# Rand Paul: Great White Hunter tries to educate students at Howard U. about Republican Party **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [April 13, 2013, 2:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rand-paul-great-white-hunter-tries-to-educate-students-at-howard-u-about-republican-party/655563 "2013-04-13T02:36:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2013, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rand-paul-great-white-hunter-tries-to-educate-students-at-howard-u-about-republican-party/655563/81 "2013-04-15T23:37:46Z")
But Sen. Aqua Buddha [had to add this today](http://www.courier-journal.com/article/20130412/NEWS010603/304120103/Rand-Paul-tells-black-crowd-Simmons-College-Kentucky-GOP-not-hostile-civil-rights-?gcheck=1&nclick_check=1): > [@](#): > > Paul acknowledged criticism for the speech he gave at Howard University Wednesday, saying, “I think some think a white person is not allowed to talk about black history … which I think is unfair.” No, if a white person talks to blacks about black history as if he’s telling them something they don’t already know, _he’d better have his shit together and be telling them things they don’t already know._ And not skip over the last 50 years of the history of the parties with respect to race relations, which pretty much everybody, black and white, IS aware of, as if it didn’t matter compared to the racism of a prominent Democrat who died in 1919. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2013, 11:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rand-paul-great-white-hunter-tries-to-educate-students-at-howard-u-about-republican-party/655563/82 "2013-04-15T23:58:07Z")
> [@RTFirefly](#): > > But Sen. Aqua Buddha [had to add this today](http://www.courier-journal.com/article/20130412/NEWS010603/304120103/Rand-Paul-tells-black-crowd-Simmons-College-Kentucky-GOP-not-hostile-civil-rights-?gcheck=1&nclick_check=1): > No, if a white person talks to blacks about black history as if he’s telling them something they don’t already know, _he’d better have his shit together and be telling them things they don’t already know._ And not skip over the last 50 years of the history of the parties with respect to race relations, which pretty much everybody, black and white, IS aware of, as if it didn’t matter compared to the racism of a prominent Democrat who died in 1919. Well, he has to work with what he’s got, and . . . what else has he got? ---
**Author:** ![enomaj](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/59ef9b/32.png) [@enomaj](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enomaj)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2013, 1:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rand-paul-great-white-hunter-tries-to-educate-students-at-howard-u-about-republican-party/655563/83 "2013-04-16T01:09:34Z")
> [@RTFirefly](#): > > Hardly the case, of course, but lemme turn the mike over to former Howard student [Ta-Nehisi Coates](http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2013/04/the-journey-to-mecca/274980/): Next time I’ll include a smiley. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2013, 1:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rand-paul-great-white-hunter-tries-to-educate-students-at-howard-u-about-republican-party/655563/84 "2013-04-16T01:51:54Z")
> [@enomaj](#): > > Next time I’ll include a smiley. 😃 Oh, I knew you were being facetious; I just thought it was a good jumping-off place to mention that Howard students did have a nontrivial black-studies requirement, and so forth. Hope you didn’t mind. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Ibn\_Warraq](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/e19b73/32.png) [@Ibn\_Warraq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ibn_Warraq)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2013, 2:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rand-paul-great-white-hunter-tries-to-educate-students-at-howard-u-about-republican-party/655563/85 "2013-04-16T02:29:37Z")
> [@RTFirefly](#): > > But Sen. Aqua Buddha [had to add this today](http://www.courier-journal.com/article/20130412/NEWS010603/304120103/Rand-Paul-tells-black-crowd-Simmons-College-Kentucky-GOP-not-hostile-civil-rights-?gcheck=1&nclick_check=1): > No, if a white person talks to blacks about black history as if he’s telling them something they don’t already know, _he’d better have his shit together and be telling them things they don’t already know._ And not skip over the last 50 years of the history of the parties with respect to race relations, which pretty much everybody, black and white, IS aware of, as if it didn’t matter compared to the racism of a prominent Democrat who died in 1919. Moreover, to paraphrase the guy you’re referring to. If a Senator is going to go to a college founded by some prominent 19th Century Republicans where all the students are required to take courses in African-American history he shouldn’t be shocked to discover they’re all well aware that without a single exception all the founders were Republicans. Hell, they all probably knew that Martin Luther King Sr. and Jackie Robinson were Republicans before switching in 1960 and 1964 respectfully. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2013, 2:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rand-paul-great-white-hunter-tries-to-educate-students-at-howard-u-about-republican-party/655563/86 "2013-04-16T02:34:29Z")
I have to ask: _Why_ Senator Aqua-Buddha? ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2013, 2:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rand-paul-great-white-hunter-tries-to-educate-students-at-howard-u-about-republican-party/655563/87 "2013-04-16T02:41:56Z")
Give Paul credit for venturing outside his bubble of Comfortable Conservative Truths, at least. It does remain to be seen if it will sink it that they’re not all truths, and that those that are are badly incomplete. ---
**Author:** ![Dangerosa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/22d042/32.png) [@Dangerosa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dangerosa)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2013, 3:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rand-paul-great-white-hunter-tries-to-educate-students-at-howard-u-about-republican-party/655563/88 "2013-04-16T03:00:07Z")
> [@ElvisL1ves](#): > > Give Paul credit for venturing outside his bubble of Comfortable Conservative Truths, at least. It does remain to be seen if it will sink it that they’re not all truths, and that those that are are badly incomplete. Did he? I think he stayed in his bubble, he just tried to expand the bubbleverse to well educated, intelligent young adults attending Howard. Had he ventured outside his bubble, he would have acknowledged that what the Republican party did sixty years ago, and what they’ve done in the last decade, do not bear equal weight. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2013, 3:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rand-paul-great-white-hunter-tries-to-educate-students-at-howard-u-about-republican-party/655563/89 "2013-04-16T03:09:31Z")
> [@kaylasdad99](#): > > I have to ask: _Why_ Senator Aqua-Buddha? [Because.](http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/10/17/rand-paul-attacked-over-s_n_765674.html) > [@](#): > > The strangest episode of Paul’s time at Baylor occurred one afternoon in 1983 (although memories about all of these events are understandably a bit hazy, so the date might be slightly off), when he and a NoZe brother paid a visit to a female student who was one of Paul’s teammates on the Baylor swim team. According to this woman, who requested anonymity because of her current job as a clinical psychologist, “He and Randy came to my house, they knocked on my door, and then they blindfolded me, tied me up, and put me in their car. They took me to their apartment and tried to force me to take bong hits. They’d been smoking pot.” After the woman refused to smoke with them, Paul and his friend put her back in their car and drove to the countryside outside of Waco, where they stopped near a creek. “They told me their god was ‘Aqua Buddha’ and that I needed to bow down and worship him,” the woman recalls. “They blindfolded me and made me bow down to ‘Aqua Buddha’ in the creek. I had to say, ‘I worship you Aqua Buddha, I worship you.’ At Baylor, there were people actively going around trying to save you and we had to go to chapel, so worshiping idols was a big no-no.” [See also.](http://uncyclopedia.wikia.com/wiki/Aqua_Buddhism) ---
**Author:** ![brickbacon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/898d66/32.png) [@brickbacon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brickbacon)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2013, 3:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rand-paul-great-white-hunter-tries-to-educate-students-at-howard-u-about-republican-party/655563/90 "2013-04-16T03:34:27Z")
> [@RTFirefly](#): > > Apparently you can’t make sense of: > Can’t help you with that. Hey dumbfuck, how many times do we need to rehash this same point. Yes, the GOP has to broaden their appeal; specifically they need more minority voters. The problem with your stance is two-fold: 1. Rand Paul, a Kentucky senator, accepting an invitation to a moderately covered event to speak to a largely Black group in Washington DC does not help him in any appreciable way. It doesn’t help him survive, nor does it do much for the party itself. It’s a near certainty that the audience cannot and will not vote for him. Furthermore, the only reason we are discussing this is because the media decided to cover it more due to it being a epic failure. If Paul really felt he or the GOP really NEEDED more Black votes, he would not have gone to an HBCU whose audience would be both young and overwhelming democratic. In DC, a republican couldn’t get elected as dog catcher. His speech wasn’t effective targeted outreach, it was an olive branch. He didn’t need to do it, and it was always more likely to blow up in his face than to be successful. If hs main goal was more minority votes, he would gone to a Black church, or to a ROTC event, or to any number of targeted audiences that would have been more receptive to his message. Given that he likely knew that, I think he deserves a small bit of credit. 2. You cannot hold that such outreach is in actuality a slick way to solidify their current base by firing up bigoted voters who get angry seeing a republican booed by Black people, AND that it is a sincere effort to get Black votes. Even ignoring that it is the dumbest strategy of all time, those to aims work against one another seeing as if you give a speech that causes the audience to boo you, you are likely not gonna ever get your vote. And before you try to make some distinction about only Romney having to get booed by the NAACP so that rednecks would vote for him, please realize that it doesn’t even make sense for him to do that. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2013, 3:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rand-paul-great-white-hunter-tries-to-educate-students-at-howard-u-about-republican-party/655563/91 "2013-04-16T03:53:26Z")
Rand Paul went to Baylor? What, the admission standards at Texas A&M were too high? ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2013, 4:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rand-paul-great-white-hunter-tries-to-educate-students-at-howard-u-about-republican-party/655563/92 "2013-04-16T04:19:00Z")
> [@brickbacon](#): > > . . . You cannot hold that such outreach is in actuality a slick way to solidify their current base by firing up bigoted voters who get angry seeing a republican booed by Black people, AND that it is a sincere effort to get Black votes. . . . It was most likely something he can fraudulently wave around to impress undecided voters in the middle. It was a big show, a pretense. That he bungled it only shows how deeply ignorant the sap really is. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2013, 4:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rand-paul-great-white-hunter-tries-to-educate-students-at-howard-u-about-republican-party/655563/93 "2013-04-16T04:40:45Z")
Its kind of like that stereotype of the stupid American abroad, who seems to think that if he just speaks English loud enough and slowly, he will be understood. He has been told so often that his ideas are brilliant and ground-breaking, he’s come to believe it. And that all he has to do is lay them out clearly enough, and all reasonable people will agree. He’s also burdened with a reputation as a math-addled budget wonk, based on little more than a fervent faith in libertarian economics. Same sort of deep dish batshit pizza that Poppy Bush described as “voodoo economics”. I don’t think he’s a stupid person, I think he’s a mildly bright person pretending to be brilliant, which in the real world only works if you have tenure. ---
**Author:** ![Measure\_for\_Measure](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/measure_for_measure/32/557_2.png) [@Measure\_for\_Measure](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Measure_for_Measure)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2013, 4:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rand-paul-great-white-hunter-tries-to-educate-students-at-howard-u-about-republican-party/655563/94 "2013-04-16T04:49:50Z")
> [@ElvisL1ves](#): > > Give Paul credit for venturing outside his bubble of Comfortable Conservative Truths, at least. It does remain to be seen if it will sink it that they’re not all truths, and that those that are are badly incomplete. Rand Paul thought that he could simply deliver his CPAC bullshit at Howard University and got his head summarily handed to him. > [@BrainGlutton](#): > > Well, he has to work with what he’s got, and . . . what else has he got? Actually, he has a fair amount to work with. As a Libertarian he could talk about the failed war on drugs and the resulting disproportionate black incarceration. You could _remind_ the listeners of the Republican’s former commitment to civil rights, as opposed to framing it as an amazing little-known fact (it’s not). You could rail on pointless foreign wars and the budget deficit: there are plenty of African Americans who share these concerns and will give that a respectful hearing. What you shouldn’t do is lie through your teeth about your comments on the Civil Rights Act, as Rand Paul did. That won’t fly at Howard and it won’t earn the respect of anyone capable of using google or wikipedia. h/t and quite frankly wholesale borrowing: the consistently awesome Ta-Nehisi Coates of The Atlantic magazine. > **[The Limits of Good Faith](https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2013/04/the-limits-of-good-faith/275001/)** > > Having gotten his ass kicked at Howard, Rand Paul's answer is to not to reflect but to make an allegation of racial discrimination. > **[The Journey to Mecca](https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2013/04/the-journey-to-mecca/274980/)** > > Rand Paul deserves credit for speaking at Howard University. But one reason the reaction has been critical is that black liberals have high expectations for him. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2013, 4:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rand-paul-great-white-hunter-tries-to-educate-students-at-howard-u-about-republican-party/655563/95 "2013-04-16T04:52:43Z")
Sad to think how many people, you say _The Atlantic_, and they think of an ocean. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2013, 5:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rand-paul-great-white-hunter-tries-to-educate-students-at-howard-u-about-republican-party/655563/96 "2013-04-16T05:15:10Z")
> [@brickbacon](#): > > His speech wasn’t effective targeted outreach, it was an olive branch. No. If it had been coupled with a promise to do something in the future (1) beneficial to the African-American community and (2) significantly different from what the GOP has done before 'cos let’s face it, **then** it might have been an olive branch. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2013, 5:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rand-paul-great-white-hunter-tries-to-educate-students-at-howard-u-about-republican-party/655563/97 "2013-04-16T05:21:20Z")
> [@elucidator](#): > > Rand Paul went to Baylor? What, the admission standards at Texas A&M were too high? So then there was the Aggie whose girlfriend told him to do it where it’s dirty and nasty. So he drove her to Beaumont. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2013, 5:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rand-paul-great-white-hunter-tries-to-educate-students-at-howard-u-about-republican-party/655563/98 "2013-04-16T05:25:28Z")
> [@Measure\_for\_Measure](#): > > Rand Paul thought that he could simply deliver his CPAC bullshit at Howard University and got his head summarily handed to him. . . . > Actually, he has a fair amount to work with. As a Libertarian he could talk about the failed war on drugs and the resulting disproportionate black incarceration. You could _remind_ the listeners of the Republican’s former commitment to civil rights, as opposed to framing it as an amazing little-known fact (it’s not). You could rail on pointless foreign wars and the budget deficit: there are plenty of African Americans who share these concerns and will give that a respectful hearing. > > What you shouldn’t do is lie through your teeth about your comments on the Civil Rights Act, as Rand Paul did. That won’t fly at Howard and it won’t earn the respect of anyone capable of using google or wikipedia. Well, apparently Rand Paul don’t roll that way. He’d rather roll the CPAC way. Which should tell you something both about him and about the present state of the libertarian movement, such as it is. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2013, 5:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rand-paul-great-white-hunter-tries-to-educate-students-at-howard-u-about-republican-party/655563/99 "2013-04-16T05:27:02Z")
> [@](#): > > …So he drove her to Beaumont. A six pack of Pearl and a possum “Wash an Aggie sheven coursh dinner, Trebek, your shlut of a mother told me that one…” ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2013, 11:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rand-paul-great-white-hunter-tries-to-educate-students-at-howard-u-about-republican-party/655563/100 "2013-04-16T11:10:27Z")
> [@brickbacon](#): > > The problem with your stance is two-fold: > > 1. Rand Paul, a Kentucky senator, accepting an invitation to a moderately covered event to speak to a largely Black group in Washington DC does not help him in any appreciable way. It doesn’t help him survive, nor does it do much for the party itself. Certainly that’s true, given the _way_ he did it. But whether it could have helped him or the party is something we have differing opinions about. And given that he’s gearing up to run for President in 2016 from all appearances, he needs to be part of a party that can win a majority. > [@](#): > > It’s a near certainty that the audience cannot and will not vote for him. If Paul can get blacks to only vote Dem by 87-13 instead of 97-3, that’s a change of 1% of the national vote. Stuff like that can make a difference, given how close our elections have tended to be in recent years. > [@](#): > > Furthermore, the only reason we are discussing this is because the media decided to cover it more due to it being a epic failure. Oh, bullshit. They’d have LOVED to cover a “Republican successfully reaches out to blacks” event. They **love** ‘reaching across’ and all that stuff. More later. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rand-paul-great-white-hunter-tries-to-educate-students-at-howard-u-about-republican-party/655563.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rand-paul-great-white-hunter-tries-to-educate-students-at-howard-u-about-republican-party/655563.md?page=6)