Politics: Is Ron Paul a racist?
Libertarians, nominally at least, believe in equality and individual liberty. They believe every individual should be treated an an individual, and not lumped into a class and judged on that basis. But the fact is that there are quite a few people calling themselves Libertarians who are use the sort of verbiage that appeared in a document called the “Ron Paul Political Report” back in the early 1990s. From the CNN article:
The controversial newsletters include rants against the Israeli lobby, gays, AIDS victims and Martin Luther King Jr. — described as a “pro-Communist philanderer.” One newsletter, from June 1992, right after the LA riots, says “order was only restored in L.A. when it came time for the blacks to pick up their welfare checks.”
Another says, “The criminals who terrorize our cities — in riots and on every non-riot day — are not exclusively young black males, but they largely are. As children, they are trained to hate whites, to believe that white oppression is responsible for all black ills, to ‘fight the power,’ to steal and loot as much money from the white enemy as possible.”
In some excerpts, the reader may be led to believe the words are indeed from Paul, a resident of Lake Jackson, Texas. In the “Ron Paul Political Report” from October 1992, the writer describes carjacking as the “hip-hop thing to do among the urban youth who play unsuspecting whites like pianos.”
The author then offers advice from others on how to avoid being carjacked, including “an ex-cop I know,” and says, “I frankly don’t know what to make of such advice, but even in my little town of Lake Jackson, Texas, I’ve urged everyone in my family to know how to use a gun in self defense. For the animals are coming.”
In his interview with CNN, Paul said that’s language he would never use. “People who know me, nobody is going to believe this,” he said. “That’s just not my language. It’s not my life.”
He added, “Martin Luther King, Rosa Parks, Ghandi, they’re the heroes [of my life].”
But I can assure those not familiar with the Libertarian Party that the movement sure does attract people with extremist views. One of those extremist views is one that Paul certainly does share, namely that the North were the bad guys in the Civil War and that Abraham Lincoln is the tyrant.
Paul denies he wrote this stuff.
Well, then, who did? It has Paul’s name on it. If he’s a good libertarian, he ought to accept responsibility.
Billy Dennis is a former reporter and editor at small daily and weekly newspapers in Illinois and Missouri. He comments on media, news and politics. He also owns and operates 
MLK wasn’t a “pro-Communist philanderer”?
His views might not seem that extreme in Texas. Oddly, he was born and spent his childhood in Pennsylvania.
There is no uniform consensus on the Civil War. There are many who beleive that the Southern States had every right to succeed from the United States; some states even had clauses put into their acceptance of the US Constitution that they could, indeed, leave. Lincoln was also critized for trampling on civil rights during the war. I think one can respectfully disagree with today’s “PC” version of the Civil War without being a radical. However, we shoul dnot judge people by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character and their actions. Targeting groups is wrong!