79 Responses to “Classics of the Golden Age of Fringe, Or: Ron Paul Digs the Beatles’ White Album”

1. Lisa Graas
   December 23rd, 2011 @ 2:17 pm

   “core constituencies of kooks”. Yup.

2. AngelaTC
   December 23rd, 2011 @ 2:17 pm

   Good thing the war-mongering  neocons don’t use Islam to cash on on the fearmongering, isn’t it?  

   And I”m sure you already know that Buckley’s “newsletter”, the National Review, wrote lots and lots of gems like this:

   “In the Deep South the Negroes are retarded. Any effort to ignore the fact is sentimentalism or demagoguery. In the Deep South the essential relationship is organic, and the attempt to hand over to the Negro the raw political power with which to alter it is hardly a solution.”

   The same people telling me that Ron Paul is a racist are the same people telling me that Newt Romney is a conservative. I suppose the anti-semetic attacks are next on deck.

3. Anonymous
   December 23rd, 2011 @ 2:25 pm

   Yep — “mainstream” conservatism has its own closet full of politically incorrect skeletons you never read about in Heritage Foundation newsletters or the Weekly Standard.

4. guest
   December 23rd, 2011 @ 2:39 pm

   Yep the Paulies are out in full force.The next thing they will be trying to tell us is,Paul is so perfect tha his  $hit don’t stink!

5. Charles
   December 23rd, 2011 @ 2:42 pm

   In the classics category, I’d like to nominate the Alan Stang Report.  “This is Alan Stang… Think about it!”

6. Mortimer Snerd
   December 23rd, 2011 @ 2:47 pm

   Some of his ideas are very appealing to me.  For instance, his pledge to cut $1 trillion in spending in the first year.

7. K-Bob
   December 23rd, 2011 @ 2:47 pm

   The kooks just called.

   They said. “OMG, Stacy compared Ron Paul to Michaelangelo!”

   (I told them to read it again.)

8. Dave
   December 23rd, 2011 @ 2:48 pm

   His voting record is what disqualifies him (other than the fact that he’s batshit insane) for me. Slipping pork into bills he knows will pass and then “voting against them”. He’s a lying crapweasel.

9. Adjoran
   December 23rd, 2011 @ 2:50 pm

   This was not a single instance of a single newsletter, these things were repeated, more or less, in nearly every one.  And Paul was making millions from it at a time he was not in Congress and had no staff.  The only person working with him at the time was Lew Rockwell, and I’ve never heard Paul repudiate him, either.

   But the idea Paul was making most of his income from this newsletter but had no idea what was going out under his name is just not believable.  Only an idiot would swallow that.

   Anyone can dig up old conservative musings from the ’50s to find things our society would find objectionable today.  Paul was railing against blacks, gays, and Joos in the 1990s.

   If his followers are NOT racists, antisemitic, homophobic Truthers and conspiracy nuts, but “mainstream” libertarians who believe in that philosophy without the extremist hate-mongering, they could have supported Gary Johnson, former New Mexico Governor who has no such baggage.  Yet they are fanatically devoted to Paul.

   Perhaps there is a reason besides that stuff.  It sure isn’t his magnetic personality, is it? 

10. Adjoran
    December 23rd, 2011 @ 2:51 pm

    The difference being you have to go back half a century or so to find those examples, don’t you?  Whereas Paul is still Paul, isn’t he?

11. EBL
    December 23rd, 2011 @ 2:53 pm

    I thought Ron Paul was more a McCartney/Wings, Goldfinger sought of guy.  

12. K-Bob
    December 23rd, 2011 @ 2:53 pm

    I heard The Closet Skeleton Anti-Defamation Society has put this site on watch for potential skele-phobia.

    I told them there’s three “ho’s” in phohohobia.

13. richard mcenroe
    December 23rd, 2011 @ 3:01 pm

    Your conspiracy genius left out the barcoded necks and the implanted RFID chips.  Honestly, if he isn’t going to stay on  top of these things, he’s not much use…

14. richard mcenroe
    December 23rd, 2011 @ 3:05 pm

    Speaking o’ which, I just got passed by one’a them Google Earth street scene cars.  White Prius, with a whole bank of cameras taking a panorama of the street…

15. ThePaganTemple
    December 23rd, 2011 @ 3:18 pm

    Your first clue as to who the “unknown genius” was that wrote this might be found in the phrase “my training as a physician helps me see through this one”.

16. ThePaganTemple
    December 23rd, 2011 @ 3:20 pm

    Buckley stopped that nasty bugger-eating when he realized what a nasty habit it was. Paul just keeps on swallowing those big honkers though, doesn’t he?

17. richard mcenroe
    December 23rd, 2011 @ 3:21 pm

    I was using ‘unknown genius’ as in ‘who knew he was THAT effin batshit?’

18. richard mcenroe
    December 23rd, 2011 @ 3:22 pm

    BTW, does it wig anyone else out that this guy was staring up so many wimmin’s citizenship slipways?

19. EBL
    December 23rd, 2011 @ 4:00 pm

    sort of

    not sought. 

20. Pathfinder's wife
    December 23rd, 2011 @ 4:13 pm

    Uh, not if he’s an ob/gyn — come on; there are plenty of criticisms of the fellow without indulging in this sort of thing.

21. ThePaganTemple
    December 23rd, 2011 @ 4:16 pm

    I quoted that from Stacy’s post, Richard, it’s from a sentence under the quote from Paul’s newsletter.

22. Pathfinder's wife
    December 23rd, 2011 @ 4:21 pm

    This is one of the many things that the RP supporters have to address.  It’s ridiculous stuff, and their canidate should be held accountable for it.  They also need to realize that no matter how much they like their canidate, no matter how good some of his ideas are, this stuff ruins it all (I’m speaking to the non-kooks here).

    But I won’t lie: the idea of government overreach and growing control over people’s lives does strike a cord in me — my family has members not that long in the U.S., and so the memory of such things is still fresh and fearsome (and the knowledge of how these things come to be).  That’s why it would have been very preferrable in my eyes if Gary Johnson had gotten more notice during the GOP debates; I don’t agree with every Libertarian platform/idea, but the more voices the more choices, the better.

23. Anonymous
    December 23rd, 2011 @ 4:33 pm

    Actually, Paul’s newsletters circa 1989-94, while not precisely “mainstream Republican,” were not that far off of it for the time.

    NAFTA was gonna have us all speaking Spanish, if “the most left-wing president in American history” didn’t kill us all first, just like he killed Vince Foster for schtupping Hillary and Ron Brown for knowing too much, only for the rest of us he’d probably do it by providing LA’s black population with some of that cocaine he was running out of the Mena, Arkansas airport, giving them guns, and having them herd us all into FEMA camps for mass starvation.It was pretty much the “southern strategy” on steroids, and it was a tide that didn’t really start to recede until about the time Trent Lott got bitch-slapped after wishing retrospectively for a Dixiecrat victory in ’48.

    Paul could have pretty much put this behind him in 1996 or 2001 with a simple “yeah, I got a little overboard on the GOP red meat thing. It was wrong, I’m sorry, I won’t do it again.” Now it’s too late.

24. K-Bob
    December 23rd, 2011 @ 5:23 pm

    Hope you weren’t picking your nose!

25. Pathfinder's wife
    December 23rd, 2011 @ 5:29 pm

    …and yeah, that is what makes America great (plus, imho, a refreshing ability to really poke fun of itself in ways other peoples have not learned — nobody can skewer America like Americans, may it always be so).

    We are still a society that it would be hard to turn into brainless sheep led along by a select few pied pipers (and as history shows, those sheep wind up doing all manner of truly evil things and allowing the same).  So again, even if a lot of it is repugnant, ignorant, and just plain b(((t crazy….it’s still better to have it than the alternative where you can only speak the proper words and phrases.
     
    PS. looks like that pastor in Iowa that endorsed Santorum is now coming under scrutiny for bad behavior (over at Ace’s place); if true, this won’t help Santorum

26. Anonymous
    December 23rd, 2011 @ 5:40 pm

    Actually, that’s not hard. Just look at how many of the bills he voted against contained pork for his district and no chance of being stopped.

27. Anonymous
    December 23rd, 2011 @ 5:46 pm

    If you can point to a Republican presidential candidate (other than Dr. Paul) with those views, let me know.

28. Anonymous
    December 23rd, 2011 @ 5:48 pm

     If he’d ever sponsored a bill to actually do any of that before, I’d be more impressed. I mean, even Kucinich sponsored one to set up the Department of Peace.

29. EBL
    December 23rd, 2011 @ 6:15 pm

    But I have to send this out to all of you…including Ron Paul and Newt. 

    http://evilbloggerlady.blogspot.com/2011/12/thenicestplaceontheinternet.html

30. GNR
    December 23rd, 2011 @ 6:32 pm

    Unless  Superman throws his hat into the ring, we’re screwed.

31. Anonymous
    December 23rd, 2011 @ 6:55 pm

    Does the name Newt “Obama’s fucked up because he’s a Kenyan, and we live under gay and secular fascism” Gingrich ring any bells? And hell, that’s not 15 years ago, it’s now.

32. Anonymous
    December 23rd, 2011 @ 6:59 pm

    OK, at the risk (and it’s about 100%) of being accused of being a Paul-bot, let me attempt a little defense here.

    First the part about the “race war.” From this letter alone I really can’t tell what he is talking about. But the late 80s to early 90s is when Bush Sr’s “War on Drugs” started. And if you plug the words “DRUGS” and “WAR ON BLACKS” into Google you will find that a lot of perfectly respectable academics believe that there is a “race war” going on even now.

    About the “federal-homosexual cover-up on AIDS.” Again, there is nothing in this letter that specifies what he is speaking about. But I’m old enough to remember at least three distint phases in the AIDS saga….when Dianne Feinstein first tried to close the bath houses in San Francisco the homosexual community, or at least their leaders, went nuts and were in complete denial that AIDS was even associated with homosexuality.

    This was followed by claims that the Federal government (read Reagan) wasn’t doing anything to cure AIDS because they didn’t care about homosexuals, primarily a left-wing claim.The third phase involved overkill on the part of the government and AIDS activists in suggesting that AIDS was on the verge of sweeping through the heterosexual population. All of these were wrong and any one of them could be referred to as a “cover-up,” though that isn’t the phrase I would use. At least, not unless I was writing a scary money raising letter.

    And for what it’s worth, I’ve never believed the whole “Manson / Race War” theory. I believe the book “Manson In His Own Words” (not actually written by Manson) offers a much more believable theory.

33. Dr Pon Raul
    December 23rd, 2011 @ 7:37 pm

    yeah, this is why i think conservative blogs mutating into sounding like leftists about the letters’ racism and homophobia are overplaying it. it’s not that he’s right, it’s that they were written coming right after a decade (crack cocaine, AIDS before people fully understood what it was) where said statements are more understandable in context.

    this might be “neocon” of me but i find the veiled anti-Semitic international banker conspiracy talk more kook than any of the quotes i’ve read about blacks and teh gheys that i’m supposed to be shocked by

34. Pathfinder's wife
    December 23rd, 2011 @ 7:46 pm

    Unless Superman can somehow change the rules of economic evolution and cycles we’d be screwed even with him (and that’s with a Congress and court that’s 100% behind him).

    The best we can hope for is the election of somebody (of the non-demogogue sort that won’t try to grab even more executive power) who can help suggest policy to Congress that will help us weather this storm so that thing just suck, rather than really suck terribly…and that Congress and the courts show some sense…and we can stop any really bad threats from outside…and we as a society can coalesce around the idea of unifying rather than dividing into little belligerent groups that must have their way only and meeting this challenge as a country.

    Meh, we’re probably up fudge creek with no means of propelling.

35. Anonymous
    December 23rd, 2011 @ 8:23 pm

    All Paul had to do — any time before now — was say “It was wrong. I’m sorry.” That wouldn’t have completely fixed it, but it would have put it to bed somewhat as a campaign issue.

    But for whatever reason, Paul and his supporters have been completely unwilling — in 2008 and now — to concede the possibility that Paul may have been wrong about anything, ever. If someone produced his first-grade math homework and it said he got a B, they would denounce it as a forgery.

36. The Wondering Jew
    December 23rd, 2011 @ 8:42 pm

    Lets see– “coming race war in the cities”– ask any white person who lived in 1960s Newark, Cleveland or Detroit how things turned out for their neighborhoods and communities.  Or look at Birmingham (as you should well know, Stacy)  today.    And Stacy, of all people, should know the damage we can cause by taking potentially incendiary statements about race out of the context of the life and career of the person who made them.

    “Federal Homosexual Coverup on AIDS”– Check– read gay journalist Randy Shilts’ classic work “And the Band Played On” the definitive account of the pernicious role played by many gay institutions in both promoting myths about heterosexual spread of the disease and also their failure to promote quarantining programs  and other public health measures that would have saved thousands of live– all in the service of a leftist culture of promiscuity that was endemic in all of these groups.

    The Bohemian Grove and Skull and Bones– unlike a lot of people here engaging in snark about them, I know lots of members of both groups.   Neither are necessarily a nefarious conspiracy, but both are deeply entrenched establishment organizations of the very powerful– and no friends to grassroots conservatism.

    The Israeli Lobby absolutely does play Congress like a cheap harmonica–and while I’m a conservative and a Zionist and usually see no conflict between the two,  I wish that other conservatives (aside from Paul)  weren’t afraid to stand up to it when American and Israeli interests diverged.

    Now I wouldn’t have talked about any of these issues exactly the way these newsletters did, but I wouldn’t throw my hands up in the air and run around screaming like a leftie Cassandra, either,  as the defenders of the various conservative establishment candidates here are doing. 

    As AngelaTLC correctly notes below

    “No candidate can compare their voting record to Ron Paul’s without
    damaging themselves, so they stoop to these personal attacks, which is
    unfortunately something that Paul never does.”

    Its fairly transparent bullshit- a desperate attempt to distract us from the manifold failures  of the other candidates and the superiority, despite his flaws, of Paul.

37. Slrinkus
    December 23rd, 2011 @ 8:46 pm

    really enjoyed this piece. don;t understand how anybody thinks this guy is qualified to be President. How come no one talks about his age? Wasn’t that a big thing with McCain? They tried to pin racist writing on a rock to Perry but years and years of racist newsletters are unimportant. Why does everyone ignore his bizarre foreign policy statements, his trutherism and on and on.

38. K-Bob
    December 23rd, 2011 @ 8:58 pm

    Yep, this was a really well-written article.

    “Everyone” doesn’t ignore Paul’s out-of-sync policy ideas.  It’s just hard to deal with that sideshow when we have a primary to survive.

39. K-Bob
    December 23rd, 2011 @ 9:04 pm

    Looks like “ronpaulagetics” is becoming a new field of literature.

    As an aside, perhaps a study of the concept of “fact” might clear up this misunderstanding of yours regarding “personal attacks.”

40. K-Bob
    December 23rd, 2011 @ 9:07 pm

    Yes, it’s another neologism by me!  I just looked it up, and there were ZERO results.

    You just witnessed the birth of a term.  No big deal.

41. The Wondering Jew
    December 23rd, 2011 @ 9:45 pm

    Much as I am amused by your concept of “RonPaulagetics” your post is simply the sort of cute non-answer that I’ve come to expect from most of the Republican field. ..

42. Random Ramblings – Christmas Edition | The Lonely Conservative
    December 23rd, 2011 @ 10:33 pm

    […] President Obama’s past worth mentioning has dug up some of his old newsletters. They may be works of literary fundraising genius, but they probably won’t play well with the electorate.It looks like the Democrats are much […]

43. K-Bob
    December 23rd, 2011 @ 10:45 pm

    You folks are answered–daily.  You are presented with facts, and you flip them upside down.  Then you sell them in another venue, as if we haven’t all seen them a hundred times.

    Good luck with it.

44. Anonymous
    December 23rd, 2011 @ 10:52 pm

    Links? that don’t involve Kos or PuffHo?

45. Anonymous
    December 23rd, 2011 @ 10:53 pm

    After all, if the conspiracy weren’t so successful there would be tons of evidence….

46. Zak Klemmer
    December 23rd, 2011 @ 11:03 pm

    John McCain’s letters to me as an Arizonian and his voting record disqualifies McCain as a Conservative and a good Presidential candidate. His candidacy was another example, like Bob Dole’s, of appeasement and incoherence. Even Sarah Palin couldn’t save it.

    Bush43 was a LBJ clone.

    Republican’s haven’t elected or nominated a “Conservative” since Ronald Reagan.

    I’ve been a “Conservative” since 1963 and worked on Goldwater’s 1964 campaign and Reagan’s in 1966. I know what a real Conservative is and as troublesome as Ron Paul may be the remainder of the field are big government advocates.

    God Save our Republic as at this rate the Republican Party is finished.

47. Anonymous
    December 23rd, 2011 @ 11:13 pm

    Slrinkus, no one wants to deal with his fanatical followers; why poke a hornets nest when you don’t have to? Same reason no one wants to provoke Islamics, except his don’t have a clear track record for actual violence.

48. Adjoran
    December 24th, 2011 @ 12:18 am

    The thing is, the sane things people call “Ron Paul’s good ideas” aren’t Paul’s ideas.  He didn’t invent fiscal responsibility, balancing budgets, or calling for limited government.  Heck, EVERYBODY believed in those things until Wilson and Progressivism came to power. 

    Listen to Coolidge in the first video recording of a President (my favorite is the last 30 seconds when he talks about cutting federal spending as a pension and pay raise for every citizen):  http://youtu.be/5puwTrLRhmw

    And read his address from July 4, 1926, on America and liberty:  http://tinyurl.com/mz36dw

    The only ideas which came from Ron Paul’s head are the crazy ones.

49. Ron Paul Portrays Himself as Champion of Minorities in Interview on Fox News' Neil Cavuto - ScrollPost.com
    December 24th, 2011 @ 12:20 am

    […] of Paul, seeing the newsletters as fringe fundraising classics of the pre-Internet era, “Classics of the Golden Age of Fringe, Or: Ron Paul Digs the Beatles’ White Album.” EXTRA: Ta-Nehisi Coates has a sick obsession with finding racism in every crack or crevice […]

50. Adjoran
    December 24th, 2011 @ 12:28 am

    Another difficulty I have with the Paul defenders (who choose of course only the specific examples quoted as if they were the only ones; my understanding is that such blacks-are-violent, gays-are-conspiring, joos-are-conspiring, corporations-are-conspiring, bankers-are-conspiring, and similar nutty stuff was a regular feature) is that if it is all explainable and understandable and nothing to be upset about, why has Paul changed his story and now denying writing or even knowing about the articles with this stuff in them?

    The 8-12 page newsletter was his primary source of income for years, earning millions altogether.  He didn’t write it, he didn’t read what was written in it?

    But that wasn’t his story before.  His old defense was the offensive parts were “taken out of context – read the whole article.”  That was his stock response.  He’s on tape telling people to “read the newsletter I write” and NEVER disputed authorship or knowledge at all.

    Lying then, or lying now?

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