Indiana’s anti-gay law isn’t fooling anyone because we’ve seen this dance before
"The backlash against this “religious freedom” law in Indiana has been fascinating to watch. Part of it, as I argued at TPM yesterday, is that we’re hitting a tipping point of anger at conservatives who want to redefine “religious freedom” as the “right to oppress”. But another part of it is that conservatives stupidly, drunk on their success with the Hobby Lobby case, reached for the golden apple they’ve wanted for half a century now: Re-establishing the right for private businesses to discriminate, a right permanently lost to the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and thoroughly repudiated by the general public when Barry Goldwater lost the 1964 election.
All of which is to say that this is a reminder that it’s a political loser to bring back the arguments in favor of segregated lunch counters. And while there’s a lot of right wing hand-waving to try to convince us that isn’t what is going on here, it absolutely is"
