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If You Have To Explain It In More Than A Sound Bite, You Probably Shouldn't Say It
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Far be it from me to defend Rand Paul for his statements on discrimination and the Civil Rights Act, but here's the thing: I went to law school, and in law school, we discussed the difference between public and private action. And, yes, the issue of whether discrimination laws, like free speech laws, apply to private actors was raised and debated. The Civil Rights Act, in particular, has given rise to a lot of give-and-take about whether a church, say, can discriminate, or a private homeowner selling a house in a purely private transaction. But those discussions are all theoretical. They're what libertarians talk about when they parse the law and talk about laws that apply to government action. But they're not what a political candidate is supposed to say. Life, and politics, aren't a theoretical discussion of the intricacies of civil law. You'd think a guy who's running for the Senate would know that, even under the context in which he made his comments.
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