Ron Paul is my Congressman. He has been my Congressman for as long as I’ve known what a Congressman is. Like many of Paul’s constituents I didn’t really know much about him other than he was a Republican and a doctor.

It was not until Ron Paul decided to run for President in 2008, that I first began hearing his views. Suffice it say that I was not impressed and found the vast majority of his views to be naive, extreme, and at times completely ridiculous.

Every election has at least one crazy guy in it, but what I started noticing more were the types of people his campaign attracted.

Let’s just say they’re not the kind of supporters you would typically see for a Republican candidate, and frankly not the kind of people a Republican candidate would want support from.

His supporters are often times an odd mix of hippie-types, anti-war activists, communists, anarchists, Neo-Nazi groups, and a few 9/11 Truthers sprinkled in for good measure.

I have wondered for months what it was about Ron Paul that attracted such a repugnant group of supporters. I have asked aloud on this very blog for someone to please explain.

I listened to Ron Paul give numerous speeches and never heard anything that would be even remotely attractive to Nazi hate groups or “9/11 truthers.”

I’ve said on a number of occasions that these crazy people have to know something about Ron Paul that the rest of us don’t.

It turns out they did.
Thankfully, today I finally have my answer. The New Republic has tracked down Ron Paul’s newsletters going back a decade that at one time were quite popular among those who share his unique brand of “Conservatism.”

In the age before blogs, newsletters occupied a prominent place in right-wing political discourse. With the pages of mainstream political magazines typically off-limits to their views, hardline conservatives resorted to putting out their own, less glossy publications.

According to The National Review, Ron Paul’s newsletters were among the most popular during that time period.

What the newsletters reveal is a man consumed by racism, bigotry, and paranoia. After reading the newsletters it’s very easy to understand why Ron Paul attracts such loathsome supporters.

Here are some excerpts from various Ron Paul newsletters from 1978-1997. Be sure to check out the full story with even more excerpts at The New Republic.

Race:

“A Special Issue on Racial Terrorism” analyzes the Los Angeles riots of 1992: “Order was only restored in L.A. when it came time for the blacks to pick up their welfare checks three days after rioting began. … What if the checks had never arrived? No doubt the blacks would have fully privatized the welfare state through continued looting. But they were paid off and the violence subsided.”

The November 1990 issue of the Political Report had kind words for David Duke.

This newsletter describes Martin Luther King Jr. as “a world-class adulterer” who “seduced underage girls and boys” and “replaced the evil of forced segregation with the evil of forced integration.”

The January 1991 edition of the Political Report refers to King as a “world-class philanderer who beat up his paramours” and a “flagrant plagiarist with a phony doctorate.”

A February 1991 newsletter attacks “The X-Rated Martin Luther King.”

An October 1990 edition of the Political Report ridicules black activists, led by Al Sharpton, for demonstrating at the Statue of Liberty in favor of renaming New York City after Martin Luther King. The newsletter suggests that “Welfaria,” “Zooville,” “Rapetown,” “Dirtburg,” and “Lazyopolis” would be better alternatives–and says, “Next time, hold that demonstration at a food stamp bureau or a crack house.”

Gays:

In the course of defending homophobic comments by Andy Rooney of CBS, a 1990 newsletter notes that a reporter for a gay magazine “certainly had an axe to grind, and that’s not easy with a limp wrist.”

The June 1990 issue of the Political Report says: “I miss the closet. Homosexuals, not to speak of the rest of society, were far better off when social pressure forced them to hide their activities.”

From the August 1990 issue of the Political Report: “Bring Back the Closet!”

A January 1994 edition of the Survival Report states that “gays in San Francisco do not obey the dictates of good sense,” adding: “[T]hese men don’t really see a reason to live past their fifties. They are not married, they have no children, and their lives are centered on new sexual partners.” Also, “they enjoy the attention and pity that comes with being sick.”

Anti-Government Militias:

The November 1994 issue of the Survival Report celebrates anti-government militias.

The January 1995 issue of the Survival Report–released just three months before the Oklahoma City bombing–cites an anti-government militia’s advice to other militias, including, “Don’t fire unless fired upon, but if they mean to have a war, let it begin here.”

The October 1992 issue of the Political Report paraphrases an “ex-cop” who offers this strategy for protecting against “urban youth”: “If you have to use a gun on a youth, you should leave the scene immediately, disposing of the wiped off gun as soon as possible. Such a gun cannot, of course, be registered to you, but one bought privately (through the classifieds, for example).”

Conspiracies:

In an undated solicitation letter for The Ron Paul Investment Letter and the Ron Paul Political Report, Paul writes: “I’ve been told not to talk, but these stooges don’t scare me. Threats or no threats, I’ve laid bare the coming race war in our big cities. The federal-homosexual cover-up on AIDS (my training as a physician helps me see through this one.) The Bohemian Grove–perverted, pagan playground of the powerful. Skull & Bones: the demonic fraternity that includes George Bush and leftist Senator John Kerry, Congress’s Mr. New Money. The Israeli lobby, which plays Congress like a cheap harmonica.”

So basically what all this means is that Ron Paul is a Timothy McVee, anti-government, hate monger, rather than the elderly gentleman with libertarian views we’ve all been led to believe he is.

I was apparently wrong to give Paul the benefit of the doubt, when I posted pictures of him standing with notorious Neo-Nazi leader Don Black and his Nazi son.

Since the picture was taken at a campaign rally, I said it would be unfair for me to think he had any idea who he was having his picture taken with.

I have serious doubts at this point that it’s all a coincidence that Don Black, and various Ku Klux Klan organizations are Ron Paul donors, and he just mistakenly had his picture taken with Black.

The fact is that over the last 10 years, the various hate groups in this country have been undergoing a transformation. They’ve been trying to blend inconspicuously into society and keep there racist views largely hidden, enabling them to get people elected to office who can change America from within.

The Southern Poverty Law Center which tracks hate groups in America has a great deal of information regarding this transformation.

Whether or not Ron Paul’s intentions were aligned with these groups is debatable, but for whatever reason these groups believe Ron Paul share’s their twisted vision.

In short, this is some scary sh*t.

-Chris Jones