Rationalizing White Supremacy : Racism, Free Markets and the Morally Obtuse Rand Paul By Tim Wise (via Facebook)

Although he insists he wasn’t named for the emotionally deranged, greed-loving, altruism-bashing author, Ayn Rand, U.S. Senate candidate Rand Paul’s views are just a little too similar to those of the mother of Objectivism–as are the views of his father, libertarian Congressman Ron Paul–to take seriously his denials. Either he is lying about the origins of his name, or else his chosen nickname is the biggest coincidence in the history of chaos theory.
And so last week we have the Kentucky Republican regaling the nation with his ill-conceived view that although he finds racism deplorable, he believes that the rights of private businesses to discriminate on the basis of race and indulge their racism is sacrosanct. Thus, the government should not make such actions illegal. Meaning that the Civil Rights Act of 1964, in regulating private as well as public discrimination, went too far. In other words, Martin Luther King Jr. and the rest–though Paul claims to be a great admirer of their work and swears he would have been marching with them had he been old enough, unlike, ya know, every other libertarian at the time–were all wrong.

Although Paul has now backed away from this position–originally articulated in an interview with a Louisville newspaper and then on the Rachel Maddow Show–it is hard to take the retraction at face value. After all, a hands off approach to pretty much everything private businesses do is the hallmark of libertarian thought. And Rand Paul is indeed a libertarian, raised and nurtured by his libertarian dad, who also has criticized the Civil Rights Act, and who published personal newsletters with blatantly racist attacks on blacks all throughout the 1990s. Fruit, meet the tree from which thou hath fallen, but not far.

While Paul may seek to walk back his endorsement of allowing private discrimination, others of his ilk, brought out of the woodwork as a result of the brouhaha–like pseudo journalist and all-around free market shill John Stossel–are sticking with Paul’s original position. Indeed, Stossel, in defending Paul said the Kentucky Republican hadn’t gone far enough. While Paul had only suggested he would have tried at the time to remove those portions of the law regulating private businesses–especially Title VII–Stossel says we should actually repeal those parts of the Act right now.

While many have expressed outrage at Paul and Stossel’s remarks, that anyone would find them surprising suggests how little most understand the morally obtuse theory that is libertarianism. Fact is, this is how market-worshippers think. To their way of understanding the world, unfettered capitalism can resolve all moral dilemmas because, after a while, those engaging in destructive activities will be made to pay for their transgressions. This is because consumers will eventually cease indulging the capitalists’ taste for the destructive activity. When consumers withhold their money from capitalists, as a way to vent their outrage over the given evil–be it discrimination, pollution, exploitation of child labor, or whatever else–the capitalist will change his or her ways because it has ceased to be profitable to do otherwise. Additionally, when it comes to discrimination, racist or sexist employers will eventually come to recognize their error, because less biased competitors who are willing to hire persons of color (or women of all colors) who might be better qualified, will reap profits that were sacrificed by the discriminating employer. Eventually, lessons learned, employers will stop discriminating even if they don’t much like blacks, or Latinos, or whomever, because however much they may hate racial, gender or sexual “others,” they love money more. And according to libertarians, everyone operates on the basis of material self-interest.

…Read the rest here

Related posts:

1. Rand Paul would prefer “Civil Rights Act-Lite”
2. A Bigger Problem Than Rand Paul
3. Rand Paul has Jr Senator Syndrome
4. Being Racist is Apparently bad…Who knew?
5. “How Not To Run For Senate” Featuring Rand Paul