It really hurts to keep reading all this nonsense about RP being a racist.
"Ron Paul: Lord of the bigots", diary by jmknapp Wed Jan 23, 2008 at 06:46:26 AM PST
However, since I'm probably going to vote for Obama, solely because of his foreign policy promises and his general appearance of integrity, in the general election (if he is the Demo nominee), unless lightning strikes 09/04/08 in the Twin Cities and RP ends up being the Repo nominee, I'm pretty sure I'll get to feel better later on.
Respectfully, I have to say that Ron Paul is not now and apparently has never been a racist. I actually met Ron Paul and spoke with him at some length in 1988 at the home of '84 LP Presidential Candidate David Bergland just before I volunteered to work on Ron Paul's '88 Libertarian Presidential campaign as a ballot access signature gatherer, when I was in college. He seemed then and still seems to me now like a genuinely kind, sincere, intelligent, articulate person.
I have never agreed with his stand on abortion. I have never shared his views on immigration, either. I understand those views and I respect them, to some extent, because I perceive them to be reasoned, nuanced positions on complicated issues.
I have read pretty much everything the man ever wrote or spoke about in recorded form and everything ever published under his name, the latter mostly out of continuing curiosity due to my early tenuous connection to his political career when he ran for President in '88 as an LP'er.
As I am sure most of you know, Neocon Smear-meister over at The New Republic (TNR), James Kirchick, wrote a hitpiece published in TNR entitled "Angry White Man" and it was published by them with consummate glee on the day of the New Hampshire Primary so as to cause maximum damage to RP's campaign there. In it, Kirchick dredged up newsletters published by some idiots 15 or 20 years ago under RP's name, some of which I, myself, incidentally, remember reading at around the time they were published and then, after revolting in horror, tore up and threw in the waste basket. The newsletters contain some really stupid, crass, mean statements about MLK and some prominent African-American politicians. Probably that was the worst of it, although most of what the TNR article quoted was pretty ridiculous and asinine. They were obviously (to me, even, at the time) not actually written by Paul, and, I later learned, were not even reviewed by him before they were published in his newsletter. Some of them have been the subject of controversy in libertarian circles ever since they were published. (See, e.g., Who Wrote Ron Paul's Newsletters? - Reason, 01/16/08) RP explained these newsletters recently, in response to the Kirchick hitpiece. RP's explanation and apology is reported several places on the web, including at the Huffington Post on 01-08-08. Here is what RP had to say:
"The quotations in The New Republic article are not mine and do not represent what I believe or have ever believed. I have never uttered such words and denounce such small-minded thoughts.
"In fact, I have always agreed with Martin Luther King, Jr. that we should only be concerned with the content of a person's character, not the color of their skin. As I stated on the floor of the U.S. House on April 20, 1999: 'I rise in great respect for the courage and high ideals of Rosa Parks who stood steadfastly for the rights of individuals against unjust laws and oppressive governmental policies.'
"This story is old news and has been rehashed for over a decade. It's once again being resurrected for obvious political reasons on the day of the New Hampshire primary.
"When I was out of Congress and practicing medicine full-time, a newsletter was published under my name that I did not edit. Several writers contributed to the product. For over a decade, I have publically taken moral responsibility for not paying closer attention to what went out under my name."
As to RP accepting donations from some very few people who are later found to be racists and then, when confronted with the information about the political views of those donors, refusing to do the Politically Correct thing and return their money, I can only say that this does not make him a racist any more than Hillary Clinton accepting $854,462 in campaign contributions from the health-care industry in 2005 and 2006 makes her a Running Dog of Health Care Capitalism.
However, being a current Ron Paul supporter (who will probably vote for Obama in the general if RP doesn't, by some miracle, win the Republican Party's nomination), and being, also, a politically active lifelong vocal opponent of racism in all its forms, every time I read or hear that RP decided not to give back that $500 donation from those "Stormfront" pieces of crap, I feel as if a dagger has been plunged into my stomach and twisted around for good measure.
:-( Ouch!! Stop poking me.
You would think after all these years I would have developed a thicker skin. <sigh>