The New Republic, which originally brought Ron Paul's racist newsletter to the attention of the public with its 2008 article Angry White Man, has published a large new batch of excerpts from The Ron Paul Political Report and other newsletters published by Paul from the 1970s to the 1990s. The latest document dump comes in response to Paul's statement that there were only "a total of about 8 or 10 sentences" of "bad stuff" in the newsletters. As TNR makes clear, this statement is not even remotely true. The newly released excerpts are as bad as anything we've seen before. And they show a pattern of conspiracy theorizing and radical right-wing paranoia in evidence as recently as 2007.
Anyone who is familiar with the beliefs and activities of the far right during the 1990s--the "black helicopter" crowd of loosely organized conspiracy theorists, survivalists, and militia supporters that spawned the likes of Timothy McVeigh--will recognize the rhetoric in these newsletters. Paul hits all the radical right hot buttons as surely as if he were following a checklist.
The November 1987 Political Report claimed that “FEMA is now an integral part of Washington’s bureaucratic maze, and it stands ready to take full control of the country at the president’s request.” It also asserted that FEMA can “scrap the constitution and install military men in place of elected officials at all levels,” as well as “rule the economy by decree,” and that “FEMA intends to wipe out state jurisdictions by setting up the ten federal regions so beloved of the Council on Foreign Relations.”
Like all good right-wing fanatics in the 1990s, Ron Paul was obsessed with Vince Foster, the White House official who took his own life in 1993.
The February 1994 Survival Report addressed “the supposed suicide of Vince Foster,” and in an item entitled “Murderous Clintonians” from the August 1994 issue, the newsletter claimed, “But let’s just say [Independent Counsel Robert Fiske] had discovered evidence of a White House conspiracy to kill [Deputy White House Counsel Vince] Foster and cover it up. Would he have revealed it?” It also wrote of “the decade-long adulterous affair between Hillary Clinton and Vince Foster.”
Paul would hold onto his Vince Foster obsession for many years, far beyond Clinton's term in office, and even into his 2008 presidential campaign:
A November 2007 fundraising letter sent by Paul’s presidential campaign, describing him as “the only Republican who can beat Hillary,” invoked the Branch Davidians and “the mysterious death of Hillary’s pal Vince Foster.”
After Timothy McVeigh blew up the Arthur Murrah Federal Building on April 19, 1995, killing 169 innocent people, Paul ran a proto-Truther article doubting his involvement:
The September 15, 1995 issue of The Ron Paul Survival Report speculated about the Oklahoma City bombing: “Were there, as some people now say, two bombs that went off in the building? And might the government have the wrong man? Who doubts the possibility that the government – which lied about Waco and Ruby Ridge – may also be covering up true information and planting false information about the Oklahoma bombing?” The newsletter then cited “a courageous cover story” from The New American, the official magazine of the John Birch Society, as evidence.
The same article smears Kiri Jewell, a girl who testified before Congress about her molestation by Waco, Texas cult leader and right-wing hero David Koresh, as a liar. Kiri Jewell was 14 years old at the time. For good measure, this smear runs alongside the smiling headshot of Ron Paul... just in case there was any confusion about who was bringing you these happy words.
Many have claimed--indeed, some here have claimed--that the frequent and severe criticisms of Israel found in Paul's newsletters should not be taken as proof of anti-Semitism, but the latest excerpts definitely cross the line:
A letter on congressional letterhead, dated August 30, 1979, from Paul thanked a Mr. Amos W. Bruce for “the copy of the article in The American Mercury and the copies of your essays. I found them all very interesting.” The American Mercury was an anti-Semitic magazine owned by Willis Carto, one of America's most notorious holocaust deniers and the founder of The Liberty Lobby. [...]
The February 1993 issue of the Survival Report claimed that “major Jewish organizations are complaining that Zionists did not get enough jobs in the Clinton administration. Plenty of Jews were appointed but just being Jewish doesn’t count. These lobbyists want people 100% dedicated to Israel.”
And of course there's the racism.
The newsletters repeatedly defended and expressed support for a variety of prominent racists. The May 1990 Political Report cited Jared Taylor, a prominent eugenics advocate. The July 1994 Survival Report again cited the “criminologist Jared Taylor.” [...]
The September 1992 edition of the Political Report wrote of a supposed spate of bank robberies this way: “Today, gangs of young blacks bust into a bank lobby firing rounds at the ceiling.” It also said that “We don’t think a child of 13 should be held as responsible as a man of 23. That’s true for most people, but black males age 13 who have been raised on the streets and who have joined criminal gangs are as big, strong, tough, scary and culpable as any adult, and should be treated as such.”
As before, Paul will no doubt deny that he had any inkling about the existence of these articles written in the first person under his own name in the newsletters he published. And as before, there will be people--yes, even people right here--who take him at his word about this, and claim that it's all irrelevant anyway. I can only hope that everyone else sees that these words, whether Paul wrote them or merely sanctioned their appearance in his publications, display a pattern of beliefs that are wholly incompatible with any elected office.