Why Rand Paul Is Not A Racist... But I Am Still Worried

Everyone has jumped onto the bandwagon of calling Rand Paul a racist. The majority of people I have talked to watched or Paul Rand's interviews on the Rachel Maddow show and on NPR. They heard that he would repeal the sections of the Civil Rights Act that concerned businesses and minorities. If people really listened and understand what libertarianism is, they would see and understand the thought process behind his comments.

Libertarianism is "a political theory that advocates the maximization of individual liberty in thought and action "(Wikipedia.org). Libertarians want as little government involvement as possible in the lives of people. This includes a very laissez-faire market philosophy. Libertarians believe that "the market, while not perfect, is self-correcting (Jim Cox, The Concise Guide to Economics)".

Now with this philosophy in mind, the portion of the Civil Rights Act that Rand Paul was discussing would be an issue with any libertarian. What it means is that the government is setting the standards for how the "market" should behave instead of individuals. Following the libertarian thought process, if businesses were discriminating against African-Americans and the prevailing thought was that this was wrong, moves in the market would happen where these discriminating businesses would go out. By people choosing to not patronize these businesses, discriminatory businesses would die out and leave only the non-discriminatory businesses. Thus, no need for the government to interfere.

Even though this is not a racist or prejudicial thought process, I am still worried. I have two concerns with this line of thinking. One is which is whose right is held in higher esteem; the right of a consumer to participate in the market without restraint, or the right of the market to pick and choose who participates? I feel that the right of the consumer to participate in the market without restraint is in higher esteem.

My second concern is that protection of civil rights should not be left to the market. Plain and simple. If our government is suppose to protect the rights of all, this should not be left the markets. The role of markets is to make money, not ensure rights. There is nothing wrong with the government ensuring that everyone has the same rights. History has shown that markets can very discriminatory and at times impinged upon rights; thus there has to be laws that ensure everyone is treated equal.

On a simple, human level, no one should be mistreated because of religion, sexuality, ethnicity, economic status, etc. As human beings, there is a basic and general respect and equality that should be afforded to all. Damn markets and economics. People are people and should be afforded basic rights. That can only be ensured by having fair and effective laws in place.