Why U.S. Senate Nominee Rand Paul’s Comments on Civil Rights Was Unfortunate

Posted by admin on May 27, 2010

Rand Paul’s comment was dead wrong because of how he answered to make it as if he was not 100% against racism. If he was going to answer the question, he should’ve at least answered it in a fashion that was clear, either yes he would’ve voted for the Civil Rights or no that he would not. Although racism is not as big in modern times now like it used to be back in the early to mid 20th century, it will never completely die down and it can still be an issue, especially to people who lived during those days.

However, the public scrutiny from the media’s coverage of his comments should not be as high as they are. He has apologized for his comments and did state that they shouldn’t have been made, at the same time, people should take into consideration that though his comments were wrong, it still is a part of free speech. There are businesses today that won’t serve a customer as much as they would serve another customer due to the color of their skin. The thing that people need to realize is that the news does not cover everything, and they will likely cut out some parts of interviews just to get a negative reaction from the public about a certain topic.

His comment could have not only just hurt his supporters, but it also could have hurt him in running for the senate. Luckily as of right now he’s still able to overcome the scrutiny, but there have been times in the past where one slight slip up from a nominee could have cost him his own future job and as far as this goes, it’ll always in the future come back to haunt him.

I wonder if he was in the UK what our response would be. Would there be the sort of backlash and scrutiny. I wonder, it seems that what is spread over our papers is stories of models and wags and where they have gotten their last breast enlargement pay monthly appointment. Is civil rights really still on our minds? Would there be any serious public outcry, protests, or riots even. Do Brits feel that strongly about civil right? I am sure the minorities do and possibly it would affect those who would protest statements like that.