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.

So Many Wingnuts, So Little Time

At least anti-christ ranks at the bottom.

The results of Public Policy Polling's national conspiracy theory poll were posted yesterday, and never have the wingnuts said so much by answering yes, no, or maybe. While plenty of Democrats believed some crazy stuff, the trophy for believing the unbelievable goes to the Republicans in the poll.

At the top of the list, we have yet another point of reference that makes me miss Intrade.

37% of voters believe global warming is a hoax, 51% do not. Republicans say global warming is a hoax by a 58-25 margin, Democrats disagree 11-77, and Independents are more split at  41-51. 61% of Romney voters believe global warming is a hoax.

Fifty-eight percent of Republicans believe global warming is a hoax. This is astounding. They're not saying, oh, it's happening but it's natural, or it's the sun, or whatever. They're saying that a world-wide consensus of top scientists are conspiring to tell us something that is obviously happening is not, just so they can have the black helicopters come take their SUVs. Or something.

Intrade had a whole host of climate markets, from monthly, annual, and multi-annual global temperature anomalies, to last named storm of the Atlantic hurricane season, to minimum arctic sea ice extent, and much more. The volume was pretty low in those markets, and it was often hard to find people to bet the conspiracy side of things, but a bet's a bet, and I was surprised at how few takers there are.

I was trying to round up more of these hoaxters to put their money where their conspiracy minded mouths are. Maybe if Intrade does manage to recover from their recent problems and return, I'll be able to coax some of these ignorant fools into putting a few bucks on their theory.

Keep talking, wingnut! Image credit. 

The wingnuttery continues!

13% of voters think Barack Obama is the anti-Christ, including 22% of Romney voters.

This is more proof of ThomasD's theory that fundamentalists have a problem with parables. That is, if you think there is any allegory in Revelations at all. Frankly, I think it's the ravings of a nut case who was just trying to scare ignorant people into becoming Christians. Pretty impressive ravings, though, considering that even in this modern age, 13% of Americans not only believe it, but think the President is one of the main characters in this never ending fairy tale.

And, finally, proof that although they tend to deny they supported the war now, or that the war was a good idea, or whatever, we find that, if asked in a poll where no one will know who they are, the Republican love for W hasn't really diminished at all. I'm guessing that a great many of the people who supported the $6.2 trillion Iraq war will go to their graves thinking they were right.

Voters are split 44%-45% on whether Bush intentionally misled about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. 72% of Democrats think Bush lied about WMDs, Independents agree 48-45, just 13% of Republicans think so.

Considering the other crazy shit that Republicans revealed about themselves in this poll, I'm surprised that 13% of Republicans think Bush lied us into Iraq. They must be RINOs.