Ron Paul is still as scary as ever -- or maybe I should scarier than ever -- for the GOP. This has absolutely nothing to do with his unsurprising landslide win in the Conservative Political Action Committee's annual presidential straw poll. It was hardly the win of the ages, since the CPAC convention was stacked with tea party zealots, and young zealots at that. More than half of those voting for the likes of Paul were under age 25.
Paul mania poses a quandary for the GOP. The young and not so young, and there are millions of them, are still true believers of his off-beat views, from paring 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. No Paul around, no vote. Many stayed away from the polls in droves. Despite the scoffs at Paul's win at CPAC, and GOP assurances that it will have absolutely no impact on the 2012 presidential election, the scary Paul phenomenon could do just that.
Paul's fanatical backers are enthralled that Paul is the lone Jeremiah crying in the wilderness against big government, big taxes, big corporate domination, and big wars. But that's not the only thing they like about Paul. He fans 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's topped that with the infamous slavery quip that he made on Meet the Press. 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 legions were 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 a corn ball blend of libertarianism, know-nothing Americanism, and ultra conservative laissez faire limited government. But this hardly makes him an American political oddity. In fact, any politician that can rev up enough frenzy to get hundreds of wildly cheering supporters to cram into the ballroom so tightly that the doors had to be shut 30 minutes before he took the stage to speak is a force to be reckoned with.
Paul's snorting speech at CPAC, complete with his stock call for a debt free, bare bones government, and a neo-isolationist foreign policy, sprinkled with a pinch here and there of racial baits, is guaranteed to stir the juices of the frustrated, angry, and naive flock. This makes him as scary as ever, especially to the GOP mainstream.
Earl Ofari Hutchinson is an author and political analyst. His new book is, How Obama Governed: The Year of Crisis and Challenge (Middle Passage Press).
Likewise, it is grossly inaccurate and reflects poorly on anyone who would suggest it, to say that Ron Paul has made "controversial off beat quips on race matters." Show me where and when.
Ron Paul wants to free non-violent drug offenders, much of whom are minorities living in a modern-day state of slavery, from prison. He wants to end the wars which, if you haven't noticed, kill brown people almost exclusively. If he's racist, he sure wants to help non-whites more than most politicians do.
But people will ignore that completely and cite his efforts to cut foreign aid as an indicator of racism, or make his comments about the Civil War out to be something they are not.
A little more objectivity and fairness please.
you are soooo far away from the class, the honesty, the integrity, the knowledge and the experience of a Ron Paul, you really shoudln't write such mindless comments about this man.
Not to mention his courage to stand up for peace in a state where nothing else matters anymore exept INFINITE WAR.
Oh, and by the way: Paul isn't isolationist, he just favors good healthy realtionships between all countries without force. Maybe you Americans dont know what that means anymore. Thatswhy you may wake up in a military dictatorship one day. Then you get the same you brought to the world lately.
But dont get me wrong. I will deplore the end of the great experiment USA.
It was worth it.
Greetings from Germany.
He still believes everything he was taught in 7th grade social science.
He is of the worst type of journalist, he who would spread lies to maintain the status quo, even when the status quo keeps him enslaved, albeit paid.
Yeah, that's "scary" alright... A debt free, bare bones government won't be handing out welfare checks like they do now. The money saved bringing our troops home plus Paul's economics of free market solutions, sound money and personal responsibility will create real jobs with lower taxes. Not more coddled government drones asleep in their cubicles producing paperwork to be filed by other government workers. THAT is what's really scary... People will have to get off welfare or lose their cushy government jobs and go to work at real jobs! YIKES!
Take a look at this, and realize this woman is not some isolated token: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LSh6kVT4UL0&sdig=1
My god, the man has become as much a subversive to Joe Public USA as the signatories to the declaration of independence were to the British.
There is something very wrong here and I am a Brit
What DEA agent will admit that the war on drugs is an unAmerican travesty of justice?
What welfare queen will admit that they don't have an entitlement to their neighbor's wealth?
What politician will admit that they do not have the prescience or foresight to successfully plan a global economy? Almost none of them, because they are narcissists who base their campaigns on promises of what they will "fix". People need to stop voting for these wanna-be authoritarian control-freaks, and start electing people who understand liberty and justice.
Actualy saying that the slaves could have been bought off and set free is not a idumbnees,. If fact your actical is filled with stupidity You dont know much histotry yourself . Slavery was actually starting to decline because slavery was not only grossly IMMORAL but also INEFFECIENT.
1.It was considered and would by all accounts been cheaper than the war RON PAUL IS RIGHT
RON PAUL KNOWS HISTORY AND ECONOMICS BETTER THAN YOU HE AND PETER SCHIFF WERE PREDICTING THE HOUSING BUBBLE LONG BEFORE IT HAPPENED YOU IM SURE DID NOT
Slavery was very expensive to maintain because to keep slaves from running away men were conscripted in Slave Patrols which meant it costed the taxpayers money to maintain and pay them and it took them from thier normal jobs.
If the responsibility of keeping slaves from running away was left to the plantation ownwers the cost of hiring gaurds would have been so high that they would have discovered that using hired labor was infact cheaper than owning slaves. Slaves only work hard enough to keep themselves from being punished but not so hard that they would be expected to produce the same amount everyday.
With slave labor people only they only work and produce enough to keep themselves from being punished and not too hard because the slave owners would expect them to produce the same amount continous.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23434604/
Not only Ron Paul has suggested that the Civil War was a pointless bloodshed but Howard Zinn has made the same argument and I don't think he's been considered ignorant of history.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XUBYI97cUgU
Starts at minute 21:30ish and ends around minute 27:00
Howard isn't often considered a racist conservative as the tone of your post seemed to suggest.
- That's funny, considering this year was no different than it was last year when Romney won - which nobody called 'hardly the win of the ages'.
Huffington Post in 2009:
"In the first strong indication of where conservative hearts lie for the 2012 presidential race, Mitt Romney won the Conservative Political Action Conference straw poll.."
'More than 1,700 people cast ballots in the 2009 CPAC poll, 57 percent of who were between the ages 18 and 25.'
The GOP better realize it is a more level playing field with the net. Spin all you want. WE ARE STAYING ON MESSAGE WHILE YOU SPIN.
Atwater and Rove tactics be damned. CONSERVATIVES are coming for the republican party. We dont need them, they need us.
Has anyone seen the Anti-War left lately? Where did they go?
Abraham Lincoln Quote: Fourth Debate with Stephen A. Douglas at Charleston, Illinois, September 18, 1858
"I will say then that I am not, nor ever have been in favor of bringing about in anyway the social and political equality of the white and black races - that I am not nor ever have been in favor of making voters or jurors of negroes, nor of qualifying them to hold office, nor to intermarry with white people; and I will say in addition to this that there is a physical difference between the white and black races which I believe will forever forbid the two races living together on terms of social and political equality. And inasmuch as they cannot so live, while they do remain together there must be the position of superior and inferior, and I as much as any other man am in favor of having the superior position assigned to the white race. I say upon this occasion I do not perceive that because the white man is to have the superior position the negro should be denied everything."
I don't think people realize how profoundly these two institutions impact our economy and well-being.