the infamous Ron Paul newsletters (and more Paul bits)

Posted on: Thu, 12/22/2011 - 11:30 By: Tom Swiss

I've been pointing out Ron Paul's history of publishing vile racist and homophobic newsletters for years. Now mrdestructo.com has found, scanned, and posted dozens of the documents in question. "Mobutu Sese Seko" also posits a possible explanation I had not considered: Paul is neither a racist nor incompetent to run a 'zine, but is deliberately publishing this crap to rile up support (and money) from racists.

Also on the Paul front, two demonstrations of his opposition to liberty: Paul once introduced a Constitutional amendment to allow the states to outlaw destruction of the flag (i.e., burning the flag in protest), and he has stated that there is no right to privacy and that states can legitimately outlaw consensual sexual behavior. (He also describes here his opposition to the separation of church and state, but that's old news.)

Note also how badly wrong Paul gets the Constitution here: Amendment IX does not only not grant any rights to the states, it says that "The enumeration in the Constitution of certain rights shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people." But that is exactly the argument that Paul is attempting to put forth here: there's no explicit right to privacy listed, so in direct contravention to the Constitution he wants to deny that it exists.

And Amendment X does not give any powers to the states, it says those powers not granted the fed rest with the states or with the the people. One cannot rationally read into the Tenth Amendment a state power to criminalize anything.

Paul is not pro-freedom, but merely anti-federalist. He is content to allow states and the wealthy to screw you over, just not the feds -- and he wants to disempower the federal courts from protecting your rights from the states.