GOP Presidential candidate Rand Paul was critical of Black Lives Matter’s recent microphone-grabbing direct actions against politicians but indicated he’d be willing to meet with the group in a civil forum.
The comments came in an interview with Seattle TV station KING 5, and Paul’s answers indicate a naiveté about Black Lives Matter that is common among politicians, who treat the group as if it’s a legitimate political organization that can be reasoned with, instead of the revolutionary, radical Marxist, anti-police movement that the group’s founders have made it repeatedly made clear that it is.
Paul put a libertarian/property rights spin on the argument that Black Lives Matter shouldn’t take others microphones, telling KING:
Do I think it’s a good idea for people to jump up and commandeer the microphone? No, and I wouldn’t let them take my microphone. You know things cost money, and they need to learn that things cost money, and really all lives matter. Someone said that the other day, and then they had to apologize, and it’s like ‘Really? You’re apologizing because you said all lives matter.?’
Paul then pivots in an attempt to find common ground with Black Lives Matter, which makes the assumption that the group is simply concerned about police overreach.
This is the common whitewashing of Black Lives Matter and it ignores the fact that the group pays homage to a wanted Marxist terrorist at every event, has recently chanted “burn everything down!”, have inserted themselves in valid police actions and was instrumental in inciting riots and unrest in Baltimore and Ferguson.
Meanwhile, politicians such as Rand Paul treat the group as a benign force, as these comments indicate:
But I think there are some grievances, and I think the drug war has disproportionately affected black individuals, and I’d be willing to meet with them anytime; I’d be willing to sit and have a forum with them.
Paul finishes his thoughts on Black Lives Matter with a common sense call for civility, but but appears to be unaware that the mic grabbing tactics of Black Lives Matter aren’t forgetful lapses in manners or mere ignorance of social etiquette: they are “direct actions” that a core part of the group’s activist philosophy. Paul told KING:
I’ve been to 10 criminal justice forums that include many African Americans talking about all these same things, but we do it in a civil way. We don’t get up there and grab someone’s microphone and yell at them. And they’re getting attention, but I don’t know if they’re making a good point.
For Black Lives Matter, the attention IS the point. Like the Occupy Wall Street movement that preceded it, it’s the only way they make headline and have any impact at all.
In fact, the Seattle TV station asking Rand Paul about Black Lives Matter in the first place shows that the group’s tactics are working just fine.
The choice of topics news outlet selects to ask a candidate about is a tip off. It’s the first journalistic choice a reporter makes. Asking about Black Lives Matter instead asking about Benghazi or Hillary’s email server or Planned Parenthood sets the table for what a candidate will say.