Ron Paul: Full of Crap and Venom
Stemming off the recent uncovering of newsletters that were either written by, or on behalf of, Ron Paul in the early 90s that reveal him to have been a racist, homophobic member of the conspiracy theorist lunatic fringe, (or at best, someone who pandered to racist homophobic lunatic fringe conspiracy theorists), there appears to be more.
Evidently, it may not have been Ron Paul himself who wrote those ugly and ignorant things. Reason Magazine says it was libertarian hero Lew Rockwell.
During the period when the most incendiary items appeared—roughly 1989 to 1994—Rockwell and the prominent libertarian theorist Murray Rothbard championed an open strategy of exploiting racial and class resentment to build a coalition with populist “paleoconservatives,” producing a flurry of articles and manifestos whose racially charged talking points and vocabulary mirrored the controversial Paul newsletters recently unearthed by The New Republic.
Reason explains the evidence that points to Rockwell and Rothbard, and adds:
The [newsletters] published between Paul’s return to private life after three full terms in congress (1985) and his Libertarian presidential bid (1988) notably lack inflammatory racial or anti-gay comments. The letters published between Paul’s first run for president and his return to Congress in 1996 are another story—replete with claims that Martin Luther King “seduced underage girls and boys,” that black protesters should gather “at a food stamp bureau or a crack house” rather than the Statue of Liberty, and that AIDS sufferers “enjoy the attention and pity that comes with being sick.”
and…
The populist outreach program centered on tax reduction, abolition of welfare, elimination of “the entire ‘civil rights’ structure, which tramples on the property rights of every American,” and a police crackdown on “street criminals.” “Cops must be unleashed,” Rothbard wrote, “and allowed to administer instant punishment, subject of course to liability when they are in error.” While they’re at it, they should “clear the streets of bums and vagrants. Where will they go? Who cares?” To seal the deal with social conservatives, Rothbard urged a federalist compromise in their direction on “pornography, prostitution, or abortion.” And because grassroots organizing is “plodding and boring,” this new paleo coalition would need to be kick-started by “high-level, preferably presidential, political campaigns.”
Rothbard wrote in 1992 that it would be a “dream” if the Presidential choice that year was between Pat Buchanan and David Duke. When confronted with all this, Paul acts like every other politician. He deflects and evades. He doesn’t address it head-on and accept responsibility for these writings. He claims not to know who wrote them. Bull. Shit.
Now, the Ron Paul “Revolution” which hasn’t amounted to much as a practical matter, is not based on racism or sexism or homophobia, nor do I wish to paint those supporters with such a broad brush. However, it reveals that Ron Paul and some other leaders of the so-called “paleolibertarian movement” had some extraordinarily ugly ideas not too long ago.
The problem today is that questions are being raised about those writings, and no one has had the stones to take responsibility for them, much less apologize for them. They were written on Paul’s behalf, so he owes his supporters and others an honest explanation and an apology. He may not have been an anti-semite, but he was quite satisfied to seek out their support. He may not have been a racist, but he was all to eager to use racist writings to earn money for his campaigns. I fail to see a distinction there, frankly. Lie down with dogs…
As this libertarian blogger writes,
This looks so bad, and stinks so high. In a sense, it’s worse than racism. It’s not caring about an issue enough to stick up for your own principles, and letting your friends get away with putting your name through the dreck of bigotry.
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Rob, thanks for giving a viewpoint that doesn’t foam at the mouth or call me a worm.
With the exception of Dennis Kucinich, Fred Thompson (occasionally), Barack Obama and Ron Paul (always) few of the candidates seem to take the *US* Constitution seriously anymore. Our economy and our Constitution are both imploding. This should give us pause or should it? Perhaps we should scrap it and start anew? After all, once in office our elected representative must swear to uphold the *US* (not foreign) Constitution for all people. This includes even their most hated adversaries. People at the extremes defend it because according to this document they deserve equal protection under the law just like everyone else. I support Ron Paul. I love people of all races, religions and sexualities. I happen to be straight and black if you must know. The Ron Paul supporters I know love their country passionately. They are not racist, sexist pigs with tin foil hats or 911 truthers. They are hard working, decent wonderful people who volunteer in their community and take the time to educate themselves on the issues. They are a threat to the establishment because they think outside the box. Please consider voting for Ron Paul. Thank you for your time.
the ONLY racistS i know of…are the ISRAELI’S WHO SUPPORT KILLING CHILDREN IN PALESTINE….THAT’S REAL RACISM. REPORT ON THAT STORY. THAT WOULD MAKE WOULD HEADLINES AROUND THE WORLD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!. MAYBE PEOPLE WILL ACTUALLY READ YOUR CRAP.
Do not vote for Ron Paul. If you don’t like George Bush, get the hell out of the United States! Follow the rules! Stay in your homes. Obey your television. Do not think for yourselves. Give up more rights. Keep pissing off the rest of the world. Bush is a great leader. Jesus wants all Muslims dead. The United States Government is NEVER wrong, mistaken or negligent! How dare Ron Paul trust the people with their own lives? He is clearly insane. We must kill our enemies and arm our friends, until our friends stop doing what they are told. Then we must kill them. Do not question anything. Keep your mouths shut, you unpatriotic anti-American, commie terrorist homosexual drug-addicted radicals. Lay down and be ruled!
Awesome!
Thanks, Alan, for dredging up old news on a candidate garnering 6% of the vote because you don’t like one of his more vocal supporters here in Buffalo.
I eagerly await your next hard-hitting piece on Dennis Kucinich, Alan Keyes (yes i am aware he’s not running), Fred Thompson, Rudy Giuliani, Mike Gravel, Christopher Dodd, Duncan Hunter, and all the other folks who have zero chance of being elected. I hear a few of them may have some issues as well.
But instead I will look forward to your telling me I’m not voting for Hillary because I am “afraid of a strong woman” or Obama because I “hate brown people”.
Not that there’s anything bad you could write about Hillary…
Yeah nobody is voting for the guy who follows the US Constitution so make you don’t either. He can’t win so vote for us. You swear to uphold what? Civil liberties? Free speech? The US Constitution. What the hell is that? Click on the “Ron Paul Blog” 2 entries above and give us all your personal info. Suckers!!! HAhahaha. Screw the US Constitution. Screw the Economy. Don’t vote for Dr. Paul.
I am working for another campaign and I approve this message.
Yeah, nobody is voting for the guy who follows the US (not foreign) Constitution anymore so make sure you don’t either. STAY AT HOME Ron Paul supporters. He can’t win so vote for us. STAY AT HOME Ron Paul supporters. You swear to uphold what? Civil liberties? Free speech? The Us Constitution? What the hell is that? Screw the US Constitution. Screw the Economy. Screw the Republic. Don’t vote for the Duke Medical School finance nerd, Dr. Paul, the guy who has studied economics for 30 years and ran several of his own successful businesses while providing free or reduced cost healthcare to poor people of all races so they won’t die prematurely. The guy with the A+ average will never win.
I am working for another campaign and I approve this message.
Apparently there are about 52 reasons why this post was wrong.
Again – you’re saying that it’s absolutely nuts to think that Ron Paul wrote the articles in question, when at one time he himself said that he did (or two of them at least), and only later said that he didn’t?
To clarify: I believe him when he (now) says he didn’t write the articles, and I don’t believe he’s a racist. But believing otherwise, at least as to the first point, isn’t crazy.
Why do Paul supporters think that he claimed authorship of the 2 articles back in the 90s?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SAWClI8zsH4&eurl=http://www.freeatlast2008.com/
Blessed are the peacemakers. Who knows what is in a man’s heart today or tomorrow? God Bless.
I’m voting for Ron Paul because he sounds like the only candidate with enough intelligence to reduce the size of an over bloated government. I don’t see any point in keeping troops in Iraq indefinately. We need to elect a President who will stop ‘foreign aid’ at least until things in this country that need attention get fixed. It’s the ’semitics’ who are spreading the lies that Ron Paul is racist because he opposes their war on Arabs in the Middle East. These semitics WANT the country to pay for their stupid war against the Arabs because they’ve ALWAYS been racists against Arabs! Past Presidents(Jimmy Carter in particular) have spent a lot of time & effort trying to bring about peace in the Mideast. After all their efforts these people just go right back to fighting. Maybe it would be more in our best interests to leave them alone & let them kill each other off if they keep refusing to work out some sort of peacefull settlememt of their issues. How does sending troops to Iraq help our country? IT DOESN’T improve anything for the USA nor does it “keep us safe” from insane terrorists attacks. Ron Paul appears to be the only candidate with enough intelligence to understand this. For this he gets called a ‘racist’? Maybe those who want innocent Iraqi civillians to be killed are the REAL RACISTS! Now watch the chickenhawks call me ‘anti-semitic’ because I’m against their genocide of people in Iraq! Read the platforms of the candidates before casting your vote. At least then you will be a more informed voter than those who vote based on media sound bytes or various assorted smears. After reading where they stand on the issues, I decided Ron Paul would make the best President of the group of them based on a number of issues. You might or might not come to the same conclusion. This election is too important to ‘yellow dog vote’ in the primaries! We will need the best & brightest President we can get.