The past week has seen research and publication exposing multiple instances from Ron Paul’s newsletters to his supporters over the past couple of decades. The picture has not been pretty. Paul got up and walked out in the middle of one major TV interview because the reporter was actually insisting on not letting go of the issue, and was coming back to it and trying to Get Paul to respond to the criticism for the content of those interviews.
The New Republic has posted images of samples of the criticized content from the newsletters. Talking Points Memo has gone through them and summarized some of the most, well, striking examples.
1. “Order was only restored in LA when it came time for the blacks to collect their welfare checks. The ‘poor’ lined up at the Post Office to get their handouts (since there were no deliveries) — and then complained about slow service.” -Report on LA riots, June 1992
2. “I’ve been told not to talk, but these stooges don’t scare me. Threats or no threats, I’ve laid bare the coming race war in our big cities. The federal-homosexual cover-up on AIDS (my training as a physician helps me see through this one.)” -Direct mail ad promoting Paul’s newsletters, written from Paul’s perspective, 1993
3. “It is human nature that like attracts likes. But whites are not allowed to express this same human impulse. Except in a de facto sense, there can be no white schools, white clubs, or white neighborhoods. The political system demands white integration, while allowing black segregation.” -‘The Disappearing White Majority,’ January 1993
4. “I miss the closet. Homosexuals, not to speak of the rest of society, were far better off when social pressure forced them to hide their activities. They could also not be as promiscuous. Is it any wonder the AIDS epidemic started after they ‘came out of the closet,’ and started hyper-promiscuous sodomy?” -June 1990
5. “Whether [the 1993 World Trade Center bombing] was a setup by the Israeli Mossad, as a Jewish friend of mine suspects, or was truly a retaliation by the Islamic fundamentalists, matters little.” -‘The New York Bombing,’ April 1993
6. “An ex-cop I know advises that if you have to use a gun on a youth, you should leave the scene immediately, disposing of the wiped off gun as soon as possible. Such a gun cannot, of course, be registered to you, but one bought privately (through the classifieds, for example).” ‘Blast ‘Em’, October 1992
7. “The opposition will do its best to provoke some precipitous action on on our part to discredit us and our cause. Follow the orders of Captain Parker at Lexington: Stand your ground. Don’t fire unless fired upon, but if they mean to have a war, let it begin here.” -Militia’s 10-point advice to other militias, January 1995.
8. “When the New Money is imposed, every American family must have a Survival Kit of highly liquid, small-denomination silver and gold coins for hand-to-hand use. The Ron Paul Survival Kit — now an industry standard — comes in an official World War II US Army ammo holder.” -Ad for ‘The Original Famous Ron Paul Survival Kit,’ undated
9. “[Martin Luther King, Jr.], the FBI files reveal, was not only a world-class adulterer, he also seduced underage girls and boys…And we are supposed to honor this ‘Christian minister’ and lying socialist satyr with a holiday that puts him on par with George Washington?” -December 1990
10. “It turns out that the brilliant [Bobby Fischer], who has all the makings of an American hero, is very politically incorrect on Jewish questions, for which he will never be forgiven, even though he is a Jew. Thus we are not supposed to herald him as the world’s greatest chess player.” -November 1992, background on Fischer’s “politically incorrect” views (which include Holocaust denial) here.
What is even more fascinating is to read the comments. Ron Paul supporters (at the New Republic, and on other blogs and news sites where this is being discussed in comments), who supposedly pride themselves on their realism, are frantic in their efforts to ignore these published statements. But their excuses are utterly lame. Claims of being taken out of context. Claims that he has repudiated them. Claims they were written by others, not Ron Paul. All of which add up to inconsistent nonsense. It was his freakin’ newsletter, people. Sent to his supporters. Representing his views. And those views were consistent. Not with America, as I see it, but consistent with his views. And that clearly included some pretty blatant racism, homophobia, and insane economic theory rooted more in the ancient history time of Midas than the 20th, much less the now 21st century.
I think what fascinates me about this the most is how the mainstream media can launch so complete and thorough and devastating an attack, with documentation and cogent full disclosure, when it suits them. And it suits them, because the conservative establishment and the oligarchy fear Ron Paul. So they have unleashed the dogs on him in the media, full press, full bore.
I eagerly await their actions to do the same with Willard Romney. Just imagine if these same techniques were used to list, publish, expose, and drive into consciousness of the American people all of the contradictory and downright evil things from Willard’s past. So far, I am finding that only on progressive blogs, where I read just this weekend about when Willard was a Mormon Bishop, and tried to tell a woman whose very life was threatened by a pregnancy that it was pretty much tough for her, she should just go ahead and die rather than have the abortion. Rough stuff.
When will the big guns that own and operate the corporate controlled media do the same for Romney? Right now, as much as they probably loath him secretly, he appears to be all they think they have got to challenge Obama next year.
Thus this full frontal attack on Ron Paul.
As for Ron Paul, here is a great satirical take on American History, According to Ron Paul, Sort Of
For example, this section, illustrating American History according to Ron Paul for one key period:
FDR raised taxes to over 90 percent on the wealthiest Americans. In that time, we won World War II, built the highway system and had the biggest, most sustained economic growth in our history between 1945 and 1973. Things like collective bargaining, the GI Bill and, later, Medicare and Medicaid helped sustain a middle class with some sort of wealth parity. We also expanded rights of accused people, ended segregation and expanded opportunities for women. It was truly the most awful time in our history. The government was everywhere telling businesses how much to pay its workers, what kind of products to produce and who they can segregate at their lunch counters. A small part of the American dream was expanding thanks to socialist government, not through the free market as Mises called for in the Constitution. Instead of shooting picketing workers like the free market dictates, the government was giving them some protection. There were some rays of hope during this time, like when Barry Goldwater ran for president in 1964. But the country was too stupid to support a visionary like him who wanted to get rid of the Civil Right Act, and so we got 4 more years of Lyndon Johnson.
Here is a comment from Talking Points memo that pretty much sums up the absurd positions that Ron Paul’s supporters are taking as they twist like pretzels in the wind under this blistering attack of, well, Ron Paul’s blast from the past, his words in his newsletters. The poster of this list has been updating it with new items for the past 214 hours or more.
1. He never wrote them.
2. Look what that OTHER GUY did!
3. He owned up to and aplogized for them.
4. He didn’t know what was in them.
5. Call folks ‘sheeple.’
6. You are a bigger racist than he is
7. mostly involves talking about how Ron Paul wants to end the war.
7a. It’s impossible that he’s a racist because he delivered black babies for free
7b. Libertarians can’t be racists because they see people as people, and not collectives unless of course it involves ending the drug war would help blacks collectively.
8. Legalize it!
9. Claim or imply that people are stupid.
10. Scream that you did something that you never did.
11. It happened 20 years ago!
12. The [blacks][Mexicans][Asians] are the real racists!
13. I didn’t read or write the ads for the racist newsletter!
14. You’re being paid to trash Ron Paul!
15. There are more important things to talk about..
16. Hey, it’s not all THAT racist!
17. It’s a coordinated smear campaign!
18. Yeah, I know he’s a jerk but…
19. Who are you going to vote for, Romney?
20. [So and so] hit the dessert cart with the dinner-making chair!
21. There were articles in the newsletter demonizing white supremacists.
22. It was a mistake made by college kids.
23. Ron Paul is a great American! Leave him alone!
Actually, I thought the list above was satire, making fun of the lameness of the Ron Paul defender’s responses. Then I read other comments responding to it as if it was a serious response by a Ron Paul supporter? And not satire?
I am so confused. In 21st century America, I simply cannot tell what is satire and what is real anymore. I sometimes feel I should watch Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert, and read The Onion, and I would get the clearest reporting on what is actually going on in America anymore.
Also, in the just FWIW department, there is plenty of video evidence of Ron Paul taking full ownership with pride for his newsletters ten years ago.
A former Ron Paul staffer, Eric Dondero, who apparently worked for him for 12 years, is an admitted and avowedly disgruntled source, but it is hard to ignore a story he now tells about Ron Paul accepting help campaigning from an openly gay man and his partner, but being unwilling to use their bathroom. The following is quoted from the former staffer’s narration in his article, he is the first person speaker in the following.
(I am revealing this for the very first time, and I’m sure Jim Peron will be quite surprised to learn this.)
In 1988, Ron had a hardcore Libertarian supporter, Jim Peron, Owner of Laissez Faire Books in San Francisco. Jim set up a magnificent 3-day campaign swing for us in the SF Bay Area. Jim was what you would call very openly Gay. But Ron thought the world of him. For 3 days we had a great time trouncing from one campaign event to another with Jim’s Gay lover. The atmosphere was simply jovial between the four of us. (As an aside we also met former Cong. Pete McCloskey during this campaign trip.) We used Jim’s home/office as a “base.” Ron pulled me aside the first time we went there, and specifically instructed me to find an excuse to excuse him to a local fast food restaurant so that he could use the bathroom. He told me very clearly, that although he liked Jim, he did not wish to use his bathroom facilities. I chided him a bit, but he sternly reacted, as he often did to me, Eric, just do what I say. Perhaps “sternly” is an understatement. Ron looked at me directly, and with a very angry look in his eye, and shouted under his breath: “Just do what I say NOW.”
Statement from fmr. Ron Paul staffer on Newsletters, Anti-Semitism
