Ron Paul will win the Iowa Caucus whether he actually comes out on top or not. A win for him simply means a solid showing, which he'll make. He'll accomplish that feat because he has a legion of young, and not so young, fanatical true-believer devotees that have anointed him as the political second coming of St. Paul and Mother Teresa. They do three things that are absolutely indispensable to a successful campaign: organize, organize, organize.
They do it with zest because they buy hard into his off-beat views, from slashing government down to virtually nothing; to his controversial off beat quips on race matters. During the 2008 presidential campaign, they rabidly defended Paul against all comers even after he was unceremoniously dumped from the ballots. This created a huge problem not for the Democrats but for the GOP. The millions that went into a swoon over Paul were in no mood to mob the polls to vote for another placid, corporate, Beltway insider GOP presidential candidate. John McCain was that candidate.
The absence of Paul on any ballot meant an absence of thousands of voters who in any other season might have cast a vote for the GOP. GOP mainstream leaders thought then that they had seen the last of the aged party gadfly and his fanatical hordes. They assured that his extreme choke-the-eyes-out-of-government-view would not cloud the GOP's tunnel vision drive to make President Obama a one-term president in 2012. They were dead wrong. Paul not only refused to go quietly into the night but has emerged scarier than ever in 2012.
Paul's fanatical backers have been enthralled from the moment that Paul got a national platform to yap about the issues. He is their lone Jeremiah crying in the wilderness against big government, big taxes, big corporate domination, big socialized medicine, big wars; and demanding a return to unfettered liberty and freedom (conservative interpretation of it, that is). But that's not the only thing they like about Paul. He fanned anti-immigrant flames. In a 30 second TV spot that ran in New Hampshire during the 2008 campaign, he demanded that students from alleged terrorist countries be denied visas into the U.S. Paul offered no proof that there are hordes of students pouring into America to commit terrorist acts. The ad was more than just a cheap ploy to fan terrorism fears. This reinforced the worst in racial and religious stereotyping and negative typecasting. The stereotype is that anyone in America who is a Muslim with a non-white face is a terrorist.
Paul topped that with the infamous slavery quip that he made on Meet the Press during the campaign. He claimed the Civil War was an unnecessary bloodbath that could and should have been avoided. All Lincoln had to do was buy the slaves. Other slave promoting countries, asserts Paul, didn't fight wars and they ended slavery peacefully. Paul's historical dumbness could and should have been laughed off. It wasn't. It was intently debated, and defended. The scarier point was that it was taken seriously at all.
Paul's intrepid band of true believers was unfazed by the controversy; they reveled in it. Paul gave them plenty more ammunition. He asserted that blacks are criminally inclined, political dumb bells, and chronic welfare deadbeats. There was also the alleged Paul hobnob with a noted white supremacist. Here's what Paul on his campaign website ronpaul2008.com had to say about race. In fact, he even highlighted this as "Issue: Racism" on the site. "Government as an institution is particularly ill-suited to combat bigotry." In other words, the 1954 landmark Supreme Court's Brown vs. Board of education school desegregation decision, the 1964 and 1968 Civil Rights Acts, the 1965 Voting Rights Act, and legions of court decisions and state laws that bar discrimination are worthless. Worse, says Paul, they actually promote bigotry by dividing Americans into race and class.
Paul's views are an arcane blend of libertarianism, know-nothing Americanism, and ultra conservative laissez-faire limited government. In the four years since Paul rammed himself on the national scene as a name, he has gripped the imagination of millions of Americans who believe that Congress and the GOP and the Democrats are hopelessly insular, corrupt, inept, and that they are rushing headlong to spend the nation into free fall debt. This, they say will ultimately reduce the country to backwash penury nation status.
Paul made sure that he would stay within reach of grabbing the GOP presidential contender brass ring in Iowa by never wavering from his stock call in the debates for a debt free, bare bones government, and a neo-isolationist foreign policy. This has been a surefire formula to stir the juices of the frustrated, angry, and naive flock. This is the nightmare Paul adroitly poses for the GOP and the nation in Iowa and beyond.
Earl Ofari Hutchinson is an author and political analyst. He is a weekly co-host of the Al Sharpton Show on American Urban Radio Network. He is the author of How Obama Governed: The Year of Crisis and Challenge. He is an associate editor of New America Media. He is host of the weekly Hutchinson Report Newsmaker Hour on KTYM Radio Los Angeles streamed on ktym.com podcast on blogtalkradio.com and on thehutchinsonreportnews.com
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Jason Stanford: Ron Paul's Paradox
Ron Paul is the ONLY one in Washington who talks about taking power away from bankers and giving that power back to YOU.
He's not perfect, but he is a decent man. He is no racist. Silly newsletters written in 1980 do not apply to his campaign. He was not even a politician at that time--he was still a medical doctor. Ron Paul supports the Civil Right Act. He is far from a racist. He is a pure constitutionalist. Ron Paul seems to want American to be great and free as it should be--for all of us, not just for bankers and rich republicans, who already have 80% of the nation's income yet pay nearly no taxes.
If you want to racists, bigots, and haters, have a look at the rest of the Republican field. They basically are running campaigns that will benefit rich white bankers.
Having seen America's much vaunted constitution dismantled piece by piece, habeas corpus, right to privacy, wire tapping, Presidential authorisation of assassinations without due process, war without congressional approval, violent suppression of dissent you have to say current Republican/Democrat rule is a one party sham and a threat to the original constitutional democracy proposed by the nations founders.
So at what point will the American people do something?
I don't agree with all Mr Paul's views or those of his son Rand, but my goodness the alternative is dictatorship and a fascist alignment of corporations, military and political elite.
Think on, its happening..... Truly
You either stand up to be counted or keep your heads down and hope the reaper passes you by
After all, as directed by the Koch boys and Norquist, the GOP is practicing a policy of "anything that hurts this President is fine with us".
Fair is fair.
The people who smear Ron are the same ones whose authoritarian policies have:
- destroyed the black family
- imprisoned millions of nonviolent black males
- killed black service men in unnecessary wars
- prohibited blacks from undercutting the competition with lower salaries
- ensured that black parents cannot move their child to a good school
- increased black teenage pregnancy
- killed millions of black babies before they were born
- imposed licensing laws that prevent blacks from being able to start low capital businesses.
- increased regulations that reduced entry level jobs
- destroyed the value of the dollar so that blacks' earnings and savings disappear
- tricked them into low interest teaser loans, leading to the loss of all their equity
- waged endless war on non-whites after dehumanizing them
So, Ron Paul is the racist? The one man who wants to free everyone to live their life to the fullest -- as they see fit?
Are we ready to reject the race card
If Lincoln had tried to buy all the slaves, South Carolina would have claimed it an infringement on its sovereignty and seceded all the same. They had been planning on it for years. Any reason would have sufficed. Worse, all of the slave states probably would have joined it. Lincoln was pretty astute for keeping the slavery issue on the margin during the war. Even the Emancipation Proclamation only freed slaves in the rebelling states. Lincoln had to make sure that Maryland didn't secede, because DC would have been cut off from the Union.
The reason it worked in other countries is because the government was strong enough to do it without recourse. The United States did not have a strong enough central government for that to have worked.
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Ronald Ernest Paul MD now firmly takes the lead
Willard 'Mittens' Romney inspires zero confidence
President Obama can not beat the Ron Paul Army
When Obama took office, we were losing over 700,000 jobs PER MONTH!
We have now had 21 consecutive months of private sector jobs growth.