Rand Paul, racial healer
by digby
Rand Paul has a long history of close relationships with neo-confederates and racists (One of whom is his own father) but he’s been reaching out to the black community in recent times trying to create an image of someone who really cares. I think that’s nice.
But what do you suppose are the libertarian solutions to the ongoing, structural, institutional racism that has permeated our culture since its inception and which remains the fetid, infectious boil on the American body politic? Well …
“We lower the taxes on the business people so they hire more people.”
There is literally no problem on earth that lowering taxes on business people will not solve.
Oh, and by the way, the criminal justice reform he and the Koch brothers are touting? Uh, not quite what it seems, I’m sorry to say:
Charles Koch, the company’s chairman and CEO, has said he became interested in criminal-justice reform after a grand jury’s 1995 indictment of a Koch refinery in Texas for 97 felony violations of environmental law. The company spent six years fighting the charges and eventually settled with the government for $10 million.
Sure, they may end up helping some poor people, especially African Americans, who are caught in the maw of our unjust prison industrial complex. As I said earlier, at this point, that may be the best we can hope for. But let’s not kid ourselves about what they really care about.
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