Actually it makes world of a difference.
Only to the question of whether Paul is personally racist, and not to the relevant question (i.e., "will Paul's policies hinder or advance racism?").
If you believe people have the right to eat at any restaurant they want-
It's interesting that you'd select that particular example, as the Civil Rights Act that Paul opposes was (is) crucial in allowing people to exercise exactly the right to eat at any restaurant they want - and not just that subset which allows people of their particular race to eat there.
Do you believe that people have the right to eat at any restaurant they want? If so, then why are you advocating legislative changes that would prevent millions of people from eating at the restaurants of their choice, on the basis of their race?
Do you think that businesses have a right to discriminate on the basis of race?
Yes people might do stupid things with their freedom that doesn't mean you endorse their stupidity.
The point was exactly that whether Paul personally endorses the stupidity is beside the point - the question is whether his policies advance or impede said stupidity. If you care about stupidity being impeded, then his policies suck.
He doesn't support 'racial discrimination'- he supports property rights.
"Property rights" in the exact sense of the right to discriminate in hiring and other business interactions based on race, that is.
People have the right to do with their property what they want.
Not if what they want to do infringes on the rights of others. For example, the basic right of everyone not to face race-based discrimination in employment or provision of services. No?
Now what they choose to do with it is their problem.
To the extent that it remains strictly their problem, I agree. But people who want to discriminate on the basis of race are making it a problem for other people.
If you support gay rights, then you must be gay?
If you misread my post this badly - literally, taking it to mean the exact opposite of what it says - then you must have poor reading comprehension.
No. And the only reason I would support gay rights is not because I believe it is right, it is because I have no right to tell others how to live THEIR life.
Then why are you supporting the repeal of legislation that restricts people from telling others how to live THEIR lives? I.e., preventing people of the "wrong" race from getting a job, or enjoying a lunch, etc.
If I want to hate Nazi's I have the right to do so. If I want to hate whites I have the right to do so. You can't 'make' me like people. Freedom of Choice. I should have the right to choose who I want to mingle with, who I want to make as friends.
And nothing in the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prevents anyone from doing that.
What it does, is prevent them from discriminating on the basis of race (and a few other criteria) in hiring and provision of goods and services.
The thing is that businesses aren't strictly "private" property in the way that, say, your house is. You don't have to allow black people into your home, if you don't want to. But if you're going to run a business - and so, utilize public spaces like roads and sidewalks, and myriad public services besides - then you're going to have to respect everyone else's rights to participate in that facet of our public life, without discrimination on the basis of race, gender, etc.
This simple dichotomy of "private property" misleads when taken to such extremes. There is nothing particularly "private" about, say, the major employer in a small town deciding he isn't going to hire black people. That isn't a decision with effect confined strictly to that one person - it strongly effects the entire town. You may have the right to personally harbor racist views, but you do not have the right to impose that on the larger community through racist business practices.
Someone wiser than myself once noted the following about Libertarians: what makes them unique isn't that they value freedom and liberty.
Everyone values those things. What makes Libertarians unique is that they don't really appreciate what those things mean, nor how they relate to anything else.
