UPDATE: Thursday on the Laura Ingram show, Rand Paul responded to last night’s Rachel Maddow interview.

The libertarian approach, which heavily favors private rights over government rights, has always produced some interesting conversations. Most libertarians, for instance, don’t own a bong or watch extremely violent pornography, but Republican doctors like Ron Paul will defend your right to grow and smoke marijuana and avoid obscenity prosecutions for producing the most vile consensual smut. They see it as an issue of personal rights. Government should stay out of your lungs, they argue, stay out of your bedrooms, and stay out of your businesses.

Rand Paul, a child of the libertarian movement, is now following this line of thinking into a political buzzsaw. He argues that the Civil Rights Act of 1964 erred by forcing private businesses to desegregate lunch counters. He condemns racism, and says he supports most of the Act, which dealt with ending discrimination in government institutions, but holds firm on a theoretical point: Government should not tell private businesses how to behave. The most important piece of video today in the political world comes from Rachel Maddow’s show last night, in which Paul explains his view in some detail.

Obviously, this is not a mainstream view, even among conservatives or within the Republican Party, and however true it is to Paul’s governing philosophy, it is going to cost him. Indeed, in conversation with Maddow, Paul bemoans the coming soundbites that will no doubt misrepresent his views. As Ben Smith tweets, “Very, very easy to see the Bork-style ‘Rand Paul’s America’ ad, w/ sepia-toned ‘No Blacks, No Irish’ signs.” These attacks will paint Paul as a supporter of segregation and racism, even though no evidence has been presented suggesting that he is motivated by anything other than a libertarian governing philosophy, which is no more a racist philosophy than it is a pro-pot or pro-pornography philosophy.