Hence, the motivation, not the action itself, was proscribed. They can't, so the teeth of quotas were added. Over the years, civil rights have become America's peculiar socialism - an arbitrary and despotic rule over every business, neighborhood, school, and organization in the country. And as with all socialism, the results are the opposite of the propaganda. Civil rights have worsened race relations, caused massive economic inefficiencies, expanded government power, and justified a huge array of legal privileges.
Today there are few proponents of the freedom of association.
Republicans won't touch the issue, and mainstream libertarians steer clear as well. Clinton can invade businesses with draconian regulations, haul innocents into court and fine them into bankruptcy, demonize whole communities because a bank didn't give enough quota loans, and even lay waste to an ancient European civilization - so long as he justifies it as civil rights. The good news is that the inclusion of ever more groups in the civil-rights racket, and the use of it to justify an unpopular war, exposes civil rights as a license for state violence. That weakens the public credibility of the entire regime, particularly when it tries to use race as a weapon of power. Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr. is president of the Ludwig von Mises Institute in Auburn, Alabama.