Politics Vs. Policy.

We have been watching the Rand Paul/Rachel Maddow/Civil Rights Act drama unfold over the past week. For those who have not been paying attention: Paul accepted an interview with Rachel Maddow last Wednesday following his primary victory and was subsequently baited into a conversation about the 1964 Civil Rights Act (the law which outlaws racial discrimination in public places). Paul said that he thought the Act went outside of Congress’s constitutional authority by forbidding discrimination even in privately owned businesses. Basically, Paul argued that stopping the government from discriminating was a legitimate power of Congress, but that stopping private entities from doing so was not. Paul went on to make a comparison to gun rights: He argued that the government should never restrict gun possession, but that if a private business wants to forbid weapons on their property, then they should be allowed to do so.

Our thoughts:

First, this was political amateur hour on Rand Paul’s part. He really messed up by both going on a national, liberal TV show and by playing it straight when he answered that question. Polls released right after the primary showed him with a huge lead over his Democratic opponent. He could probably have taken a Caribbean vacation for the next several months and rolled to victory. The one singular thing he can not afford to do is a have a series of foot-in-the-mouth, over intellectual gaffes like this. Even with a victory in November (which is still very likely), he will have marginalized himself among fellow Republicans. Politics is about more than just winning elections. You need friends to get things done once in office.

Second, from an intellectual and policy perspective everything that Paul said was absolutely correct. Paul, of course, was not at all supporting or condoning racism in any way. He was merely saying that the government should not dictate social conduct standards to private businesses. Or in simpler terms: “let jerks be jerks.” This hands-off approach to governing is exactly what more Republicans need to adopt.

Rand Paul has shown that he “gets” policy. Let us hope he gains a better understanding of politics very quickly.