Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) wants Americans to know that there’s absolutely no way that the raft of voter suppression bills being passed in Republican-led states is the same as the Jim Crow laws that existed in the Deep South 50 years ago. After all, he insists, the Jim Crow laws were passed by Democrats.
Speaking to Fox host Maria Bartiromo on Sunday, Paul angrily exclaimed:
“I’m still having trouble fathoming the hysteria that came from Coca-Cola and Delta and Major League Baseball over the Georgia bill. We passed virtually the same bill in Kentucky. It was signed by a Democrat governor and it was lauded as actually expanding access because we expanded early voting in the same way they did in Georgia.”
What Paul failed to note is that the new Georgia law makes it much more difficult for people to vote absentee or that fact that the law is aimed at people of color.
The Kentucky senator then went on his rant about Jim Crow laws:
“To hear all these Democrats shouting Jim Crow, Jim Crow — do they not realize the history of the Democrat [sic] Party was Jim Crow, that not any god-fearing Republican voted for Jim Crow. That Jim Crow throughout the South was done by Democrat [sic] legislators, that the people who were beating up John Lewis and pummeling him on the bridge in Selma were all Democrats?”
Instead of addressing the rampant racism in his own party, Paul continued his unhinged babbling:
“I, for one, am sick and tired of Democrats. They need to apologize for their history. They need to apologize for foisting Jim Crow on the country. And they need to read the bill in Georgia and realize it has nothing to do with keeping people from voting.”
Oh, and all those corporations who oppose the Georgia law are also to blame in Sen. Paul’s upside-down view of the world:
“Delta and Coca-Cola and Major League Baseball need to realize that about half of the country is Republicans and we’re not very happy with them right now. So if they don’t want Republicans at the baseball games, if they don’t want us to tune in to their baseball games on television, just keep behaving this way.
“People like me who love baseball don’t like being called a racist by Major League Baseball, don’t like Delta and Coca-Cola calling us that. And we’re going to object to it and going to push back. And if they continue in this direction, fine, maybe Republicans don’t have to drink Coca-Cola anymore.”
No one cares if Rand Paul or any Republican ever drinks another Coke or watches a baseball game. And he’s so ignorant of history that he forgets Democrats have apologized for Jim Crow and also nominated both Barack Obama and Kamala Harris. How many people of color have the Republicans nominated to run for the presidency? None.
Before Rand Paul asks Democrats to take the speck out of their eye, he needs to remove the beam from his own.
Here’s the video:
Featured Image Via Screenshot
