Rachel Maddow's excellent interview of Kentucky GOP/Tea Party Senate Candidate Rand Paul was far more illuminating than Paul would like us to think.  (I would refer you as well to Bob Cesca's excellent article on the matter.)  Paul says that he opposes racial discrimination, that he abhors racism.  His objections to the Civil Rights Act of 1964, he would have us believe, stem only from those clauses in the bill that relate to private business.  So while he would never support allowing the government to discriminate on the basis of race, or gender, or religion, or disability, or sexual orientation, he also opposes allowing government to tell private enterprise what it can and can't do.  But he's no racist.

Maybe not.  But he is a Libertarian, just like his Dad, Texas Congressman and former Presidential Candidate Ron Paul.  He supports limited government, and favors privatization of a broad range of institutions and social services currently administered by the government.  So ultimately, if he had his way, it's conceivable that our National Parks, our social service administrations -- like Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid -- even our public education system could be privatized and put in the hands of private businesses.  Private businesses like those he thinks should be exempted from the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

School systems that are designated as "Whites Only"?  A privatized Social Security Administration that refuses payments to gays and lesbians?  Medicare that excludes people with disabilities?  Rand Paul would tell you that none of this would ever happen.  He'd tell you that liberals are out to distort his words and his record.  He'd tell you once again that he's no racist.  But if you take his statements on the Civil Rights Act -- his own words -- and you combine them with his Libertarian views, what you get is an America none of us would ever want to see.

Think about it.