Thursday, December 22, 2011

Washing Off the Mud Before it's Flung

If Ron Paul wins Iowa, there will be more mud flung his way than he has ever experienced in his political career. A lot of it will focus on the typical stuff: his isolationism and libertarian stances on drugs, etc. He will stand his ground on that, as always, and there are plenty of people who agree with him (whether those people will vote in the republican primary in South Carolina is another issue!). But one thing that hasn't really come up yet that undoubtedly will is Paul's "racist pamphlet", published under his name in the 1990's.

This pamphlet ran for several years and contained several extreme, right wing, conspiracy-sniffing, and generally unsightly ideas. Among them were several racist comments, including slights on Martin Luther King Jr. Day and the LA Riots. These are the facts.

Ron Paul's response? He never wrote them. He had a team of 6-8 people working on his staff who handled, and published, the newsletter. He has not said which member(s) of the team wrote them, and has said he doesn't know. He has said that he "regrets" that they were written under his name, but that he certainly didn't write them himself and "doesn't believe that" so he "sleeps easy at night" knowing it wasn't him.

These are already being brought up again, and my fear is that if Ron Paul wins the Iowa Caucus, all his competitors will stoop so low as to call him a racist to incite negative publicity. And when they do, we Paul supporters need to know how to respond. The only thing Ron can say is that he didn't write them, and perhaps attack the media for doing more mudslinging. Will that be enough to stave off the attacks? Will that stop it from being a lingering question that doggs his campaign? Probably not. We need to put the issue to bed before then. The best way to do this is to counter with all the evidence from Paul's career, including excerpts taken long before these pamphlets were posted, about how ANTI-racist his platform is. In fact, we need to spread the message about how a Ron Paul presidency would be the best thing that has happened to minorities in this country for a long time.

This is for several reasons. Firstly, he would promote and establish full equality under the law. He would stop classifying people in groups, and emphasize individual rights instead of group rights. Minorities would stop being referred to in government documents and census papers as "blacks" or "Latinos" or "Jews" or anything else, but as individuals who happened to be black, Latino, or Jewish. They would have the same rights, and receive the same benefits, and the same treatment as anybody else, instead of being segmented into their own little group and taught to be dependent on the government instead of dependent on themselves. John Stossel wrote a great piece on this here, describing how it relates to Native Americans in particular.

Secondly, he would end the war on drugs, which is widely known to disproportionately target minorities. For more on this, read these stats and quotes. By legalizing marijuana and other harmless drugs, Paul would free hundreds of thousands of minorities an enable them to get a job, support their family, and move on. Minority tensions with police officers would also be greatly reduced, because cops wouldn't have to arrest them for these nonviolent offenses, and minorities wouldn't have cops looking over their shoulder and getting in their personal lives. Also, violent crime would greatly decrease, because if the drugs were legal, the black market would be forced out of business by an open, safe, legal market. Gone would be the days where armed cartels have to smuggle it in through Mexico, or where dealers compete for selling turf through gang wars, or street justice is carried out on people who sell fake stuff. Also, it would cost less, because legalizing it would not increase demand, but it would free up the supply; that means people who use it (especially poor minorities) would have more money left over to improve their standard of living.

As somebody on DailyPaul.com observed earlier today, Ron Paul has been saying all of this for years, long before those pamphlets were published. He posted the following quotes by Paul as "exhibits" demonstrating how non-racist, and actually pro-minority, Paul's libertarian platform really is. It is much more convincing evidence of Paul's real beliefs than a simple "hey, I didn't write it", which is why it's so imperative that we get it out there so that Paul's campaign isn't unjustly derailed by false accusations.
Exhibit A: Vociferously Supports an Anti-Racist Agenda
"Libertarianism is the enemy of all racism, because racism is a collectivist idea that you put people in categories. You say, well blacks belong here, and whites here, and women here and we don't see people in forms..or gays. You don't have rights because your gays, or women or minorities, you have rights because you’re an individual. So we see people strictly as individuals. We get these individuals in a natural way. So it's exactly opposite of all collectivism and it's absolutely anti-racism because we don't see it in those terms. "
-Ron Paul on Bill Moyers Journal, January 4, 2008
Exhibit B: Ferociously Insists that Courts and The Death Penalty are Racist
“That’s a pretty good question. Because people, somebody asked me yesterday, "When was the last time you ever changed your opinion? And I said well, it's been a while since I've had a major change of opinion, but I try to understand and study and figure out how things work you know and become better at economics and all. But on that issue (the death penalty), I did have a change of opinion. And I stated this in the debates last go around, they asked…they asked a similar question, ‘when did you change your opinion last?’ And uh, and it, that was just not overnight, but I, my position now is, that since I'm a federal official and I would be a U.S. president, is I do not believe in the federal death penalty and in my book “Liberty Defined”, I explain in it more detail , but basically I make the argument for, uh, against the death penalty but I would not come and say the federal government and the federal courts should tell the states they can't have the death penalty anymore. I don’t go that far. But no, I just don't think the uh ..with the scientific evidence now- I think I read an article yesterday on the death penalty, and 68 percent of the time they make mistakes. And it’s so racist, too. I think more than half the people getting the death penalty are poor blacks. This is the one place, the one remnant of racism in our country is in the court system, enforcing the drug laws and enforcing the death penalty. I don’t even know, but I wonder how many of those, how many have been executed? Over 200, I wonder how many were minorities? You know, if you're rich, you usually don't meet the death penalty.”
-Ron Paul, Interview with the Concord Monitor Editorial Board, August 18, 2011
Exhibit C: Stubbornly Refuses to Deny That Government Legalized Racism is Cruel and Unjust
“No form of political organization, therefore, is immune to cruel abuses like the Jim Crow laws, whereby government sets out to legislate on how groups of human beings are allowed to interact with one another.
Peaceful civil disobedience to unjust laws, which I support with every fiber of my being, can sometimes be necessary at any level of government. It falls upon the people, in the last resort, to stand against injustice no matter where it occurs.
In the long run, the only way racism can be overcome is through the philosophy of individualism, which I have promoted throughout my life. Our rights come to us not because we belong to some group, but our rights come to us as individuals. And it is as individuals that we should judge one another.
Racism is a particularly odious form of collectivism whereby individuals are treated not on their merits but on the basis of group identity. Nothing in my political philosophy, which is the exact opposite of the racial totalitarianism of the twentieth century, gives aid or comfort to such thinking. To the contrary, my philosophy of individualism is the most radical intellectual challenge to racism ever posed.
Government exacerbates racial thinking and undermines individualism because its very existence encourages people to organize along racial lines in order to lobby for benefits for their group. That lobbying, in turn, creates animosity and suspicion among all groups, each of which believes that it is getting less of its fair share than the others.
Instead, we should quit thinking in terms of race—yes, in 2008 it is still necessary to say that we should Stop thinking in terms of race—and recognize that freedom and prosperity benefit all Americans.”
-Ron Paul, ‘The Revolution: A Manifesto”, 2008
http://books.google.com/b...
Exhibit D: Refuses to Deny that Courts Discriminate Against Minorities
“But in order to attract Latino votes, I think, you know, too long this country has always put people in groups. They penalize people because they’re in groups, and then they reward people because they’re in groups.
But following up on what Newt was saying, we need a healthy economy, we wouldn’t be talking about this. We need to see everybody as an individual. And to me, seeing everybody as an individual means their liberties are protected as individuals and they’re treated that way and they’re never penalized that way.
So if you have a free and prosperous society, all of a sudden this group mentality melts away. As long as there’s no abuse — one place where there’s still a lot of discrimination in this country is in our court systems. And I think the minorities come up with a short hand in our court system."
-Ron Paul, CNN Western Republican Debate, October 18, 2011
Exhibit E: Refuses to Back the Unfair Punishment of Minorities
"A system designed to protect individual liberty will have no punishments for any group and no privileges.
Today, I think inner-city folks and minorities are punished unfairly in the war on drugs.
For instance, Blacks make up 14% of those who use drugs, yet 36 percent of those arrested are Blacks and it ends up that 63% of those who finally end up in prison are Blacks. This has to change.
We don’t have to have more courts and more prisons. We need to repeal the whole war on drugs. It isn’t working. We have already spent over $400 billion since the early 1970s, and it is wasted money. Prohibition didn’t work. Prohibition on drugs doesn’t work. So we need to come to our senses. And, absolutely, it’s a disease. We don’t treat alcoholics like this. This is a disease, and we should orient ourselves to this. That is one way you could have equal justice under the law."
-Ron Paul, 2007 GOP Presidential Forum at Morgan State University, September 27, 2007
Exhibit F: Vehemently Insists that Drug Wars Harms Blacks and Other Minorities Disproportionately
“…the federal war on drugs has wrought disproportionate harm on minority communities.
Allowing for states’ rights here would surely be an improvement, for the states could certainly do a better and more sensible job than the federal government has been doing if they were free to decide the issue for themselves. And although people studying my record will discover how consistent I have been over the years, they will uncover one major shift: in recent years I have dropped my support for the federal death penalty.
It is a dangerous power for the federal government to have, and it is exercised in a discriminatory way: if you are poor and black, you are much more likely to receive this punishment.
We should not think in terms of whites, blacks, Hispanics, and other such groups. That kind of thinking only divides us. The only us-versus-them thinking in which we might indulge is the people—all the people— versus the government, which loots and lies to us all, threatens our liberties, and shreds our Constitution.
That’s not a white or black issue. That’s an American issue, and it’s one on which Americans of all races can unite in a spirit of goodwill. That may be why polls in 2007 found ours the most popular Republican campaign among black voters.”
-Ron Paul, “The Revolution: A Manifesto”, 2008
http://books.google.com/b...
Exhibit G: Openly Admits That Skin Color should be Irrelevant in Society. That Racism is a Sin.
“Racism is simply an ugly form of collectivism, the mindset that views humans only as members of groups and never as individuals. Racists believe that all individuals who share superficial physical characteristics are alike; as collectivists, racists think only in terms of groups. By encouraging Americans to adopt a group mentality, the advocates of so-called “diversity” actually perpetuate racism. Their intense focus on race is inherently racist, because it views individuals only as members of racial groups.
Conservatives and libertarians should fight back and challenge the myth that collectivist liberals care more about racism. Modern liberalism, however, well-intentioned, is a byproduct of the same collectivist thinking that characterizes racism. The continued insistence on group thinking only inflames racial tensions.
The true antidote to racism is liberty. Liberty means having a limited, constitutional government devoted to the protection of individual rights rather than group claims.
Liberty means free-market capitalism, which rewards individual achievement and competence, not skin color, gender, or ethnicity. In a free market, businesses that discriminate lose customers, goodwill, and valuable employees- while rational businesses flourish by choosing the most qualified employees and selling to all willing buyers. More importantly, in a free society every citizen gains a sense of himself as an individual, rather than developing a group or victim mentality.
This leads to a sense of individual responsibility and personal pride, making skin color irrelevant. Rather than looking to government to correct what is essentially a sin of the heart, we should understand that reducing racism requires a shift from group thinking to an emphasis on individualism.”
-Ron Paul, “What Really Divides Us”, December 23, 2002
http://www.ronpaularchive...
Exhibit G: Despises Political and Media Code Words for Racism.
“Worst of all, the left has gotten away with using “extreme” as a code word for “racist.” The exceedingly thin “evidence” given for the racism allegation is that Ashcroft once voted against the nomination of a federal judge who happened to be black. Never mind that more than 50 other Senators voted with Ashcroft; the left is all to eager to assure us that the only conceivable rationale is that Ashcroft is a racist. This type of smearing, aided and abetted by a complicit media, is at the heart of the left’s efforts to demonize conservatives who dare oppose their unconstitutional agenda.”
– Ron Paul, “The Ashcroft Controversy Exposes Disdain for Conservative Principles”, January 22, 2001
Exhibit H: Hates Racist Government Stereotyping of Wants and Needs
“One of the worst aspects of the census is its focus on classifying people by race. When government tells us it wants information to help any given group, it assumes every individual who shares certain physical characteristics has the same interests, or wants the same things from government. This is an inherently racist and offensive assumption. The census, like so many federal policies and programs, inflames racism by encouraging Americans to see themselves as members of racial groups fighting each other for a share of the federal pie.”
-Ron Paul, “None of Your Business”, July 12, 2004
http://www.ronpaularchive...
Exhibit I: Hates Racist and Xenophobic Government Profiling
“We can think back no further than July of 1996, when a plane carrying several hundred people suddenly and mysteriously crashed off the coast of Long Island. Within days, Congress had passed emergency legislation calling for costly new security measures, including a controversial “screening” method which calls for airlines to arbitrarily detain passengers just because the person meets certain criteria which border on racist and xenophobic.”
-Ron Paul, “Emotion Should Never Dictate Policy”, January 12, 1998
http://www.ronpaularchive...
Exhibit K and L: Despises Racist Laws that Intend to Harm What others Called “Cheap Colored Labor”
“The racist effects of Davis-Bacon are no mere coincidence. In fact, many original supporters of Davis-Bacon, such as Representative Clayton Allgood, bragged about supporting Davis-Bacon as a means of keeping cheap colored labor out of the construction industry.”
-Ron Paul, “Repeal of the Davis-Bacon Law”, October 23, 1997, Before the House of Representatives
http://www.ronpaularchive...
“The racist effects of Davis-Bacon are no mere coincidence. In fact, many original supporters of Davis-Bacon, such as Representative Clayton Allgood, bragged about supporting Davis-Bacon as a means of keeping `cheap colored labor’ out of the construction industry.”
-Ron Paul, “Introducing the Davis-Bacon Repeal Act”, February 11, 1999, Before the House of Representatives http://www.ronpaularchive...
Exhibit M: Hates Foreign Aid to African Dictators Who Turn Aid into a “Power to Impoverish” their People
African poverty is rooted in government corruption, corruption that actually is fostered by western aid. We should ask ourselves a simple question: Why is private capital so scarce in Africa? The obvious answer is that many African nations are ruled by terrible men who pursue disastrous economic policies. As a result, American aid simply enriches dictators, distorts economies, and props up bad governments. We could send Africa $1 trillion, and the continent still would remain mired in poverty simply because so many of its nations reject property rights, free markets, and the rule of law. As commentator Joseph Potts explains, western money enables dictators like Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe to gain and hold power without the support of his nation’s people. African rulers learn to manipulate foreign governments and obtain an independent source of income, which makes them far richer and more powerful than any of their political rivals. Once comfortably in power, and much to the horror of the western governments that funded them, African dictators find their subjects quite helpless and dependent. Potts describes this process as giving African politicians the “power to impoverish.”
-Ron Paul, “What Should Americans do for Africa?”, July 11, 2005, Before the House of Representatives
http://www.ronpaularchive...
Exhibit O: Insists on Congratulating our First African-American President. MLK “Would be Proud”
“With the election behind us, our country turns hopeful eyes to the future. I have a few hopes of my own. I congratulate our first African-American president-elect. Martin Luther King, Jr. certainly would be proud to see this day. We are stronger for embracing diversity, and I am hopeful that we can continue working through the tensions and wrongs of the past and become a more just and colorblind society. I hope this new administration will help bring us together, and not further divide us. I have always found that freedom is the best way to break down barriers. A free society emphasizes the importance of individuals, and not because they are part of a certain group. That’s the only way equal justice can be achieved.”
-Ron Paul, “Hope for the Future”, November 9, 2008
http://www.ronpaularchive...
Exhibit P:
“After 200 years, the constitutional protection of the right of the individual to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness is virtually gone. Today’s current terminology describing rights reflects this sad change. It is commonplace for politicians and those desiring special privileges to refer to: black rights, Hispanic rights, handicap rights, employee rights, student rights, minority rights, women’s rights, gay rights, children’s rights, student rights, Asian-American rights, Jewish rights, AIDS victims’ rights, poverty rights, homeless rights, etc. Unless all the terms are dropped & we recognize that only an individual has rights, the solution to the mess in which we find ourselves will not be found. The longer we lack of definition of rights, the worse the economic and social problems will be.”
-Ron Paul, “Freedom Under Siege”, by Ron Paul, p. 14-15 Dec 31, 1987

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