"That was misreported," [Rand] Paul said. "I asked them, 'Do you know?' and I didn't know the answer. This is my first time to go to a historically black college."D'ya think if I were a U.S. Senator and went to a Jewish school (or someplace where I could expect highly knowledgeable people) and asked if they all knew Jesus was Jewish (as was Mary. I had a professor in seminary who told the story of being a tour guide while a graduate student at Notre Dame. When visiting families would ask who the figure was atop the main building, he'd reply: "Oh, a nice Jewish girl."), that people would expect me to know they would know that?
"People say, 'Well, you should know the answer.' Well, that was part of the reason for going there, was I didn't know the answer," he said. "I said, 'Did they all know that the NAACP was founded by Republicans?' And in retrospect it sounds like it is a dumb question, but it's like, Republicans haven't been going to Howard for 20 years, so maybe by me going there I did learn something. And I did learn that everybody there knows, and I left there knowing that: Everybody there knows."
Would they be right to think it was mighty condescending of me to assume that this was secret knowledge I was about to spring on them?
"It's unfair what the media tries to do to me on this," Paul added, according to the report. "I'm a little sensitive to some of it."I'm sure you are. You have my sympathies. Now get off the public stage. You clearly don't belong there.
Scary thought for the day, he's got an MD from Duke University and had a medical practice.
ReplyDeleteTruly not all of the entitled idiots come from New England Ivy League schools, though many of them do.
Knowledge and wisdom, as Socrates understood, are two very different things.
ReplyDeleteThe truth is that Rand Paul could have gone to Howard and engaged the students in a dialogue. He could have sat with them in a circle and said, "Hey, I would like you guys to vote Republican because I think my party has the vision that is superior for America and I'd like to hear why you generally don't vote Republican and what kind of common ground we can reach for changing that."
ReplyDeleteAnd that would have been an example of true outreach and a visit worth of respect.
But instead he showed up at their door lectured them on a version of African-American history in which Republicans were cast as absolute moral champions, "white" knights whose rescue of the blacks earned them only ingratitude and rejection. This was followed by a series of politically and economically poor choices by blacks which has lasted to to this day, presumably because they are morally weak, and Rand was there to offer them a way out.
His lecture implied that his party was historically innocent of any wrongdoing in the subjugation of blacks (!). He further assured them that Republicans had the solutions to their problems ("millions of jobs!" "equality of opportunity!") and that blacks just needed to come around and realize that if they wanted to be free of government dependence. His efforts at pressing them to raise their consciousness about the emancipatory truth of Republican party politics was a spectacle worthy of the most ardent Marxist - or the worst door-to-door salesman. The fact that he is any way flummoxed about his reception tells us volumes more about the unconscious racism and ignorance of Rand Paul than it does about politics, history, or the students at Howard.
Windhorse
Rand Paul's audience wasn't the one in attendance at Howard University. Rand Paul's audience was the Republican base, so he could reinforce their belief that they are a persecuted minority.
ReplyDelete@Sherri: I believe you are correct. Which just adds to the awful cynicism of the whole endeavor.
ReplyDeleteWindhorse
I think Sherri is right, too.
ReplyDeleteWhich means the problem is, Rand Paul went to Howard University to lecture them on African-American history.
Not to discredit the valid insights of Windhorse.
But Paul was wrong from the start.
Rand Paul is an example of Kakacracy: government by the worst.
ReplyDeleteRepublican party politics was a spectacle worthy of the most ardent Marxist - Windhorse
ReplyDeleteWell, we all know about the intellectual history of the neo-con movement. But in terms of paleo-cons and more libertarian right-wingers, let us not forget that the end result of communism, according to Engels, was a withering away of the state, which sounds pretty libertarian, dontcha think?