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King_David

(14,851 posts)
Wed Jan 4, 2012, 08:14 AM Jan 2012

Ron Paul 1993 appeal letter warns of ‘race war,’ assails ‘Israeli lobby’

WASHINGTON (JTA) -- A 1993 subscription letter appearing above Ron Paul's signature said the "Israeli lobby plays Congress like a cheap harmonica," warned of a "race war" and said there was a gay-led cover up of AIDS.

The letter appealed for subscriptions to Paul's newsletter at the time, which included similar incendiary language.

Paul (R-Texas), a member of the U.S. House of Representatives now leading in some polls of likely Iowa caucus-goers, has repeatedly disavowed the language in his old newsletters, which took aim at blacks, gays and Israel. He has said that he not write his newsletters and that he did not always read them.

http://www.jta.org/news/article/2011/12/23/3090886/ron-paul-1993-appeal-letter-repeats-incendiary-language

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Ron Paul 1993 appeal letter warns of ‘race war,’ assails ‘Israeli lobby’ (Original Post) King_David Jan 2012 OP
Paul is a vile man LeftishBrit Jan 2012 #1
Luckily he lost in Iowa came in a distant 3rd I think azurnoir Jan 2012 #2
Not news for some of us vminfla Jan 2012 #3
Ron Paul has two problems: one is his, the other is ours. Jefferson23 Jan 2012 #4
Yes, I think that article nails it... shaayecanaan Jan 2012 #5
I have to tell you, I do enjoy watching the staus quo within the GOP squirm when Paul Jefferson23 Jan 2012 #6
I don't defend Paul or those statements, BUT... Honeycombe8 Jan 2012 #7
Almost Behind the Aegis Jan 2012 #8

LeftishBrit

(41,205 posts)
1. Paul is a vile man
Wed Jan 4, 2012, 09:54 AM
Jan 2012

And if he 'did not always read' his own newsletters, how would he deal with being president? 'Err, sorry about those nuclear bombs, I didn't want them dropped, but I just didn't read that memo from the Chief of Staff.'

But you don't need to go to these newsletters to see what a vile person he is. One just has to read his speech 'A Republic if You Can Keep It' which he proudly owns, and keeps on his website:

Republic, If You Can Keep It’ by Dr. Ron Paul, U.S. Representative from Texas

Address to the U.S. House of Representatives delivered on the Floor of the House January 31 - February 2, 2000

....The modern-day welfare state has steadily grown since the Great Depression of the 1930s. The federal government is now involved in providing health care, houses, unemployment benefits, education, food stamps to millions, plus all kinds of subsidies to every conceivable special-interest group. Welfare is now part of our culture, costing hundreds of billions of dollars every year. It is now thought to be a "right," something one is "entitled" to. Calling it an "entitlement" makes it sound proper and respectable and not based on theft. Anyone who has a need, desire, or demand and can get the politicians' attention will get what he wants, even though it may be at the expense of someone else. Today it is considered morally right and politically correct to promote the welfare state. Any suggestion otherwise is considered political suicide.
.
....Controlled curricula have downplayed the importance of our constitutional heritage while indoctrinating our children, even in kindergarten, with environmental mythology, internationalism, and sexual liberation. Neighborhood schools in the early part of the 20th Century did not experience this kind of propaganda.

....It is now accepted that people who need (medical) care are entitled to it as a right. This is a serious error in judgment.

...Probably the most significant change in attitude that occurred in the 20th Century was that with respect to life itself. Although abortion has been performed for hundreds if not thousands of years, it was rarely considered an acceptable and routine medical procedure without moral consequence. Since 1973 abortion in America has become routine and justified by a contorted understanding of the right to privacy. The difference between American's rejection of abortions at the beginning of the century, compared to today's casual acceptance, is like night and day. Although a vocal number of Americans express their disgust with abortion on demand, our legislative bodies and the courts claim that the procedure is a constitutionally protected right, disregarding all scientific evidence and legal precedents that recognize the unborn as a legal living entity deserving protection of the law. Ironically the greatest proponents of abortion are the same ones who advocate imprisonment for anyone who disturbs the natural habitat of a toad.

....The welfare system has mocked the concept of marriage in the name of political correctness, economic egalitarianism, and hetero-phobia.


....Any academic discussion questioning the wisdom of our policies surrounding World War II is met with shrill accusations of anti-Semitism and Nazi lover. No one is even permitted without derision by the media, the university intellectuals, and the politicians to ask why the United States allied itself with the murdering Soviets and then turned over Eastern Europe to them...'


So let's see. Paul is totally against any form of welfare state, even in its current American sense (very limited compared with most other developed countries); considers benefits for poor people to be 'theft'; does not think that people are entitled to medical care. Despite all his libertarian justifications for all the above, thinks that the government is entitled to ban abortions and 'defend marriage', (though he considers that these, like other government functions, should be carried out by individual states rather than the national government). He is opposed to gay rights ('heterophobia') and considers concern about the environment to be based on 'mythology'.

Moreover, he is so isolationist or anti-Soviet or both, that he would apparently rather have had Hitler take over Europe than have an alliance between America and the Soviet Union during the war. This is so antisemitic in effect, whether or not it is in intent, as to make him utterly untrustworthy.

 

vminfla

(1,367 posts)
3. Not news for some of us
Wed Jan 4, 2012, 10:32 AM
Jan 2012

I have always known that Ron and Rand Paul were anti-semites and racists for the last 10 years. Now that he is on the center stage, his bile is getting better press coverage outside of the Christian Identity crowds.

Jefferson23

(30,099 posts)
4. Ron Paul has two problems: one is his, the other is ours.
Wed Jan 4, 2012, 07:06 PM
Jan 2012

Ron Paul has two problems. One is his and the larger conservative movement of which he is a part. The other is ours—by which I mean a left that is committed to both economic democracy and anti-imperialism.

Ron Paul’s problem is not merely the racist newsletters, the close ties with Lew Rockwell, his views on abortion, or even his stance on the 1964 Civil Rights Act—though these automatically disqualify him from my support. His real problem is his fundamentalist commitment to federalism, which would make any notion of human progress in this country impossible.

Federalism has a long and problematic history in this country—it lies at the core of the maintenance of slavery and white supremacy; it was consistently invoked as the basis for opposition to the welfare state; it has been, contrary to many of its defenders, one of the cornerstones of some of the most repressive moments in our nation’s history[pdf]—and though liberals used to be clear about its regressive tendencies, they’ve grown soft on it in recent years. As the liberal Yale constitutional law scholar Akhil Reed Amar put it not so long ago:

Once again, populism and federalism—liberty and localism—work together; We the People conquer government power by dividing it between the two rival governments, state and federal.

As I’ve argued repeatedly on this blog and elsewhere, the path forward for the left lies in the alliance between active social movements on the ground and a strong national state. There is simply no other way, at least not that I am aware of, to break the back of the private autocracies that oppress us all.

Even people, no, especially people who focus on Paul’s position on the drug war should think about the perils of his federalism. There are 2 million people in prison in this country. At most 10 percent of them are in federal prisons; the rest are in state and local prisons. If Paul ended the drug war, maybe 1/2 of those in federal prison would be released. Definitely a step, but it has to be weighed against his radical embrace of whatever it is that states and local governments do.

Paul is a distinctively American type of libertarian: one that doesn’t have a critique of the state so much as a critique of the federal government. That’s a very different kettle of fish. I think libertarianism is problematic enough—in that it ignores the whole realm of social domination (or thinks that realm is entirely dependent upon or a function of the existence of the state or thinks that it can be remedied by the persuasive and individual actions of a few good souls)—but a states-rights-based libertarianism is a social disaster.

So that’s his problem.

Our problem—and again by “our” I mean a left that’s social democratic (or welfare state liberal or economically progressive or whatever the hell you want to call it) and anti-imperial—is that we don’t really have a vigorous national spokesperson for the issues of war and peace, an end to empire, a challenge to Israel, and so forth, that Paul has in fact been articulating. The source of Paul’s positions on these issues are not the same as ours (again more reason not to give him our support). But he is talking about these issues, often in surprisingly blunt and challenging terms. Would that we had someone on our side who could make the case against an American empire, or American supremacy, in such a pungent way.

in full: http://coreyrobin.com/2012/01/03/ron-paul-has-two-problems-one-is-his-the-other-is-ours/

shaayecanaan

(6,068 posts)
5. Yes, I think that article nails it...
Thu Jan 5, 2012, 07:54 PM
Jan 2012

there is envy on the Left that there is no equivalent spokesperson that is able to articulate against imperialism in the same way that Paul does.

I think the fact that the neo-conservative wing of the Republican Right clearly hates Paul's guts wins him a fair bit of liberal sympathy as well.

Jefferson23

(30,099 posts)
6. I have to tell you, I do enjoy watching the staus quo within the GOP squirm when Paul
Thu Jan 5, 2012, 08:28 PM
Jan 2012

opens his mouth..lol.

True about the envy too imo.

Honeycombe8

(37,648 posts)
7. I don't defend Paul or those statements, BUT...
Sat Jan 7, 2012, 12:12 AM
Jan 2012

not to recognize that the Israeli Lobby, like so many other lobbies, have too much power over Congress, is to let Congress off the hook. Can't blame the lobby; it's doing its job.

I was watching a debate format political talk show years ago (it was a good show that used to be on CNN...Crosstalk? Countertalk? whatever). Anyway, the two guests were discussing this subject with the hosts. One guest's point was that the Israeli Lobby had too much control; the other guest, a member of Congress, was saying that it did not. The only problem was that when the congressional guest spoke of Israel, he said "we are going to....." "We." He didn't say "Israel," or "they." He said "we." The other guest called him on it. It didn't look good.

It's a subject that should be discussed w/o fear of offending Jewish Americans, just like any other lobby would be discussed. Maybe it does have too much control, maybe not. But it should be able to be openly discussed, IMO.

I've never heard those other tales mentioned.

Behind the Aegis

(53,938 posts)
8. Almost
Sat Jan 7, 2012, 03:46 AM
Jan 2012

"It's a subject that should be discussed w/o fear of offending Jewish Americans, just like any other lobby would be discussed."

Close...but it should read...

It's a subject that should be discussed w/o fear of offending Jewish Americans, just like any other lobby would be discussed.

It can be discussed without accusing of us, all of us, of being more loyal to Israel and controlling the halls of Congress.

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