POLITICS DECEMBER 23, 2011
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For years, Ron Paul published a series of newsletters that dispensed political news and investment advice, but also routinely indulged in bigotry. Here's a selection of some especially inflammatory passages, with links to scanned images of the original documents in which they appeared.
Race
“A Special Issue on Racial Terrorism” analyzes the Los Angeles riots of 1992: “Order was only restored in L.A. when it came time for the blacks to pick up their welfare checks three days after rioting began. ... What if the checks had never arrived? No doubt the blacks would have fully privatized the welfare state through continued looting. But they were paid off and the violence subsided.”
The November 1990 issue of the Political Report had kind words for David Duke.
This December 1990 newsletter describes Martin Luther King Jr. as “a world-class adulterer” who “seduced underage girls and boys” and “replaced the evil of forced segregation with the evil of forced integration.”
A February 1991 newsletter attacks “The X-Rated Martin Luther King.”
An October 1990 edition of the Political Report ridicules black activists, led by Al Sharpton, for demonstrating at the Statue of Liberty in favor of renaming New York City after Martin Luther King. The newsletter suggests that “Welfaria,” “Zooville,” “Rapetown,” “Dirtburg,”and “Lazyopolis ” would be better alternatives—and says, “Next time, hold that demonstration at a food stamp bureau or a crack house.”
A May 1990 issue of the Ron Paul Political Report cites Jared Taylor, who six months later would go onto found the eugenicist and white supremacist periodical American Renaissance.
The January 1993 issue of the Survival Report worries about America’s “disappearing white majority.”
The July 1992 Ron Paul Political Report declares, “Jury verdicts, basketball games, and even music are enough to set off black rage, it seems,” and defends David Duke. The author of the newsletter—presumably Paul—writes, “My youngest son is starting his fourth year in medical school. He tells me there would be no way to persuade his fellow students of the case for economic liberty.”
A March 1993 Survival Report describes Bill Clinton’s supposedly “illegitimate children, black and white: ‘woods colts’ in backwoods slang.”
Gays
The December 1989 Ron Paul Political Report contains entries on a “new form of racial terrorism,” cites former Congressman Bill Dannemeyer’s claim that “the average homosexual has 1,000 or more partners in a lifetime,” and quotes Lew Rockwell, president of the Ludwig von Mises Institute, in the third person.
In January 1990, the Ron Paul Political Report cites “a well-known libertarian editor” who “told me: ‘The ACT-UP slogan on stickers plastered all over Manhattan is ‘Silence=Death.’ But shouldn’t it be Sodomy = Death’?”
The September 1994 issue of the Ron Paul Survival Report states that “those who don’t commit sodomy, who don’t get blood a transfusion, and who don’t swap needles, are virtually assured of not getting AIDS unless they are deliberately infected by a malicious gay.”
The June 1990 issue of the Political Report says: “I miss the closet. Homosexuals, not to speak of the rest of society, were far better off when social pressure forced them to hide their activities.”
A January 1994 edition of the Survival Report states that "gays in San Francisco do not obey the dictates of good sense," adding: "[T]hese men don't really see a reason to live past their fifties. They are not married, they have no children, and their lives are centered on new sexual partners." Also, "they enjoy the attention and pity that comes with being sick."
Survivalism and Militias
The January 1995 issue of the Survival Report—released just three months before the Oklahoma City bombing—cites an anti-government militia’s advice to other militias, including, “Don’t fire unless fired upon, but if they mean to have a war, let it begin here.”
The October 1992 issue of the Political Report paraphrases an “ex-cop” who offers this strategy for protecting against “urban youth”: “If you have to use a gun on a youth, you should leave the scene immediately, disposing of the wiped off gun as soon as possible. Such a gun cannot, of course, be registered to you, but one bought privately (through the classifieds, for example).”
Conspiracies
This 1978 newsletter says the Trilateral Commission is “no longer known only by those who are knowledgeable about international conspiracies, but is routinely mentioned in the daily news.”
Middle East
A 1989 newsletter compares Salman Rushdie to Ernst Zundel, a Canadian Holocaust-denier.
Anti-Government Paranoia/Conspiracy Theories/Survivalism
A fundraising letter from Paul’s 1984 Senate campaign in which Paul complains about the “minions of Kissinger and Rockefeller” and “the big New York banks, and their pals in Texas” who “want me silenced.”
The January 1988 Ron Paul Political Report approvingly cites Dr. William C. Douglass, who “believes that AIDS is a deliberately engineered hybrid” developed at a World Health Organization experiment conducted at Ft. Detrick. Douglass has long been a fringe medical guru, and today claims that “smoking can help you live longer!!!”
The November 1989 Ron Paul Political Report reports on the Bohemian Grove and Ronald Reagan’s “old Trilateralist agenda item of four-year terms for Congressmen.”
This 1993 Ron Paul Strategy Guide entitled, “How to Protect Yourself from Urban Violence,” is a special supplement to the Ron Paul Survival Report.
In the April 1993 Ron Paul Survival Report, the author—writing in the first person—states, “Whether [the 1993 World Trade Center bombing] was a setup by the Israeli Mossad, as a Jewish friend of mine suspects, or was truly a retaliation by the Islamic fundamentalists, matters little.” The newsletters also warns readers to “do your very best to keep your family away from inner cities. If you can’t, have a haven remote from the metropolitan areas.”
The May 1995 issue of the Ron Paul Survival Report warns of “The Trilateralist Alan Greenspan” and its author writes, “Now that my five children are grown and educated, I’ve listened to the many supporters who’ve urged me to return to office. I can now give up my medical practice, and dedicate every fiber of my being to saving our country.” The newsletter also contains an advertisement for the Ron Paul congressional exploratory committee.
The September 1995 issue of the Ron Paul Survival Report asks about “Black Helicopters?”
The June 1996 issue of the Ron Paul Survival Report refers to Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms officers as “Jackbooted Thugs.”
Jews
The November 1992 Ron Paul Survival Report defends chess champion and Holocaust-denier Bobby Fischer, saying that “the brilliant Fischer, who has all the makings of an American hero, is very politically incorrect on Jewish questions, for which he will never be forgiven, even though he is a Jew. Thus we are not supposed to herald him as the world’s greatest chess player.”
Pat Buchanan
In January 1992, Paul writes about his consideration of a presidential bid which he dashed after Pat Buchanan expressed his intention to run. Paul wrote of “the essential compatibility between [Buchanan’s] ideas and mine” and “agreed to serve as the chairman of his economic advisory committee.”
A 1992 issue of the Rothbard-Rockwell-Report tells of Paul’s decision to defer to Pat Buchanan in the 1992 Republican presidential primary.
Newsletter Authorship
The masthead of March 1987 Ron Paul Investment Letter lists “the Hon. Ron Paul” as “Editor and Publisher” and “Llewellyn H. Rockwell Jr.” as one of several contributing editors.
An undated personal solicitation letter—signed by Paul—asking the recipient to subscribe to his newsletter in anticipation of (presumably) the 1988 Libertarian Party Presidential nominating convention.
The April 1988 Ron Paul Investment Letter lists Paul as Editor.
The May 1988 Ron Paul Investment Letter lists Lew Rockwell as Editor. It also advertises books by the far-right conspiracy theorist Gary Allen, who was a contributing editor to the Ron Paul Investment Letter.
12 comments
Is Lew Rockwell any relation to American Nazi George Lincoln Rockwell?
- MrCookie1
December 23, 2011 at 12:09pm
Not to defend Ron Paul's views, but, for better or for worse, he has acknowedged and disavowed these positions both now and previously. So shall we stop playing "Gotcha!" and instead move on to consider his substantive views as they have been raised in the present campaign?
- gnathan
December 23, 2011 at 1:38pm
The January 1994 piece listed above about AIDS seems to be mostly a summary straight from a NY Times Article of December 1993. The piece even references the NY Times. http://www.nytimes.com/1993/12/11/us/second-wave-of-aids-feared-by-officials-in-san-francisco.html?pagewanted=all&src=pm
- HRoark
December 23, 2011 at 4:49pm
"A 1989 newsletter compares Salman Rushdie to Ernst Zundel, a Canadian Holocaust-denier." This is a very odd comparison, and I can't help but wonder what would drive someone to make it. Would it be possible to see the comparison in its original context?
- hashmalum
December 23, 2011 at 5:37pm
The December 1989 Ron Paul Political Report...cites former Congressman Bill Dannemeyer’s claim that “the average homosexual has 1,000 or more partners in a lifetime,” Jealosy will get you nowhere, people.
- Tristan
December 23, 2011 at 5:53pm
Please provide the complete bylines of authorship per alleged comment for that specific newsletter each alleged comment appears. You failed to quote each comment in full context and for some quote no comment at all but simply editorialize. Some of the comments you do quote are about the newsletter quoting someone else's comments. You are thus attempting to associate Ron Paul's views with a third person's comments quoted in an article he did not write - pathetic.
- poptech
December 23, 2011 at 9:49pm
gnathan If President Bush had invaded Iraq and then, upon learning that the reasons provided for justification turned out to be untrue and then, instead of accepting responsibility for incompetence, he announced, "Well, the world is better off without Saddam Hussein," would you say: "Okay, that's over with. Let's move on." The problem for me is that Paul doesn't say why he disavows the newsletter. He doesn't preach its evils. He says only, "I disavowed it."
- Nusholtz
December 24, 2011 at 7:56am
I think that there is a whole lotta got to be gotcha-ed here with Paul. This is not adolescent folly but the expression of racial hate and bigotry. Not so easily swept under the rug like a youthful peccadillo. This guy wants to be President of the United States. Whether he likes it or not, he owns these comments because they came out under The Ron Paul Newsletter. It really is not that difficult.
- MrCookie1
December 24, 2011 at 12:59pm
@folks trying to get Ron Paul off the hook here; please. His name was on these newsletters, he published them and - he profited from them. I googled and the number was upwards of a million bucks. It's indefensible really; likewise the assertion that this was SO LONG AGO that it doesn't count. Well the 1980's and 1990's were not the age of the brontosaurus now were they.
- Sophia
December 24, 2011 at 2:33pm
Exactly, Soph. What's more, do Paul's actions - the alleged tepid disassociating - pass the smell test? Think about it. I am no public figure, but if I was someone published, under my name, a series of editorials that, for example, declared Jews to be at the cener of a worldwide conspiracy to rule and subjugate the world, that declared blacks to be an inferior race deserving subjugation, that there really as no such thing a "rape" because it is every man's prerogative to take whatever he wants from any woman at any time... if these vile things were printed, I would act as any of us would; I would fight with every resource, every ounce of energy to sue the publishers for every dime, and make it known to every living human being that I denounced every word, every twisted hateful position. I would not rest until my name because synonymous with fighting against this kind of slander. Has Paul done this? Has he done ANYTHING like this, ever?
- Tristan
December 24, 2011 at 9:38pm
Ron Paul has been exposed as somebody who pals around with the fascist right. Soon the little creep will be back on the fringe where he belongs. But the mainstream US right is philosemitic. Sadly, anti-Semitism is becoming more and more ensconced on the left. In Europe there is no question of this. But the US is not far behind. When are liberal Jews going to wake up and realize that they are being had?
- bulbman1066
December 24, 2011 at 11:19pm
Questioning the policies of the Israeli government does not make one an anti-Semite, Bulb. Like many on the right you seem eager to conflate the two things. But that is simply chicanery.
- Haole45
January 2, 2012 at 12:41pm