Kentucky Senator Rand Paul is a popular man in his district and unseating him is going to be a steep uphill battle. Paul is a pretty straight shooter who can often be found embarrassing those who seek to take advantage of the people or ignore their rights. Paul’s work during the pandemic in uncovering the truth about everything from the hypocrisy of the Democrats to the lies of Dr. Anthony Fauci will go down in history as some of his greatest moments while in office.
Paul looks like a hero to much of his constituency, and defeating him would require divorcing people from that sentiment. If you’re a Democrat, how do you do that?
The same way Democrats try to defeat everyone nowadays…you call them racists. That’s what Paul’s challenger Charles Booker is doing, but he’s taking it to a very bizarre level.
Booker released a new ad for his campaign that attempted to paint Paul as a man who is for lynching people, specifically black Americans. In the ad, Booker can be seen talking to a camera with a noose around his neck as he tells the story of how black people were hung by the neck due to racism. At one point, Paul voted against an anti-lynching law and Booker makes sure the viewer knows that.
Lynching is a tool of terror. It was used to kill hopes for freedom. In Kentucky, it was used to kill three of my uncles.
In this historic election, the choice is clear. Rand Paul may want to divide us, but hate won’t win this time.
It’s time to move forward, together. pic.twitter.com/oYxuqKFdWR
— Charles Booker (@Booker4KY) June 1, 2022
If you were to just go off of Booker’s ad, you would think Paul is a horrible person. Even with the ridiculous visual of Booker in a noose pushing the ad into try-hard territory, Paul still comes off pretty badly. Booker even mentions that Paul said he’d oppose the Civil Rights Act.
The issue is that Booker doesn’t actually go into why Paul voted against the anti-lynching bill, or why he said he’d oppose the Civil Rights Act, but interestingly, USA Today did and it makes it clear that Booker is (and this may shock you) exaggerating about his opponents positions and racist character.
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According to USA Today, Paul actually praised the Civil Rights Act but due to his libertarian beliefs, didn’t like the idea that private business owners could be told what they can and can’t do by the government:
“I abhor racism. I think it’s a bad business decision to ever exclude anybody from your restaurant, but at the same time I do believe in private ownership,” said Paul, who went on to be elected to the Senate for the first time later that year. “But I think there should be absolutely no discrimination in anything that gets any public funding, and that’s most of what the Civil Rights Act was about, to my mind.”
It’s actually a very common position held by both the right and members of the left. While he opposed the government meddling in the private affairs of American business owners, he stressed on multiple occasions that he does support the Civil Rights Act.
So Booker was actually lying here.
But the anti-lynching legislation is Booker’s main focus, and as USA Today highlighted, Booker isn’t even telling half the story:
Paul placed a hold on the original Emmett Till Antilynching Act in 2020 and later sought unanimous consent from the Senate for an amended version of the bill that he indicated would ensure it didn’t apply to crimes that resulted in relatively minor injuries like bruises and cuts.
…
At the time, Paul said lynching is “a tool of terror that claimed the lives of nearly 5,000 Americans between 1881 and 1968” and defended his stance on the bill, saying: “I seek to amend this legislation, not because I take it or I take lynching lightly, but because I take it seriously — and this legislation does not.”
Paul went on to submit his own proposal called the Marie Thomspon Antilynching Act in 2021 which did not advance in congress either. Eventually, he co-sponsored a new version of the Emmett Till Antilycning Act with Sens. Cory Booker of New Jersey and Tim Scott of South Carolina.
Again, we can see how Booker’s ad is way off base and that Paul isn’t the monster he wants to convince Kentucky voters that he is. In the end, this is way more embarrassing for Booker than it will be damaging for Paul. The only people who are going to believe Booker’s claims are the ones who really, really want to.
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