The Law Makes Them Do It

There's a certain number of people who react to Rand Paul's initial trashing of the Civil Rights Act by claiming that people don't need the government to make them play fair.

So - and it's probably no coincidence that it's in Kentucky, though to be fair a few such clubs remain in other states - there are people defending segregated country clubs from the oppressive federal government.

A 2004 state Supreme Court ruling pushed Kentucky's remaining segregated clubs to stop the discrimination or risk losing tax deductions. Still, at least one club held out until late last year....

The Idle Hour Country Club in Lexington is one example. The club, founded in 1924, is known for its pristine 18-hole golf course, clay tennis courts and Southern cuisine. Until seven months ago, it had never had a black member. ...

The Louisville Country Club accepted its first black members in 2006. John McCall, the club's president and an executive at a local energy company, said he feels strongly that it and others "should have moved faster." (He declined to say how many black members are there now.) Yet he, too, resists the notion that government should have a say in how his club operates. "You will have a more successful value-based society" if you can move people to the "right conclusions about their own lives than if you force it," McCall said.

You know, it's 2010. If people were going to come to "right conclusions" on their own, they'd have done it by now. Unless, of course, you really think they have...