Ed Reinke / AP Photo
One day into Rand Paul’s campaign and he already has a controversy on his hands: The Republican Senate nominee from Kentucky suggested in an interview with NPR that he would have opposed the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which outlawed discrimination in public places and the workplace. Paul believes that private businesses should be allowed to discriminate by race, should they so choose. Paul stood by his remarks in an interview with Rachel Maddow, saying “Does the owner of the restaurant own his restaurant? Or does the government own his restaurant? These are important philosophical debates but not a very practical discussion.” Maddow retorted: “Well, it was pretty practical to the people who had the life nearly beaten out of them trying to desegregate Walgreen's lunch counters despite these esoteric debates about what it means about ownership.”