Ron Paul is not distancing himself from his white supremacist, KKK, and Neo-Nazi supporters quick enough.
During the past month or so the conservative blogsphere and media has finally discovered the fact that GOP Presidential hopeful and Texas GOP Congressman Ron Paul has some very strange supporters. During the past months on Blogcritics, I have been exposing various and sundry rather tawdry aspects of the whole anti-immigration movement with profiles on John Tanton and Tom Tancredo. …
Article comments
— go to most recent comments76 - Chester Gould III
I agree with Ron Paul, especially what he wrote about the Civil Rights Act of 1964. I understand the act was designed to force people into hiring mixed races. Doesn't anyone realize that this means, they legally defined there is a difference amongst races?
I understand the intention, but the repercussions were and are much worse. Forcing someone to adapt to another's culture, in no case makes them more willing to accept it. In fact, it tends to create animosity. Which is how some of these extremists can recruit people so easily.
If these people were left alone and not forced into adapting, there would be a lot less animosity, and a lot less racism.
Now not only are we being continuously separated without even knowing it, we are sub-classified into small groups. Once we stop allowing our government officials to legally separate us, and focus on what legally joins us... we are all Americans, in support of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness we will be much better off.
-C
77 - ExcuseMeForPointingandLaughing
I love it, you [Personal attack deleted by Comments Editor] are here playing patty cake and spilling your love beads.
Flies to the sticky tape... damn I gotta go out and create 30 or 40 blogger accounts today and do a random work Paul bash just to attract all of you like crash dummies at a Detroit convention or high school reunion.
You are so very easy it is not even a challenge. [Personal attack deleted by Comments Editor]
78 - Jenny B
Ron Paul has such a clean record with no skeletons in his closet. The only thing the smear machine can come up with is he is an "anti-semite".
Frankly, I think Americans are sick and tired of people labeling people as an "anti-semite". Jews are not better than any other person. Thats why the business of labeling people as "anti-semite" will backfire on them. Americans are fed-up!
79 - Sk00L
JS Reidhead often reports about pro KKK groups that openly tout a white supremest philosophy. Her obsession with this movement have prompted her to openly advertise and promote sites such as Stormfront (white supremacist, neo-Nazi leaning)which she provides links to in her blogs. Reidhead's campaign to traffic possible recruits to sites such as these have earned her the respect of many of her white supremest brethren.
Spin is such a bitch isn't it? In times like these we need reporters with integrity who take some time to do their homework. Reidhead is obviously more concerned with traffic then truth. It is so easy to spin anything to make it fringe or controversial it is ashame that Ron Paul has become a target of such a smear when as so many in these comments have cleared up over and over with something called the truth. Too bad we can't hear about the other candidates failings and contributions but instead hear a rehashing of the same old bs that has been disproven time and time again.
80 - ralphie
To hell with this crappy blog.
You TV loving bull-crappers are going down.
We're going to wipe the floor with you, and the election is just the beginning.
ronpaul2008!
adios Reidhead..(is that even a name?...sounds like more BS to me)
81 - Dave Nalle
Commentor:
Ron Paul is running as a Republican. Not a libertarian. If your concern is for the purity of Libertarianism why not focus on its virtues, and whatever libertarian candidate the LP party fields?
I wrote off the LP a couple of years ago and moved into the GOP for many of the same reasons that Paul did after 88. The LP is just not a viable national party. One problem is that Paul carries with him too much of that LP dogmatism to really be a viable candidate.
Why reinforce, like a mantra, that the electorate is incapable of making an informed decision? Have you such a low opinion of the electorate?
Look at the people they've elected. I rest my case.
BC:
You may be right that the public perception may get formed by articles like this rather than by a group of unpaid supporters waving signs by the freeway in the freezing weather, but I think he's still the best that was offered.
This article isn't FORMING the public perception, it's reporting it. The perception is formed by the RP fanatics who go all over the internet comment-bombing any post about Ron Paul and spouting a variety of scary nonsense in the process.
Do you perhaps have a personal issue with RP? (Like unpaid wages, or something of the sort?)
No, I'm not Eric Dondero.
Why did you stop campaigning for him? Are you of a racial minority and he'd hurt you?
I did mention earlier that I don't think Paul's a racist. As for campaigning for him, I was discouraged by the kinds of people his current campaign has attracted. I don't want to be associated with truthers and racists.
I think many US citizens have an issue with the FedGovt in one way or another, so all could be classified as 'fringe'.
To me, being opposed to big government only makes you sensible. If that were what Paul supporters were mainly motivated by then I'd be cheering them on.
Dave
82 - MC
All this shows is that EVERYONE supports Ron Paul!
GO RON GO!
83 - ExcuseMeForPointingandLaughing
Damn you fools.
Put up with control F the word search function in your browser and type in smear to match it out.
Facts are not smears, they are facts even my puppy knows that and the cat even has a clue.
[Personal attack deleted by Comments Editor]
84 - Almost Speechless
The thought of personal responsibility frightens people, these hit pieces are a testament to that. When we as a nation and a people have delegated so much of our own responsibility to Govt its the fault of the people not the power brokers in Washington.
Once a candidate emerges who is honest, and principled in his actions its not surprise people will vote for him.
You see the media and Politicians sell the American myth, when in actuality we have lost almost every edge we held in the world. Hollywood sells produces the American Spirit which is in everyone. The one thing is very apparent is that younger people haven't been hammered with false truths and a sense of hopelessness in politics yet. Its the talking head class of this country that insists they are crazy, racist, and "out of control." I would agree with that, it means you (the media, pundits, talking heads) haven't been doing you job that well if the American people are not buying your bullshit on this subject.
85 - ExcuseMeForPointingandLaughing
Ron Paul Ron Paul Ron Paul smear smear smear smear.
Hell I have crab traps in the river I am going to pick up tonight that are harder to bait than that the search engine kiddies will be here in droves.
86 - New Ron Paul supporter
I never knew much about Ron Paul, and truthfully never even investigated who he was or what he was saying. I've been in the Obama camp all along (anything to avoid Guliani or Clinton). But after reading this piece...and then going to www.ronpaul2008.com....I'll be voting for him. Guess that makes me, and my 24 years of Navy service, racist? *sigh* Time to get rid of meaningless talking heads (or in Bush's case, stuttering ungrammatical simpleton), and get someone into the Oval Office who will work for the American People, and not for their corporate oil buddies.
87 - ExcuseMeForPointingandLaughing
82 words on the average pro Paul comment to certify I am brain dead.
Damn guys cant you at least put up 14 page thesis papers to explain why everybody else is the AntiChrist?
Come on get it together.
88 - GetReal
That's ok,
I'm sure Obama has NO GANG BANGER supporters,
Hillary has NO CORRUPT MONEY FROM CHINA,
Giuliani has NO MOB supporters.
No Problem.
89 - Duane
ExcuseMeForPointingandLaughing seems to be a little on edge. Jerry Lewis' MDA Telethon is your comparison? Prove you wrong? the 95% Approval for Ron Paul against your insults is proof enough that the "anti-paulite" has nothing against Dr. Paul and his ideas, so they choose infantile rantings and retarded posts. You need a time-out.
90 - ExcuseMeForPointingandLaughing
To the blog owner, seriously I have to apologize for playing the games with all the fools you have managed to attract , but some how I have to believe that your are there sitting back and chuckling and saying it's worth the bandwidth.
[Personal attack deleted by Comments Editor]
Sorry but it is a Sunday and it is fun to play with the warts on our society. Hey I am retired and every day is Sunday, that screws with them also.
91 - Artus Register
As to the bigoted comments about black males in DC, it is impossible to believe that anyone with a modicum of integrity found these quotes without also realizing that Dr. Paul didn't write those words. They were written by a staff member who was subsequently fired.
The refusal to even hint at the truth of this matter exposes the most cowardly type of yellow journalism.
92 - ExcuseMeForPointingandLaughing
Duane
95% approval from bots isn't anything to shout for.
Don't shoot Mongo he will just get mad.
93 - Phillip Winn
Hey, Paultergeists, you need to learn a bit more about how campaign finance works in this country. It's convoluted and crazy, but it is also very common for candidates to return donations if it's pointed out that it came from an unsavory source. All the candidates do it all the time, because every dollar in direct donations is tracked.
So comparisons with Clinton or Obama or Giuliani or whomever just highlight the fact that Clinton and Obama and Giuliani have returned donations quickly when issues were raised, while Paul held onto his for a long time.
No blame attaches to a candidate for verbal support from idiots, but all candidates do and should distance themselves from that support.
If we were talking about an isolated incident, I'd agree this was a smear piece. But it's not. We're talking about a pattern of at least ten years of staffer feeling comfortable writing racist tripe under Paul's name, racist nincompoops bragging of Paul's favor, repeated snubs of Israeli leaders, and so on. Once is chance, twice is coincidence, but by this point Paul will need to be more clear than he has been about his repudiation of these nutjobs. Or he could pick David Duke as his running mate, whichever.
94 - ExcuseMeForPointingandLaughing
Kos kids don't throw money at Gravel just to laugh and point they have Ron Paul for that. [Personal attack deleted by Comments Editor]
95 - Weird
I call; Propaganda, Yellow Journalism.
Guilt by association is a fallacy. It's use only proves that the person using the fallacy has no legitimate arguments. In her 2000 senatorial campaign Hillary Clinton recieved a donation from Aburahman Alamoudi, a supporter of Hamas and Hizbullah. According to the logic of this smear article, that donation would make her a terrorist.
As far as the Civil Rights Act of 1964 goes; is questioning the effectiveness and Constitutional validity of a piece of legislation improper just because it is controversial? The question asked is, "Did CRA 1964 end skin color discrimination and/or did it violate the Constitution?" The reality is that it didn't stop judgements based on skin color and it is undetermined if it violated the Constitution. Hatred of humans by other humans, whatever the reason, is still a major cultural problem in our society. Picking a single statement on a conveniently controversial Act of Congress and trying to correlate it to unsolicited donations from unrelated individuals highlights the shallowness of this article.
I call; Propaganda, Yellow Journalism.
96 - Al Barger
This really is a shabby little hit piece, de facto trying to paint Ron Paul as a racist and closet Nazi. Who knows what motivates some people, but absolutely everything about Ron Paul's stance and long political career is unmistakably exactly the opposite of being a Nazi or fascist. Paul is perhaps something of a crank, which probably accounts for some portion of his support. There are lots of all different kinds of cranks.
You can question him for not returning donations from distasteful people, but he's not giving them anything. A National Review writer recently described his refusal to return such donations as "artless." That's about the right word - but it's in fact principled, though maybe not to YOUR personal principles. I believe it was his main campaign manager who said that racist and Nazi contributors are simply "wasting their money."
But the more interesting thing about this article are the assumptions and examples the author cites from Paul himself as supposedly damning. He makes a big point of a blockquote from Paul's dissent against renewing the 1964 Voting Rights Act. Other than an apparent and unfounded presumption that simply voting against this is proof of supposed racism, what is offensive about this extended quote?
Folks have gone on and on about this one commentary on black criminality in DC, and the author makes a hash of it here. I grant that it is incredibly inpolitic, but that doesn't make it bigoted. The main money quote there is "we are constantly told that it is evil to be afraid of black men, it is hardly irrational. Black men commit murders, rapes, robberies, muggings and burglaries all out of proportion to their numbers." The proper question there: Is what he said actually TRUE.
Even such a total black demagogue as Jesse Jackson has admitted to feeling relief at realizing that it's a white guy following him down the street rather than a young black man. Is that because Jesse hates black folk, or because he knows something?
Also, I note that the author equates support from Pat Buchanan and even his magazine editor with neo-Nazis. That says more about the author than about Buchanan or Paul.
Finally, I note the extensive quote from some and such obscure guy from a Jewish Telegraph Agency. Who the hell is he? Why does Ron Paul owe this guy the time of day? That he decides to be "shocked" does not in fact constitute evidence that Paul is doing anything bad whatsoever.
I've got issues with Paul myself, but nonsense like this politically correct hit piece definitely makes me appreciate him more.
97 - ExcuseMeForPointingandLaughing
Phil
Every piece of campaign software I have ever run has come pre configured with grey blue green red and black lists.
Even software puppet names like Mary Poppins were bounced to the side for another look.
Black militants, KKK rebel rousers and political land mines were caught even before they had a chance to breath air.
But hey with Paul Bots the bar is lowered somewhere near a China searching dig if you know what I mean.
98 - Rebekah Wilcken
What kind of person are you? Pathetic!
99 - Bruford
The person who wrote this piece seems to me to be part of a more scary "hate" movement. She's attacking Ron Paul on what he might be thinking - the one reason to vote for him as the thought police or what these types want would be eliminated.
I see the University of Phoenix is a sponsor here. Should they need to explain to every student why they are anti-gun and funding that lobby?
100 - Duderino
Council on Foreign Relations candidates such as HILLARY, GIULIANI, OBAMA, ROMNEY, and so on have been accepting massive $300,000 contributions from PACs represented by GOLDMAN SACHS, the same firm that has been helping to orchestrate the manipulation of the US dollar, helping the dollar decline to fall steadily. This means these candidates support the destruction of your retirement and standard of living. I suggest writing a hit piece aimed at these people, instead. Ron Paul is NOT a racist.
101 - R. Merz
ExcuseMe, regardless of your political views, [Personal attack deleted by Comments Editor]. Here you are, calling all the Paul supporters little kids who do nothing but sit around and google blogs, while you've been sitting here for God knows how long slinging crap while these guys have just showed up, said their piece and left.
Maybe you should go outside and take a jog, but I'd worry for the safety of the public.
102 - TxSundance
The pursuit of freedom attracts people of many banners and I've seen Dr. Paul distance himself from both 9/11 theorists and racists on several occasions. I'm a 47 year old father of 3 married to the same women for 26 years and self-employed as a realtor for the last 22 years. From what I've seen I am a more typical Ron Paul supporter than the racists and conspiracy theorists that you purport to be Dr. Paul’s “friends”. Ron Paul supporters are citizens concerned that their government has morphed into a bureaucratic imperialistic global empire with blatant disregard for the U.S. constitution.
103 - Mark
I read your piece. I guess your saying RP is a goose stepping white supremecist based upon the information you present?
Be more betterer.
104 - Bridget Panzer
Freedom is popular to everyone!
Restoring the constitution protects every citizen
no matter what your skin color, sexual preference, or religion. We don't want to be part of a NEW WORLD ORDER (google it)
105 - Maggie
And why, exactly, should anyone care what Daniel Siederaski has to say? He sounds about as reasonable, soft-spoken and undemanding as Al Shapton. The fact that this 'information' came from an interview with Tom Tancredo, a running opponent, might be a clue that it's a tad slanted. (Slanted being a nice word for twisted.)
1.) Ron Paul has no control over every nutball group that supports him. (Clue #2- they are not his friends.)
2.) The Nazis probably support him because they believe that he wrote those words concerning the black voter. He has already retracted that statement and said he didn't write it himself.
3.) "movement is being hijacked by white supremacist forces"? Uh, no. Sorry not true.
4.) He opposes the 1964 Civil Rights Act because it is not does not support civil liberties. It promotes civil entitlements. An example of a civil entitlement is Affiirmative Action, which is downright racist.
5.) Oh, my God! Supporters from the Constitution Party? The Constitution imagine that! Unheard of. (Well, yes, come to think of it.)
6.) Chip Berlet, wrote “Those neo-Nazis have a First Amendment right to endorse Ron Paul, but Ron Paul has a moral obligation to disavow that donation."
a.) Yikes, Chip Berlet says that Paul has a moral obligation.
a.) Why, exactly, do we care what Chip Berlet has to say?
b) Chip Berlet is a communist.
106 - Weird
Please try to ignore Excusemeforpointingandlaughing, I know it's hard and I know this post proves my failure to do that.
I hate to lower myself to his level, but, no I don't.
"Excusemeforpointingandlaughing" is a troll who is bent on causing trouble and is personally attacking commentors on this blog even though it clearly says "Personal attacks are not allowed". He admits in one of his comments that he creates fake blogger accounts just to create havoc and insult Dr. Paul's supporters.
He is off topic on every one of his 13+ comments and obviously has nothing better to do. He is a name caller who curses continually in nearly every comment. On top of that, his comments are disjointed, unintelligent, and unresearched and add nothing to this discourse.
In my OPINION, he is probably one of the trolls putting up fake comments with fake accounts all over the blogosphere to make RP supporters look bad.
Also, in my OPINION, the fact that he states that he is retired makes me suspect he is motivated by the fear of losing his Social Security.
Don't worry EMFPAL, if elected, Dr. Paul has promised not to take away your government dole and old age welfare.
I am done with you now.
P.S. Go ahead punk, call me a Paulite.
107 - Rob
You made no attempt to understand "why" Ron Paul gets fringe support. He stands for freedom, the same freedom that legs fringe people live as citizens in the USA. Most countries don't tolerate those people. Those people see their freedom under attack. That is why they support Ron Paul.
This absolutely does not mean that Ron Paul supports them, or their ideas. The distinction is key. And thus, I see no reason why this issue should affect anyone's decision regarding Ron Paul.
108 - Jason
So what>? Civil liberties mean freedom for all. So no matter what you believe, your individual rights are protected. White supremacist, Black supremacist, Gay supremacist, Christian supremacist, what ever group you can think of. It is irrelavent, respecting individual personal liberties is what Ron Paul is about. Dear writer, try thinking outside the box, and actully listening to Paul. It's not a Republican VS. Democrate or libertarian. It's freedom baby, a tune we can all dance to :) Time to think outside the cage.
So whatever you believe, if your American and believe in the Declaration of independance, Bill of Rights, and Constitution, the foundation of freedom anyone can support paul. Freedom freedom freedom!
109 - BLIND_SIGHT
As I post my comments, I read above the box, "Personal attacks are NOT allowed." Maybe you should have your writers read this first. You want to make twisted comments about a man who is every middle class and poor Americans choice for President? Are you nuts? Why do you not investigate Hillary's criminal record? Or Rudy's? Why not write about how Mitt has to PAY people to vote for him? If you do not understand how to investigate a story, why are you allowed to work for a publication? Unless their idea is to not print an true story, and to try to slander Dr. Ron Paul. WoW, it is truly interestiong to see how deep the establishment has dug its roots. Thank you for writing this story, now I no longer have to read your articles, and I will know your view pionts here at blogcritics. You will now be dismissd as FOOLS.
110 - charles ranalli
even if the "facts" as stated in this article were true - which they are not - the question is
"so what?"
i believe the American people are waking up to the fact that buzzwords like "racist" "bigot" and "anti-semite" are just meaningless attempts at brainwashing the public which should rightfully be ignored.
God bless the author SJ Reidhead.
111 - Dr Dreadful
SJ, your piece yesterday on Lindsey Graham was good. But judging by the comments thread on this one so far, maybe you should have quit while you were ahead!
112 - Michael J. West
Glenn Beck Gives to Ron Paul Campaign
That's a bigger smear on Ron Paul's candidacy than anything the author of this piece has written.
113 - Bill Moore
My next door neighbor is a registered pedophile.
He supports Rudy Giuliani.
114 - ExcuseMeForPointingandLaughing
Blind
Hey bro you left out the word smear.. whats up with that didn't you get the memo?
Dub Dub chicken wings or turkey breasts whats for supper tonight.
Oh got it spaghetti and meatballs somehow it seems more correct.
115 - William D Berg
What this piece misses is that all of these people who have donated must be US citizens.
So pretty much Americans are a bunch of KKK white supremacist neo-nazis.
Fucking Americans!
116 - Lumpy
What you paulbots don't seem to get is that someone could be concerned about this problem specifically because they support paul and want him to win. This is a real problem which will hurt him in the election and based on these comments you folks are part of the problem.
117 - Julian
As soon as Hillary comes out publicly to apologize for throwing KKK grand cyclops Senator Robert Byrd a birthday party in the former home of Fredrick Douglass, I might start to give a crap about Ron Paul getting $500 from racists.
You also forgot to include Ron Paul's response to those "article excerpts" you so artfully dug up- he acknowledged that they were written, though not by himself, took appropriate action within his staff, assumed moral responsibility for those words having appeared in his publication, and publicly apologized. The decision to leave all this information out seems a bit strange.
The fact that the media seems more interested in donations like the one from Black...rather than the Robert Byrd (a well-known public racist and KKK member) incident I mentioned, Giuliani's relationship to Bernard Kirek, and Hillary Clinton's debacles with Norman Hsu and Peter Paul truly speaks VOLUMES.
I havent seen anything at all to make me think that Paul is a racist in the least. The fact that the media seems to want to seize on the 1% of his support that comes from unevolved morons and completely ignore the majority coming from young voters, disenchanted voters, all walks of the political and social spectrum, and his ability to stage huge rallies and self-motivated multi-million dollar fundraisers with no mainstream media support is disappointing and transparently indicative of bias.
118 - David
I just heard that the Nazi White Supremacist who lives in my neighborhood donated to the Humane Society. I was shocked to find out that the Humane Society is a racist organization, but you can bet they'll never see another dime of my money, plus I'm going to spread my stupid opinion to all the other knuckleheads I know, until that cursed Humane Society is burning in Hell with Hitler.
119 - Rudy4Ever
As a member of the KKK I do not understand why these guys support Ron Paul. I'd much rather have Rudy in office passing abortion laws paying money for abortions for minorities.
I did however click on a few advertisements on your page.
So now you have been given money by me...a KKK member. Welcome to the brotherhood.
120 - wulfgyr
You can't attack the man so you attack the fringe supporters...
Ron Paul has stated that he DOES NOT share the opinions of these racist groups. He considers racism an ugly form of "Collectivism" and since he promotes individual liberties over collectivism he's DEFINITELY opposed to racism. It says as much on his website.
And for those trying to link him to the 9/11 conspiracy crowd he has also PUBLICLY stated that he does not think that 9/11 was an insider job, he believes it was definitely an attack orchestrated by Osama Bin Laden in part due to our poor foreign policy over the years.
He's stated these positions multiple times! But somehow these smear-mongers never seem to notice that... probably because it would interfere with the only paltry vile ammunition they can bring to any discussion.
121 - Anchorage Activist
Congratulations, S.J. Reidhead, on yet another hatchet job on Ron Paul. You know darn well that the Ron Paul campaign has expressed public disagreement with the white nationalist racial agenda, and has stated that they're just wasting their time giving him money.
However, Paul's earlier remark about the Civil Rights Act of 1964 is exactly on point. Had it been left there, it would have been fine. But the Act was used as an excuse by neo-Marxist Gramscian social engineers to impose affirmative action and forced busing. They've used diversity and multiculturalism to deliberately stir up non-whites against whites by selectively exaggerating detrimental aspects of white history. Heroes like Thomas Jefferson and Robert E. Lee have been re-invented as bloodthirsty slaveowners. The Confederate battle flag is misrepresented as a modern-day swastika.
And S.J. Reidhead, thanks to the outrage of black misbehavior in Jena, LA, my side is winning, and your side is losing. Mainstream American whites are awakening to their predicament. Do you think the sudden upsurge in noose sightings is coincidental? The noose is becoming an implicit symbol of white resistance to the tyranny of multiculturalism. Fortunately, for now, those nooses are ceremonial.
Ron Paul is the only presidential candidate who can prevent those nooses from becoming operational.
122 - Baronius
This article is a bit weak on proof that there's something wrong at the top of the Ron Paul campaign. The blizzard of indignant comments tells me a lot about Paul's support. You've got to learn that every candidate is going to be criticized. It doesn't mean that the author hates and fears the almighty Paul's inevitable victory. It means that he disagrees with you. That's allowed.
123 - Harold Giuliani Sing Sing, NY
If Ron Paul gets rid of the IRS, he should be made President for Life.
124 - infragreen
"Williams may also be responsible for the enormous amount of spam and comments received by anyone who dares criticize Ron Paul."
No, it's not one guy spamming comments.
It's the work of MANY MANY RON PAUL SUPPORTERS.
Just because Stormfront and their ilk agree with RP on smaller government doesn't make RP or the rest of the 99.9% of RP supporters racist, even though he'd have you believe otherwise by the idiotic thread title.
[Personal attack deleted by Comments Editor]
125 - BW
I'm tired of the term "neo-Nazi". Unless the subject has defined himself as a neo-Nazi or invokes the memory of a Nazi - DON'T CALL HIM A NEO-NAZI! This practice makes a fallacy of one's argument.
By the way, I think Pat Buchanan is a bigot, but the last time I checked, he wasn't a "neo-Nazi", a member of the KKK or a professed white supremacist. Clearly, the author of this article has an axe to grind for Ron Paul.
BW