reach Paul's conclusion about democracy's relationship to <NAME>.

<NAME> wrote [an excellent post][yglesias] last month about <NAME>'s foot-in-mouth statements opposing the 1964 Civil Rights Act. 

<NAME> and his father are beloved libertarian figures on the internet because they follow libertarian philosophy to some of its more progressive conclusions, like reducing defense spending and decriminalizing drugs. In this and a few other areas, they give loud and passionate voice to sensible solutions drowned out by mainstream politics.

But it's worth remembering that libertarianism in this country has often been driven by racism rather than ideology. This is not to say that all libertarians are racists or that libertarianism is an inherently racist philosophy, but when I read about [<NAME>'s racist 1990s newsletters][factcheck] and [Rand Paul's aide's racist, secessionist writings][racist], it becomes harder and harder to square the internet's hero worship of these men with the actual motivations guiding them.

  [yglesias]: http://www.slate.com/blogs/moneybox/2013/06/21/civil_rights_act_good_rand_paul_bad.html "The Civil Rights Act is Good"
  [racist]: http://crooksandliars.com/blue-texan/rand-pauls-opposition-civil-rights-act "Rand Paul's Racist Aide"
  [factcheck]: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/fact-checker/post/ron-paul-and-the-racist-newsletters-fact-checker-biography/2011/12/21/gIQAKNiwBP_blog.html "Fact Check: <NAME>'s Racist Newsletters"<commit_msg>Added <NAME> link to new post.<commit_after>---
title: "The 1964 Civil Rights Act and Rand Paul Libertarians"
date: 2013-07-11 12:32 PDT
external_url: "http://www.slate.com/blogs/moneybox/2013/06/21/civil_rights_act_good_rand_paul_bad.html"
tags: "politics"

description: "Commentary on M<NAME>' post about Rand Paul's ideological opposition to the 1964 Civil Rights Act."
---

> The "respectable" thing to say about people like Paul or the late <NAME>, I suppose, is simply that they are ideologues rather than people driven by some kind of racial animosity. But I think it's selling free market ideology short to suggest that government regulations meant to undue the outcome of a century long campaign of terrorist violence is just a straightforward consequence of a general support for free enterprise. You need to combine that ideology with a sincere indifference to black people's welfare to reach that conclusion, just as you need to combine Paul's ideology with genuine indifference to the history of race in America to reach Paul's conclusion about democracy's relationship to <NAME>.

<NAME> wrote [an excellent post][yglesias] last month about <NAME>'s foot-in-mouth statements opposing the 1964 Civil Rights Act. <NAME> covered similar ground in [a 2012 post about Rand's father, <NAME>][ron].

<NAME> and his father are beloved libertarian figures on the internet because they follow libertarian philosophy to some of its more progressive conclusions, like reducing defense spending and decriminalizing drugs. In this and a few other areas, they give loud and passionate voice to sensible solutions drowned out by mainstream politics.

But it's worth remembering that libertarianism in this country has often been driven by racism rather than ideology. This is not to say that all libertarians are racists or that libertarianism is an inherently racist philosophy, but when I read about [<NAME>'s racist 1990s newsletters][factcheck] and [<NAME>'s aide's racist, secessionist writings][racist], it becomes harder and harder to square the internet's hero worship of these men with the actual motivations guiding them.

  [ron]: http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2012/01/how-ron-pauls-libertarianism-supports-racism.html "How <NAME>'s Libertarianism Supports Racism"
  [yglesias]: http://www.slate.com/blogs/moneybox/2013/06/21/civil_rights_act_good_rand_paul_bad.html "The Civil Rights Act is Good"
  [racist]: http://crooksandliars.com/blue-texan/rand-pauls-opposition-civil-rights-act "Rand Paul's Racist Aide"
  [factcheck]: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/fact-checker/post/ron-paul-and-the-racist-newsletters-fact-checker-biography/2011/12/21/gIQAKNiwBP_blog.html "Fact Check: Ron Paul's Racist Newsletters"
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