Uglytown

I took up arms and had a protracted Facebook battle with a young midwest libertarian this week over Rand Paul and the new conservative cause celebre, the right of private individuals to discriminate. I copy a portion of his last salvo.


"The conflict between protecting the 1st Amend.'s freedom of association vis-a-vis private discrimination, that's where the heart of the problem lies, no? It is a values choice. I have no problem saying I value personal liberty above equality. Without that primacy, I would argue, there can never be equality." 


I am not going into our back and forth, but my general point was that society does not have the luxury of tolerating this kind of discrimination and waiting for their precious "market" to sort it all out, e.g., let's say all the apartment owners decide not to rent to Hungarians or gays or atheists or blacks or jews, it becomes real problematic.

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It seems to me that we are getting uglier as a society and real fast. The right is pandering to the most vile, racist elements for votes. Here in California and across the land, social programs for the young, the old, the infirm and the mentally ill are the first to be cut, the free market darwinists suggesting that they rely on charity while the upper 1% and Wall St. run amok with their obscene profits and bailouts.

I saw a truck this morning with Resist Obama painted on the window, only the "o" was a hammer and sickle. I would wager that the driver couldn't identify Marx if you spotted him Harpo and Zeppo.  Now Sarah Palin is insisting that Obama is a tool for big oil, you couldn't imagine the delicious irony in her audacity and stupidity, she being the biggest whore for crude the country has seen in some time.

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Hispanics are obviously the current "vogue" target. Here is a somewhat dated clip of a man who wants to ban spanish speaking in parks in Tennessee.
There was a letter to the local rag a few weeks ago from a Fallbrookian named Lowery who wants all  latinos deported, regardless of immigration status.  Now, the truth is that deportations in the hot state of Arizona are up this year and crossings are slightly down, but facts be damned, we have to stop the brown skinned invader. Just as soon as he is finished raking the gravel around the cactus, that is.

Of course, stoking up the flames of racist hysteria is a tried and true winner with the native population here in the U.S. of A.  Worked with Father Coughlin and Buchanan and Maddox and a host of other grand elocutionists. The chinese, irish, italians, jews, blacks, they all had their turn in the stocks. We need a fall guy and now the mexicans are looking pretty convenient. 

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I know that I am an anachronistic peace and love throwback and what I think doesn't count, but so much of the current political argument does not meet the most basic civility and decency smell test. I am not a follower of the man from Gallilee with the sandals and the merry men, but I would hazard a guess that he would be appalled at the behavior of his minions. What kind of society do we wish to live in? Does your first amendment granted personal liberty to be an end times seeking, racist, xenophobic, polluter always have to trump my vision of a society where people treat each other with decency, you know the way they tried to teach us in the sandbox at kindergarten? Rhetorical question.