Ron Paul is sort of like a porcupine; a porcupine looks cuddly and cute, but if you try to step on one you're liable to wind up with a few holes in your foot.
Rudy Giuliani was the first to step. It happened in the May 15 Fox debate, when Giuliani attempted to bully Paul into retracting his assertion that interventionist foreign policy causes terrorism. Paul responded by introducing a new, desperately needed term into the presidential primary marketplace of ideas: "Blowback."
Blowback: The Costs and Consequences of American Empire is the title of a 2000 book by Chalmers Johnson. In a chapter called "Stealth Imperialism," Johnson begins by asserting that "present American policy is seeding resentments that are bound to breed attempts at revenge." By now, most Americans have heard this argument many times and in many different forms, and it appears to be sinking in. But apparently nobody had ever had the guts to say anything like that with Giuliani in earshot.
"I don't think I've ever heard that before, and I've heard some pretty absurd explanations for Sept. 11," he fumed at Paul. Maybe he didn't know it at the time, but there were a few little holes in his foot. And six months after stepping on a porcupine, Giuliani netted a whopping 4% in Iowa.
The former mayor's apologists point out that Giuliani didn't visit Iowa very often, but Paul visited Iowa fewer times than Giuliani and broke into double digits with 10%.
So maybe it took six months for Paul's appeal to the national conscience to sink in. Maybe some voters did a little research and a little fresh thinking about foreign policy. Or maybe they watched something instructive, like this clip from a PBS documentary showing how our CIA deposed the legitimate political leader of Iran in 1953 and replaced him with the Shah, a religious autocrat who owed his power to D.C. and paid his debts with cheap oil.
But the Ron Paul lessons are all over for viewers of Fox News. Sunday's Fox candidate forum only featured five Republican candidates, all more or less neoconservatives, stylistically diverse but ideologically reducible into a single, imperialistic Rudy McHuckabombneyson. Fox News partisans were treated to the pleasure of watching Giuliani chat with a candidate (McCain) who says he'd be fine with keeping American troops in Iraq for another 100 years, a candidate (Huckabee) who thinks Pakistanis are pouring across our southern border, a candidate (Romney) who insists that the murder of Benazir Bhutto had nothing to do with the United States, and an actor (Thompson) who somehow keeps forgetting to act like he's running for president.
The decision to exclude Paul was so indefensible, following his record-breaking fundraising efforts and a double-digit result in Iowa, that the New Hampshire GOP withdrew as a partner in the forum.
Which brings us back to "Blowback."
It is a concept many Republicans refuse to understand, a concept many Democrats begin to understand, yet underestimate. But it's a message a growing number of American voters are ready for. Paul summed it up in the ABC debate Saturday: "We ought to treat others as we would want others to treat us, and we don't treat others so fairly... If they don't listen to us, we bomb them; if they listen to us, we give them money, and it's bankrupting this country because we don't live up to our principles."
Despite being snubbed, Paul was all smiles Sunday when he appeared at the New Hampshire Liberty Forum, an event sponsored by the Free State Project. Why?
If the rumors are true, there are an awful lot of porcupines floating around New Hampshire, and their momentum suggests that Tuesday might be a pretty tough day for the hawks.
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well matt?
http://www.boston.com/news/politics/2008/nh/nh_primary_gop_results_by_town/
which are paper ballot precincts and which are diebold precincts?
would love to see THAT comparison.
thanks.
Great article Matt. However, if you ever plan on follow up on the FOX News/Ron Paul issue you should (in all fairness) mention this. FOX News anchor people Greta Van Susteran and Sheppard Smith both voiced their displeasure at FOX's exclusion of Ron Paul.
That tells me that someone higher up in FOX News pulling the purse strings has an obvious political bias. Too bad. I guess FOX News isn't "fair and balanced" after all.
Ron Paul 2008! Don't forget to donate. The money will not be wasted!
I didn't need to read a book in 2000 called blowback. In 1978 we were required in my high school class to read The Ugly American. I'm sure there were similar books before even then.
BTW, the porcupine is the symbol/mascot of the Free State Project, now headquartered in New Hampshire.
The best analogy I've heard thus far for our war in Iraq is the following: Mammoths and Cave Men.
America is the powerful Mammoth. The Terrorists are the cave men. How did cave men kill Mammoths? One way was to lure the much more powerful Mammoth into a tar pit and once it was bogged down, they would pepper it with spears and arrows for days until it eventually died.
George Bush put us in the tar pit. As long as we voluntarily stay in the tar pit, the crazies will happily stand off and bleed us.
We have made HUGE strategic mistakes in the war on terror. And it is stupid blind pride that causes us to not correct these errors.
In that way, we are EXACTLY like the ancient Romans. Our empire is collapsing and we don't or won't look at the clear evidence of why it is happening.
**
Until 2001 we thought blowback was what caused bong water to get dirty.
Then we realized Paul helped coin the term in the 70's!
I guess our local myths got confused again.
Paul knows what we face in the future is serious "blowback".
This worries me.
It pisses me off they take our money and go to war with no consideration of ANY consequences.
I will enjoy watching him take them apart with his helpers that are not seen or even known about. He surrounds himself with people that know whats at stake.
People underestimate him.
Always have.
I guess its his demeanor.
Who knows, but they do.
BIG TIME!
Just like they underestimated Duhbya.
Only, Paul is Duhbyas arch enemy.
Always has been.
Only Paul has the will to undo what they have done.
Knowledge too!
And he is going to do it for the right reasons which guarantees a moral outcome.
He will do it damn it!
He will!
We have watched him do it before!
He has gotten quite good and has NEVER lost.
They continue to make the same exact mistakes.
OVER AND OVER!
ELECTION AFTER ELECTION.
Paul has won 3 NON incumbent elections and all 10 consecutively.
They are stupid and given WAY to much credit.
Their greed will be their ultimate demise.
Their miscalculations of the American public, too.
The exact same mistake they make here, time and time again.
Thanks for the article Matt!
Nice article. Can you follow it up with something about ongoing absurd FOX behavior like this? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bFYqtDL50AM
Great article. I think Fox made a tactical blunder in excluding Ron Paul from their debate yesterday, especially if it was their intent to minimize his candidacy.
Thanks Matt, but unfortunately the 'breaking news and opinion' from Huffpo isn't quite what it used to be either, perhaps there's a little blowback going on in your own backyard...
I still see posts on Cruise, Spears, and other distractious poison, lowering the standard to that of TMZ.
For example, yesterdays piece on Sibel Edmonds by Larisa Alexandrovna is front and center material (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/larisa-alexandrovna/sibel-edmonds-speaks_b_80077.html).
I've been ignoring the Fixed News Channel since long before it was considered fashionable. But if snubbing Ron Paul finally hits them where it hurts, I'm all for it!
Ron Paul will easily do 20% in NH. He's the big supriser. And if he runs as a 3rd party, he will do 30%. Fox News is history. Like the Republicans and the neocons.
thanks matt for that wonderful post. you reap what you sow, and i hope dr paul is enjoying some blowback for all his fine work and contribution to our country. feel the love. fingers crossed for dr ron paul!
Excellent article. Thank you!
This and the economy is what attracts Ron Paul supporters!
The denial of legitimate Muslim grievances against the West (including Israel) is going to cost all of us many lives, inflation and respect. We are looking at indefinite war.
It's mind boggling to hear the media and the leading contenders, Democrats as much as Republicans, declare that we are not at fault. Only ignorance of history and geography lets them get away with denying that the West has been sticking it to the Muslims of the Middle East since the beginning of the 20th century.
Crusade is a dirty word for Muslims.
I think all Ron Paul supporters have high hopes that New Hampshire could be the state where Paul's momentum explodes. The Republican party is a mess right now and they have no clear frontrunner. This opens up an opportunity for Paul to climb into this race seriously.
Nah. GOP voters will care too much about which head of McHuckabomney will take control to vote a Ron Paul conscience.
He's like Kucinich. He might keep the party honest about what it really wants, but when it's time to chow down on Thanksgiving dinner, everyone makes him go sit at the kids' table.
Wow. You didn't call Ron Paul a kook, or a fruitcake! I'm impressed. Pretty insightful, Matt. And we are just beginning to see the FauxViews "Blowback". Anyone been watching the Newscorp stock lately? Anyone been reading the letters from Faux advertisers saying that they have been receiving thousands of complaints and boycott pledges from Ron Paul supporters? All of the other MSM are not out of the weeds either. I've noticed bias from other networks, and if they step over the line, I'm sure they will experience some consumer blowback as well. This also includes the Huffington Post... In 2008, bias will not be tolirated...
Matt, again, thanks for including Ron Paul in your writings. Many, many people (do the math on donations to Paul) understand blowback and its consequences to our economy....hell, our grandchildrens' economy.
you may enjoy this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YMrHorlOB0k
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Posted January 6, 2008 | 11:43 PM (EST)