Race, liberty and Ron Paul

[yeats]

Did the Civil Rights Act of 1964 put America on the path to a police state? The answer is yes, according to Ron Paul, the Texas Republican Congressman and candidate for the Republican presidential nomination. Appearing on CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday, Paul explained that the Civil Rights Act of 1964 “destroyed the principle of private

Comments

[jettakd]

Love this article. Really highlights the gross selfishness, isolationism, and racism I've found inherent in most libertarians I've known.

ETA: thought these quotes could go well with this article.

"Jonathan Chait:

[Libertarians] genuinely see racism as a belief system that expresses itself only in the form of coercive government power. In [Ron] Paul’s world, state-enforced discrimination is the only kind of discrimination. A libertarian by definition opposes discrimination because libertarians oppose the state. He cannot imagine social power exerting itself through any other form.

The most fevered opponents of civil rights in the 1950s and 1960s - and, for that matter, the most fervent defenders of slavery a century before - also usually made their case in in process terms rather than racist ones. They stood for the rights of the individual, or the rights of the states, against the federal Goliath. I am sure Paul’s motives derive from ideological fervor rather than a conscious desire to oppress minorities. But the relationship between the abstract principles of his worldview and the ugly racism with which it has so frequently been expressed is hardly coincidental."

"Noah Smith counters:

The modern American libertarian ideology does not deal with the issue of local bullies. In the world envisioned by Nozick, Hayek, Rand, and other foundational thinkers of the movement, there are only two levels to society - the government (the “big bully”) and the individual. If your freedom is not being taken away by the biggest bully that exists, your freedom is not being taken away at all … this gigantic loophole has made modern American libertarianism the favorite philosophy of a vast array of local bullies, who want to keep the big bully (government) off their backs so they can bully to their hearts’ content."

[sesmo]

OOh, I love the way Noah Smith says that, it's the argument I've been having with libertarianish friends. Do you have a source for it?

[jettakd]

Yup! Here we go:

http://noahpinionblog.blogspot.com/2011/12/liberty-of-local-bullies.html

The other quote is from New York magazine, and I pulled both quotes from the Liberal are Cool tumblr :)

[sesmo]

Thanks. Chait I know how to find, I had never heard of Noah Smith before.

[jettakd]

Oooh, anything else you'd recommend for reading from Chait? I'm actually opposite and have been lurking Noahpinions for awhile XD

[sesmo]

He's at NYMagazine now:

http://nymag.com/author/jonathanchait
http://nymag.com/daily/intel/

He wrote for TNR for a very long time and you can find his older stuff there.

[jettakd]

Thanks :D