The many lessons of the Rand Paul "controversy."

Jacob Hornberger has written a great response to the liberal attacks on Rand Paul’s politically incorrect statements about Article II of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which bars private businesses from discriminating on the basis of race.

Writes Hornberger,

Suppose a certain white homeowner in a community publicly announces that he is holding a weekly TGIF cocktail party at his home every Friday night. He publicly invites everyone who lives within a one-mile radius of his home to his parties, but with a big exception. He says: Blacks and Jews are not invited and will not be permitted into his home.

How would libertarians respond? We would say that that man has every right in the world to take that position. We might criticize him, we might condemn him, we might ignore him, we might boycott his parties. But we would defend his right to discriminate against anyone he wants, as a matter of principle. After all, we would argue, it’s his home — his private property. To paraphrase Voltaire, we might not agree with how he uses his property, but we would defend his right to use it any way he wants. That’s what private ownership and a free society are all about.

The Hypocrisy of the State

The irony of the state is that its chief political actors want us to think of them as individuals. This is hardly surprising -- they are people, after all, and beholden to the same proclivities and social desires as is the rest of humanity.

The current head head of state, Barack Obama, likewise wants us to think of him as an individual. Someone who screws up sometimes, but loves his wife and beautiful children. Someone who abused drugs in the past, but has managed to become a responsible and effective member of society.

While many people are appreciate the personal nature of much of what politicians tell them, I am disgusted by it. Disgusted by the hypocrisy of a president who wants us to get to know and appreciate the family he undoubtedly loves, but dehumanizes the voiceless Afghan child he murders as expendable "collateral damage."  Disgusted by the hypocrisy of a government which shackles and kidnaps people for making the same nonviolent mistake its sanctified leader did. Disgusted by the hypocrisy of a state that only seems to consider its power players, and those in cahoots with them, as fully human.

Hypocritical Media Drones and suckups to the state

Apart from a hysterically PC, anti-Ron Paul, "cosmo" clique, most libertarians tend to prioritize individualism over the groups we happen to belong to. Like the right, we thus look down upon the state's efforts to combat petty sexism and racism through, well, MORE sexism and racism.

But Glenn Greenwald's blog  accurately points out the intellectual shallowness of many opponents of affirmative action on "the right," in the context of NBC's hiring of former President Bush's daughter. So unprincipled are mainstream politicians and pundits that they are willing to abandon all of their good ideals (like, "the best qualified person should get the job, period") in order to cover for the personality cult or political party that they worship. In this case, "the right" has largely failed to criticize the obvious nepotism behind the hiring of Mrs. Hager.

As Greenwald notes, Liz Cheney, Megan McCain and Bill Kristol make up more than enough MSM nepotism already. All in all, it's obvious that the media, even the supposedly "liberal," "anti-war," NBC News, is totally in cahoots with the state.

(Thanks to Glenn Greenwald's blog for the link)