Box Turtle Bulletin
News and commentary about the anti-gay lobby“Now you must raise your children up in a world where that union of man and box turtle is on the same legal footing as man and wife…”
News and commentary about the anti-gay lobbyJanuary 28th, 2012
As we have said many times before, it is inconceivable that Texas Rep. Ron Paul, who is waging a libertarian campaign for the GOP presidential nomination, could not have known about the many scores of newsletters that went out under his name for the better part of the decade containing virulently homophobic, racist, anti-Semitic, rants embedded with some of the most incredibly imaginative conspiracy theories which would gave Art Bell a run for his secretly-stashed bullion. Paul has tried to distance himself from those newsletters, claiming that only “eight or ten sentences” were offensive (I’m still waiting to see how he narrows the tranche down to “eight to ten sentences”) and besides, he didn’t pay any attention to what he sold — and sold at a very handsome profit — under his own name.
But squaring the incredibly neanderthalic views expressed in the newsletters with his votes in Congress (he voted to repeal DADT, for example) and his positions in the GOP debates has represented one of the greater mysteries in politics. Today, the Washington Post reveals that there’s no mystery to it whatsoever. In fact, the explanation couldn’t be simpler: it all comes down to the root of all evils, the love of money. According to the Post, Paul was a “sharp-eyed businessman” whose company, Ron Paul & Associates, published the newsletters, with Paul himself signing off on articles and speaking to his staff on a daily basis:
It was his newsletter, and it was under his name, so he always got to see the final product… He would proof it,” said Renae Hathway, a former secretary in Paul’s company and a supporter of the Texas congressman…
A person involved in Paul’s businesses, who spoke on condition of anonymity to avoid criticizing a former employer, said Paul and his associates decided in the late 1980s to try to increase sales by making the newsletters more provocative. They discussed adding controversial material, including racial statements, to help the business, the person said.
“It was playing on a growing racial tension, economic tension, fear of government,” said the person, who supports Paul’s economic policies but is not backing him for president. “I’m not saying Ron believed this stuff. It was good copy. Ron Paul is a shrewd businessman.”
Ed Crane, longtime president of the Cato Institute, met with Paul during this time and they both concurred that “people with extreme views” were more likely to respond to sales pitches. Paul told Crane that he got his best response from ads taken out in the anti-Semitic and racist newspaper Spotlight. That led to a calculated strategy that proved to be a gold mine for Paul. In 1984, Paul was in debt to the tune of $765,000. By 1995 toward the end of his run of newsletters, his net worth was $3.3 million. It’s the oldest trick in the book: incitement for influence, demagoguery for dinero, provocation for power. It’s worked for everyone from Coughlin to Goebbels to McCarthy to the Family “Research” Council. How’s that for integrity?
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Tony P
January 28th, 2012
For the love of money. How interesting.
And that part about the more sales for the more disgusting shit? Damnation!
Ben In Oakland
January 28th, 2012
I wish you would stop slandering neanderthals. We’re embarassed by ron paul.
Ray Harwick
January 28th, 2012
Really! It’s the blue print for every anti-gay con artist you can name.
Ron
January 28th, 2012
So he’s either a con, a racist, a liar or an incompetent…which one is it?
WMDKitty
January 28th, 2012
@Ron — All of the above.
Fernando
January 29th, 2012
You convinced me, Jim. I had been following this issue mainly through Andrew Sullivan’s Dish; I saw with perplexity his initial endorsement, and I was more than relieved by his subsequent change of opinion.
But your analysis was clearer and more straightforward. This is definitive: the guy has no dignity. He knowingly did this for money – he knowingly contributed to so much racial- and homophobic-caused suffering. If that’s not the definition of ‘blood money’, what then? Shame on him.
And I must add: no excuses of him will be enough, unless he go for full restitution, political and monetary, of the damage he has contributed to cause. For money, of all things.
As for explanation… I guess some of us were blinded trying to find some light in the darkest field of GOP runners in many, many election cycles… Bush 43 appears like a compassionate stateman, when compared with the current crop…
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