A.J. Weberman on Ron Paul
Ed.--This is a pretty good set of personal observations by a Jewish activist on Ron Paul and the people he surrounds himself with. I too stumbled upon Spotlight (a defunct anti-Semitic/right wing extremist paper), speaking for myself in the early 90s, and agree with his conclusion: Ron Paul is an authoritarian fascist and a race baiter, a demagogue, a liar. Paul is a sad reminder of the failings of American Populism just over a century ago too, the fixation on the gold standard-and-all...as well as the baggage of anti-Semitism.
Make no mistake: This man, and more specifically, the people who are his base, are an incredibly dangerous political phenomenon on the American landscape. Worst of all are his Christian Identity connections. His son Rand (named after Ayn Rand) has been put on the SPLC's watch list not long ago, and for good reason. These people are scarier than you think. The scariest part is that there are numbskulls on the left (really arch-conservative flakes) who are being swayed by him out of desperation and a desire for expediency, for immediate change. Yeah, we'd get change alright--an even greater acceleration of the move towards corporate tyranny and a more openly racialist state.
Postscript: Again, I don't agree with all of Weberman's contentions, historical or otherwise, but the raw data is there. I do agree that Paul is a demagogue, a Christian Identity freak and a corporatist, a bad populist.
Weberman labels Ron Paul a Nazi, however there is some irony in this that it is very hard for educated people to overlook. Nazi is short for national socialist, governments who utilize socialist rhetoric and nationalistic principles to achieve their ends (which in the case of Hitler was the murder of the Jews). Libertarianism, to which Ron Paul subscribes, is the political opposite of socialism. Libertarian ideals oppose socialism diametrically, and highlight that it is just these philosophies that allow tyrants to rise to power. Libertarianism emphasizes capitalism over socialism and individualism over nationalism. This philosophy has appeal to all groups because it does not allow one group to exert influence over another as socialism does, and certainly this has attracted a lot of fringe elements as well who would just as soon not have the government interfering in their lives. However, proponents of the Isreali government are painting with a broad brush. Why is it that they dislike Ron Paul? The short answer is that Ron Paul does not support the US policy of military support for Isreal. Why does Ron Paul feel this way? Because Isreal is involved in a war of aggression against Palestinians. To summarize, he does not want to assist a nationalistic government in a war of aggression. And so he is called a Nazi. Pure irony.
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