Rand Paul Bullshits Howard University Audience that Understands the History of US Civil Rights Much Better than He Does

Rand Paul Bullshitting at Howard U.
Image via Opposing Views.

Yesterday, the Great Steve Benen had the obligatory take down of Rand Paul, who gets my vote as Best New GOP Bullshitter.

The Republican senator told his Howard audience, "I've never wavered in my support for civil rights or the Civil Rights Act." He added, "I've never been against the Civil Rights Act, ever."

Steve says it's a lie, and he has the video to prove it. But to be more accurate, Paul doesn't care what's true or not. He's merely trying to convey a certain impression to whomever he's speaking at the time. In this case, at a traditionally black University, Paul doesn't want his audience to think that he ever thought that the Civil Rights Act should not have been passed. So, he just bullshits about it--says whatever he thinks makes him look best in that situation. Steve has the actual facts:

As a candidate for the U.S. Senate in 2010, Paul told the Louisville Courier-Journal he opposed the Civil Rights Act's ban on discrimination on the basis of race in "places of public accommodation" such as privately owned businesses that are open to the public. He said the same thing on NPR. 

When Paul appeared on "The Rachel Maddow Show," Rachel asked, as part of a discussion of the Civil Rights Act, "Do you think that a private business has the right to say we don't serve black people?" Paul replied, "Yes." 

It was consistent with his approach to federal civil rights law dating back to at least 2002. 

Now, in fairness, I should note that Paul, as a candidate in 2010, eventually reversed course and said the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was necessary and he would have voted for it. 

But notice again what he said at Howard: he's "never wavered" in his support for the Civil Rights Act and he's "never been against the Civil Rights Act, ever."

Rand Paul on the Rachel Maddow Show

Since what he said up until 2010 was anti-Civil Rights Act, I think he's bullshitting when he says he would have voted for it. But who knows? Maybe he really did change his mind. That's one of the biggest problems with being a bullshitter. No one can ever be sure what you really think.

Today Steve gets into the meat of Paul diving into one of my favorite wingnut latrine holes: that the Democrats are the racists. Like most Republicans who bring this up, Paul wants to stop history in 1964, when LBJ signed the Civil Rights Act that Paul opposed until it was inconvenient to do so. As anyone who wants to read about it knows, LBJ famously said that the Democrats would lose the south for a long time because of that. He was right. The racists in the Democratic party, known as the Dixiecrats, switched parties to vote for the slingers of a new style of Bullshit--The Southern Strategy.

Here's Steve summing it up nicely, because I've done it here before, and I'm sick of doing it:

The Democratic Party, in the first half of the 20th century, was home to two broad, competing constituencies -- southern whites with abhorrent views on race, and white progressives and African Americans in the north, who sought to advance the cause of civil rights. The party struggled with this conflict for years, before ultimately siding with an inclusive, liberal agenda. 

As the party shifted, the Democratic mainstream embraced its new role. Republicans, meanwhile, also changed. In the wake of Democratic President Lyndon Johnson signing the Civil Rights Act, the Republican Party welcomed the white supremacists who no longer felt comfortable in the Democratic Party. Indeed, in 1964, Republican presidential nominee Barry Goldwater boasted of his opposition to the Civil Rights Act, and made it part of his platform. 

It was right around this time when figures like Jesse Helms and Strom Thurmond made the transition -- leaving the progressive, diverse, tolerant Democratic Party for the GOP. 

In the years that followed, Democrats embraced their role as the party of inclusion and civil rights. Republicans, meanwhile, became the party of the "Southern Strategy," opposition to affirmative action, campaigns based on race-baiting, vote-caging, discriminatory voter-ID laws, and politicians like Helms and Thurmond. (A Republican congressman from Texas named Ron Paul also criticized Abraham Lincoln for waging the Civil War, while also opposing the Civil Rights Act.)

Ronald Reagan campaigning in Philadelphia MS.
Image credit.

Who knows if Rand Paul knows all this or not? Maybe he was stoned during his 20th Century American History Class. Maybe he didn't have to study history to become a self-accredited opthamologist. Maybe someone from Kentucky can get elected to the US Senate without knowing the history of the Civil Rights movement. But one sure as hell can't bullshit a Howard University audience on the subject, and the fact that he would even try tells me that he really doesn't give a damn about the truth, or black people, or anything else, really, except saying whatever he needs to say in order to become President.

And with that fact in mind, I'm really happy that this bullshitting wingnut apparently doesn't know how to shut up.

They're Too Lazy to Get a New Dog Whistle

The usually savvy Steve Benen wants the GOP to drop the whole "Obama is lazy thing."

Steve, you're the best, but I want to keep these guys talking. If these guys didn't talk, no one would ever know about the slobbery lips blowing a spit-filled, centuries old dog-whistle. The latest fat white guy to give the rusty/slimy/drippy old thing a wheezing blow bothered to leave Sinecure Inc's lushest country clubs because he was upset that someone would dare suggest that Ann Romney used her money to make her life easier.

Obama's the one who never worked a day in his life. He never earned a penny that wasn't public money. How many fund-raisers does he attend every week? How often does he play basketball and golf? I wish I had that kind of time. He's lazy, but the media won't report that. 

First things first. Fox "News" CEO Roger "I Won the Election for my cousin George W Bush" Ailes is a Bullshitter in the Philosophical sense of the word.

...bullshitters seek to convey a certain impression of themselves without being concerned about whether anything at all is true. They quietly change the rules governing their end of the conversation so that claims about truth and falsity are irrelevant. Frankfurt concludes that although bullshit can take many innocent forms, excessive indulgence in it can eventually undermine the practitioner's capacity to tell the truth in a way that lying does not. Liars at least acknowledge that it matters what is true. By virtue of this, Frankfurt writes, bullshit is a greater enemy of the truth than lies are.

Aisles should ask his cousin W, who thought all kinds of things qualified as hard work, about how hard fundraising is. Ask any politician about their schedule, and the amount of time they have to spend raising money. Roger and his buddies made sure that politicians would have to obsess over the one thing that destroys democracy faster than anything else. As Willard Romney himself liked to misquote: politics ain't bean bags. Of course, you could always forgo the fundraising and finance your own campaign, which is really putting your money where your mouth is, but I digress.

Steve goes on to cover the rest of the obvious points nicely. No, Roger, The President actually did work in the private sector. And who are you to suggest that public sector workers don't work? Go tell the families of all the public sector workers who died doing their jobs how lazy their loved ones were, you fat puke. Actually, Steve was nicer than that, bless his heart.

But please, Roggie Baby, don't let the fact that I'm mean to you shut you up. You've got a whole media empire at your disposal, so please, keep talking, wingnut.