January 08, 2008
Uh-oh
...whoever actually wrote them, the newsletters I saw all had one thing in common: They were published under a banner containing Paul's name, and the articles (except for one special edition of a newsletter that contained the byline of another writer) seem designed to create the impression that they were written by him--and reflected his views. What they reveal are decades worth of obsession with conspiracies, sympathy for the right-wing militia movement, and deeply held bigotry against blacks, Jews, and gays. In short, they suggest that Ron Paul is not the plain-speaking antiwar activist his supporters believe they are backing--but rather a member in good standing of some of the oldest and ugliest traditions in American politics.
I doubt this is the last we'll see of this kind of article targeting the company Paul keeps, either.
Update: More on this via Daniel Koffler at Pajamas Media, starting with this (dis)taste of pull-quotes from "Ron Paul's Political Report" newsletter from the 1980s and early 1990s.
"[O]ur country is being destroyed by a group of actual and potential terrorists—and they can be identified by the color of their skin.""I think we can safely assume that 95% of the black males in that city [Washington, D.C.] are semi-criminal or entirely criminal."
"We are constantly told that it is evil to be afraid of black men, but it is hardly irrational."
"The riots, burning, looting, and murders are only a continuation of 30 years of racial politics."
"The criminals who terrorize our cities—in riots and on every non-riot day—are not exclusively young black males, but they largely are. As children, they are trained to hate whites, to believe that white oppression is responsible for all black ills, to "fight the power," and to steal and loot as much money from the white enemy as possible. Anything is justified against 'The Man.' And 'The Woman.'"
This looks bad for Paul...very bad. That hasn't kept his true believers from bombarding PJM's comment thread.
That looks to me like somebody is doing a takedown of Ron Paul.(I'm not a supporter of Paul).
The larger issue raised by the quotes is something that has concerned Democrats for decades-may have even been caused by Democrat's social programs.
Blacks have been welcomed and encouraged to pursue opportunities in the private sector for many decades. Many have quietly pursued them
to meaningful prosperity, but the underclass gets all the press as if they are the courageous.
Paulistas defending the Chosen One in 3, 2, 1...
Seriously, I don't oppose Paul and his little group of religous nutbars because of how he felt about blacks or gays in 1995; I oppose them because of how ignorant they are of foreign affairs and economy today.
This IS the man who said that Viet Nam was better off and more successful now than Koerea is, because America's continuing military presence in Korea holds them back and Viet Nam threw us out...
Posted by: DaveP. at January 8, 2008 03:24 PMThat PJM comment thread nucking futs!
Seriously. That is some good crazy. Like weapons grade crazy. Charlie Manson is gonna be awful jealous.
Posted by: Lamontyoubigdummy at January 8, 2008 04:10 PMSeriously, Lamont, that's another thing. I look at Ron Paul's supporters and I see attempted spinning of facts, total villification and demonization of anyone who disagrees, appeals to emotion instead of arguements based on facts and reality, flat-out bigotry, ad hominem dismissals of inconvenient truths...
Look at the Paulistas at the PJM comment threads, and you'll see many of the (nonpolicy) reasons I left the Democratic Party in the first place.
Dave: I used to think it was funny, but those people bend fanatical psychotic more and more every day. If we'd have had the internet back then, these crazy bastards would've shilled for Jim Jones.
K-Lo, over in the Corner, just posted the story only (with no additional comment). Within minutes her inbox was full of these:
"Subject: I'll never trust the NRO again
Auto forwarded by a Rule
There's gotta be consequences to what you people are doing. Hannity got chased off the streets... he's lucky that's all that happens. Rudy got locked in a bathroom in a boat in MI. The revolution is real, not symbolic... I wouldn't smack at a hornets nest.
Paul is not a racist. He's very kind. All of his supporters aren't as kind or layed back. They take things like this serious.
The media is generating hate and their own version of blowback. In America, blowback lead to 9/11. What will your blowback lead to? We're really starting to hate you folks. I was a journalist, I read the NRO, I vote GOP. I hate you. I can't imagine how others feel right now about reading that misleading crap."
Need thorazine much?
Yes, it reduces Ron Paul in my mind, but I notice that the Author of the piece himself says he doesn't think that Ron Paul is Racist. But that he's a cynic and wants to stir the pot. Keep that in mind, the person who wrote the piece admits that he's doing it just to screw with Ron Paul and his supporters. Unfortunately, everyone seems to enjoy dancing to the tune. The timing is suspicious and I think well planned to try to eclipse Ron Paul on the very day that he could be having his best primary day of the year.
Posted by: Mark at January 8, 2008 06:00 PMHave you seen the video of the Paul supporters chasing after Sean Hannity?
Since when does "reverence for the Constitution" include physical intimidation of those whose exercise of the First Amendment produces opinions you disagree with?
These guys are poisoning the waters for actual libertarianism, and Paul is just standing there with his hands in his pockets and claiming he can't be held responsible.
Personally, after the Scott Thomas Beauchamp caper, I'd not believe TNR if they told me water was wet.
Mind you, I still believe Paul is a nutcase and his supporters are even worse, but I wanna see non-TNR verification of this story before I'll accept it.
Posted by: C-C-G at January 8, 2008 07:56 PMThere are some seriously batcrap, monkeyhumpin' crazy people following RP around.
Posted by: Conservative CBU at January 8, 2008 07:56 PMConsider the source: TNR.
As much as I despise Ron Paul, the practice of TNR is to produce fiction.
I'm a risk manager of the Austrian school. I regularly follow The Mises Institute's commentary. While I find their isolationism unfortunate and incorrect (you'd have to classify me as a neo-libertarian), the Austrian school has been the most accurate in predicting macroeconomic trends.
The fact that The New Republic would associate the Austrian economic school with this nonsense is the unfortunate outcome of inept trust-fund baby leadership combined with "lowest common denominator" journalism degrees.
God forbid Ron Paul ate carrots at some point in his life. These statistically-ignorant fools would have found a way to disparage vegetable producers worldwide.
Please consider the source in this garbage. Foer's clearly convinced me that he will run this piece of trash into the ground and enjoy every moment of its demise.
Posted by: redherkey at January 9, 2008 12:31 AMAlso consider that this isn't a new story either - its been reported before. But if this actually has an effect on the paulbots, who knows - I mean they haven't taken over fittobepres.com yet.
Posted by: Will at January 9, 2008 09:15 AMFunny that some wish to attack TNR for publishing facts that anyone out there who wants to can verify.
Even if you want to consider it a hit piece, are you denying that these newsletters exist? If not, what do you think of someone who would allow his name to be plastered over these sorts of statements for multiple years?
If you are denying they exist, well, you've got a great scoop to bury TNR once and for all. Go to it.
Posted by: fishbane at January 9, 2008 02:37 PM
