by Alexander Massa

Created on: May 25, 2010

Simply because a person is an opponent of a certain piece of legislation, that does not make him a racist. Rand Paul's statement in opposition to the 1964 Civil Rights Amendment does not make him racist, it makes him the opponent of a piece of legislation. Nothing less, nothing more. Calling Paul a racist for his opposition of the bill would be like saying that anyone who votes against a war appropriations bill wants our troops to die. That, of course, would be an outrageous lie. Likewise, so is this.

Many are criticizing Paul because he stated that although he abhorred and was personally opposed to any and all forms of racial (or other types of) discrimination, he believes that private enterprises should have the right to engage in it, if they so choose. That is a viewpoint that is Constitutionally sound - claiming that private businesses do not have a right to discriminate is just plain foolish, and it is probably not very Constitutional, either. It is all well and good that the government banned discrimination in public places and in government. That is something we all - you, me, and Rand - all support. However, liberals seem to be incapable of seeing the distinction between public and private - between what is mine and what belongs to the government.

If I own a store and only want to serve a particular strata of society or a certain element of our population, I should have the right to. If I want to refuse service to blacks, as a privately owned and operated establishment, I should be able to. Likewise, black owned storefronts should have the power to deny service to whites. The same goes for Hispanics, Asians, and all other racial and ethnic groups. Now, simply because I believe people have the right to discriminate against others does not mean that I condone it personally or that I would practice it if given the chance. I would not. I am neither racist nor bigoted, and I've no problem at all with other races and nationalities.I simply believe that if you are, you should have the right to act that way on your own property.

And besides, we all know, in our hearts, that such establishments would be punished by the market for their foolhardy behavior. A restaurant that only caters to whites won't have as large of a profit as another restaurant that serves all races. Many, in the mad drive for money, would throw to the wayside their personal prejudices in hopes of earning greater profits. Ultimately, this comes down to a question of liberty. On private property, do you believe you have the right to discriminate against anyone or anything? I believe so, as does Paul. We are all opposed to public or government sanctioned discrimination. But private property is just that - private. It's about time the government minds it's own business!

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