December 26, 2011--Ron Paul In His Own Words

With Ron Paul surging to the top of the polls in Iowa, though I thought some weeks ago that he was going nowhere and I could ignore him, since experts are saying he could actually win the caucus there, I feel compelled to again address his candidacy.

Up to this point, with him mired in the middle of the Republican pack, is has been a version of fun to point out his quirky ideas--like eliminating the Federal Reserve and allowing regional banks to print their own money. As long as he was a marginal political joke, except to his band of fervent followers, quirky was a legitimate way to view him. Good for a few laughs during GOP debates where the most controversial thing about him has been the fate of his roaming eyebrows--are they real or pasted on since they seem to slip around on his forehead, at one point almost entirely covering his right eye.

But now, in this ten-little-Indians, musical-chairs Republican primary season, with him more than surviving, he has to be taken seriously. And this more serious scrutiny has turned up many things about which to be very concerned. Specifically newsletters he published during the 1980s and 1990s that include blatant racist, homophobic, and anti-Semitic comments.

You may have heard about this, even read some press reports concerning his attempts to wiggle out of taking responsibility, but few of these included any of the most-offensive quotes. Since you may have felt this was an omission on the part of the press but were too preoccupied with the holidays to have found any on your own, I have been digging around so that I can bring them to your attention.

But first a little context--

Paul has served two very separate terms in Congress: the first from 1979 through 1985 and then from 1999 to the present. During the inter-congressional years, beginning in 1984, to make money he claims, and continuing until 1997, Ron Paul went back to his obstetrics practice and started a number of newsletters. The newsletters were named Ron Paul's Political Report, Ron Paul's Freedom Report, the Ron Paul Survival Report, and the Ron Paul Investment Letter. Some were biweekly, while others were monthly and most were innocuous, at near their worse full of hyper-alarming, apocalyptic stuff derived from the so-called Austrian School of economics and distilled into claptrap by novelist Ayn Rand--his senator-son's namesake.

But at their very worst they included more than voodoo economics. Here are a few examples--

"Given the inefficiencies of what DC laughingly calls the criminal justice system, I think we can safely assume that 95 percent of the black males in that city are semi-criminal or entirely criminal."

"We are constantly told that it is evil to be afraid of black men, it is hardly irrational."

After the Los Angeles riots, one article in a newsletter claimed, "Order was only restored in L.A. when it came time for the blacks to pick up their welfare checks."

One referred to Martin Luther King Jr. as "the world-class philanderer who beat up his paramours" and who "seduced underage girls and boys."

Also about MLK: "[He] was also a Comsymp, if not an actual party member, and the man who replaced the evil of forced segregation with the evil of forced integration. King, the FBI files show, 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. . .?"

And there is more about his favorite racist obsession: "Boy, it sure burns me to have a national holiday for that pro-communist philanderer, Martin Luther King. I voted against this outrage time and time again as a Congressman. What an infamy that Ronald Reagan approved it! We can thank him for our annual Hate Whitey Day. Listen to a black radio talk show in any major city. The racial hatred makes a KKK rally look tame." (My italics.)

Another referred to Barbara Jordan, a civil rights activist and congresswoman as "Barbara Morondon," the "archetypical half-educated victimologist."

Here's a typical page:



Then about the 9/11 bombing he wrote: "Whether it 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 cities have become centers of violence, whether through the daily and routine terrorism of crime, political bomb terrorism, or the terrorism of mob behavior as in Los Angeles."

And gays also have been the target of his venom: "President Bush invited the heads of homosexual lobbying groups to the White House [which Paul subsequently named the Pink House] for the ceremony. As Congressman Bill Dannemeyer (R-CA) noted, 'It's a tragic message that is being sent,' that normality and deviance are equal. 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 coincidence that the AIDS epidemic developed after they came 'out of the closet' and started hyper-promiscuous sodomy? I don't believe so, [said Doctor Paul] medically or morally."

When his newsletters were "rediscovered" last week (where have the media been not to have reported this earlier?), Paul denied any responsibility for them, claiming he was busy delivering babies and others wrote and published this stuff under his name without his being aware of what was in them. This I would understand and be prepared to forgive if only one or two were published. But at least 50 were produced and sold over 13 years. That's 50 during 13 years.

A final word--as a conservative Libertarian who believes in the sacredness of individuals taking responsibility for their own actions and lives, Paul's hypocrisy was fully exposed last week when he ducked all responsibility, even refusing to be interviewed about his newsletters.

His encounter with PBS's Gloria Borger tells us all we need to know--at first he tried to joke and charm his way through the interview, but then when she pressed him about his newsletters his demeanor changed and he began to terminate the interview and take off his microphone. Taking off one's mike in the middle of an interview is always prima facie evidence of having been caught in a lie.

It's time for him to go.