Ron Paul is the Worst because ... he opposes the Civil Rights Act of 1964!

The passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was a great moment for America. After 100 years of segregation following the Civil War, President Johnson signed into law a bill that made segregation by  government (e.g., schools), at the workplace, and and in public accommodations illegal.

I would have assumed that any candidate running for President in 2012 would support the Civil Rights Act of 1964. But, oh wait, Ron Paul has done it again...

Let's look at Paul's arguments in this video:

1. He was opposed to the portions of the law regulating private conduct (e.g., the workplace and "public accommodations" owned by private companies) because of the "property rights element."

It's important to note as Chris Matthews does that most southern employers refused hire to African American employees and most public accommodations in the south were segregated in 1964. So if the law had passed without regulating private conduct, massive segregation would have remained in the south in 1964.

I find Paul's "property rights" answer extremely unconvincing. Of course, it places some restriction on how someone can use their property if he or she can't discriminate against African Americans. However, the absolute unrestricted use of one's own property is not the only value that we are trying to uphold in American society. Another value is freedom (which Ron Paul talks about a lot). I would posit that southern segregation is a great example of how government is not the only entity that can stop someone from being truly free. When the social norms of an entire society (such as the South from the end of Reconstruction to 1964) inhibit one race of people from being hired by employers or from staying in public accommodations then the freedom of people of that race is being curtailed.

2. No one would discriminate even if there was no 1964 Civil Rights Act.

Discrimination existed for 100 years after the Civil War. The discrimination went away not because "times changed" but because of the specific changes caused by the Civil Rights Act. Ron Paul is playing so dumb here, it's outrageous.   

It's hard for me to believe that Ron Paul even believes what he is saying. Note in the video on the Civil War below, he notes that "hatred lingered" for 100 years after the Civil War, aka 1965. What does he think happened in 1965 that started to make the hatred dissipate? Was it just that magically racism started to decrease? Come on...there is an obvious explanation here for anyone who is not willfully ignorant history.

3. He's not a racist.

Matthews never called him a racist. However, Paul's position shows that he is not dedicated to racial equality. Rather, he is more interested in some abstract absolutist conception of property rights than ensuring racial equality. I find it irritating how quickly Ron Paul screams, "I'm not a racist" when no one has accused him of it. It's a smokescreen to distract from the terrible impact his policies would have on racial equality.

I'd like to end with Hubert Humphrey's words from the 1948 Democratic Convention when he spoke in favor of passing a Civil Rights Act (mostly because I find them moving).

My friends, to those who say that we are rushing this issue of civil rights, I say to them we are 172 years late. To those who say that this civil-rights program is an infringement on states’ rights, I say this: The time has arrived in America for the Democratic Party to get out of the shadow of states' rights and to walk forthrightly into the bright sunshine of human rights. People -- human beings -- this is the issue of the 20th century. People of all kinds -- all sorts of people -- and these people are looking to America for leadership, and they’re looking to America for precept and example.

My good friends, my fellow Democrats, I ask you for a calm consideration of our historic opportunity. Let us do forget the evil passions and the blindness of the past. In these times of world economic, political, and spiritual -- above all spiritual crisis, we cannot and we must not turn from the path so plainly before us. That path has already lead us through many valleys of the shadow of death. And now is the time to recall those who were left on that path of American freedom.

For all of us here, for the millions who have sent us, for the whole two billion members of the human family, our land is now, more than ever before, the last best hope on earth. And I know that we can, and I know that we shall began [sic] here the fuller and richer realization of that hope, that promise of a land where all men are truly free and equal, and each man uses his freedom and equality wisely well.