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Ron Paul letters

5:52 am on Wednesday, January 9, 2008

I have been fairly dismissive of the allegations that Ron Paul is a racist.  That is something that is often thrown around with little merit, and further I think his ideas are wacky enough that they will fail on their own.  While it has been obvious that some racists and similar bigots supported him, that wasn’t particularly dispositive in my mind.  Just as the first ammendment is a good idea even if it benefits activities we don’t like, other libertarian principles can be good ideas as well, even if they will allow some people to misuse their freedoms.

This TNR article though paints a very different picture of Ron Paul, and not a flattering one.   Read the whole thing if the Paul campaign interests you, here is a bit from near the end:

it is difficult to imagine how Paul could allow material consistently saturated in racism, homophobia, anti-Semitism, and conspiracy-mongering to be printed under his name for so long if he did not share these views. In that respect, whether or not Paul personally wrote the most offensive passages is almost beside the point. If he disagreed with what was being written under his name, you would think that at some point–over the course of decades–he would have done something about it.

Ron Paul’s campaign is a marriage of libertarian principles with wacky far right anti-government beliefs and conspiracy theories.  While I have a great deal of sympathy for the former, the latter is really just crazy.  Add in these racist and homophobic elements and I think it is time for us all to just start ignoring Dr. Paul.

3 Comments »

Comment by Tsykoduk

January 14, 2008 @ 8:08 am

NAACP President: Ron Paul Is Not A Racist
Linder says Paul being smeared because he is a threat to the establishment

Paul Joseph Watson
Prison Planet
Sunday, January 13, 2008

Austin NAACP President Nelson Linder, who has known Ron Paul for 20 years, unequivocally dismissed charges that the Congressman was a racist in light of recent smear attempts, and said the reason for him being attacked was that he was a threat to the establishment.

Linder joined Alex Jones for two segments on his KLBJ Sunday show this evening, during which he commented on the controversy created by media hit pieces that attempted to tarnish Paul as a racist by making him culpable for decades old newsletter articles written by other people.

from this article.

If the NAACP says your not a racist - I would assume that your not.

:)

Comment by Dave Justus

January 14, 2008 @ 9:55 am

Having less faith then you, I don’t accept that just because any authority says something it is a fact. Beyond that, this is one person in the NAACP, the President of the Austin chapter, who says this. I would imagine that I could, should I chose, find another similarly prominent member who disagreed.

I had never heard of the site you linked to before, it isn’t a major news site or magazine, so I clicked around on the site. This page is what they have to say about 9-11. Pretty much a ‘truther’ archive. That doesn’t say a whole lot about the reliability here.

Bottom line though is that these disgusting comments were published under Ron Paul’s name. Either he is himself racist, or he is incompetant and lets himself be used by racists. Either way, I should think that disquilifies him for President. In fact, the second is in many ways more worrying then the first (and in my mind more likely.)

Comment by probligo

January 14, 2008 @ 5:43 pm

“…he is incompetant and lets himself be used by racists. Either way, I should think that disquilifies him for President. In fact, the second is in many ways more worrying then the first (and in my mind more likely.)”

A point that I took up with a Paul supporter. I was informed that Paul should not be responsible for the actions of his supporters. He is not an authoritarian. I have asked for an explanation of the difference between “authoritarianism” and “management”.

Yeah, right!

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