Paul still uses his format...
In January of last year, few people expected Ron Paul to run for
president—least of all Ron Paul himself. He was prodded to make the
decision by some of his long-time friends and political allies. One of
them was Kent Snyder, a former staffer whom Paul appointed to lead his
exploratory committee. When Paul officially launched the campaign "in
response to many requests," Snyder became his campaign chairman. He
grabbed a seat in the cockpit for the wildest libertarian campaign in
American history.
On Thursday, Snyder died from pneumonia-related complications. He was
49 years old. Former RP2008 blogger Dan McCarthy remembers him well:
Kent had extensively studied Eastern philosophy and Buddhism as well
as the traditions of Western liberty, and he was drawn to the
peacefulness of the Quakers. He embodied the best traits of all those
traditions: calm and kind-spirited in the face of all adversity. His
passing is a bigger loss to those who knew him, even those who only
knew him slightly, than I can say. A terrible loss for the Ron Paul
Revolution as well, to which Kent devoted his life (he even wrote his
MA thesis on Dr. Paul) and which he did so much—more than anyone else
but Dr. Paul himself—to set into motion.
I spent a lot of time critiquing Snyder's decisons and strategy, but
I'd agree with McCarthy that Snyder was the warmest and most
approachable man on the RP totem pole. If there's any consolation
here, it's that he spent his last year watching his friend and hero
become a national political figure, pounding home the same themes and
ideas the both of them had worked out for years.
On Dec 29, 7:56 am, Keith In Tampa <keithinta...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Sullum's article is thought provoking......Having a change of heart there
> Bruce?
>
> On Thu, Dec 29, 2011 at 4:27 AM, Bruce Majors <majors.br...@gmail.com>wrote:
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> > ---------- Forwarded message ----------
>
> > At least he didn't like the Kirchick article.... Neither did I. --J.
> >http://reason.com/archives/2008/01/16/pauls-apology
>
> > <Snip>
>
> > Not everything you may have heard about the newsletters is true. Contrary
> > to what James Kirchickclaims in The New Republic, the newsletters did not
> > offer "kind words for the former Imperial Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan, David
> > Duke." And although various media outlets have described parts of the
> > newsletters as "anti-Semitic," there's little evidence to back up that
> > description in the passages Kirchickcites.
>
> > But the truth is bad enough. In addition to anti-gay comments that pine
> > for the days of the closet, the newsletters include gratuitous swipes at
> > Martin Luther King, discussions of crime that emphasize the perpetrators'
> > skin color, and dark warnings of coming "race riots." None of it is
> > explicitly racist, and some of it could be written off as deliberately
> > provocative political commentary. Taken together, however, these passages
> > clearly cater to the prejudices of angry white guys who hate gay people and
> > fear blacks.
>
> > When Paul's opponent in his 1996 congressional campaign pointed to some of
> > this ugly stuff, Paul accused him of taking the quotes "out of context." It
> > was not until a 2001 interview with the Texas Monthly that Paul said his
> > campaign advisers had discouraged him from telling the complete,
> > "confusing" truth about the newsletters: that the most outrageous material
> > had been written by someone else.
>
> > That is Paul's defense today, and I'm inclined to believe him. The
> > race-baiting newsletter passages do not sound like anything else Paul has
> > said or written in his public life. People who were familiar with the
> > newsletters' production confirm that they were largely ghostwritten and
> > that Paul often did not review them prior to publication.
>
> > Yet the fact remains that Paul earned money and built his fund-raising
> > list with newsletters that seemed to be aimed at bigots. Given his
> > association with "paleolibertarians" such as Lew Rockwell whosought to
> > construct an anti-statist coalition partly by appealing to racial
> > resentments, he owes his supporters more than accepting "moral
> > responsibility" for inadequately overseeing the newsletters to which he
> > lent his name.
>
> > In a CNN interview, Paul alternated between acknowledging the legitimacy
> > of this issue and dismissing it as old news dredged up "for political
> > reasons." I'm sure most of his supporters were not familiar with the
> > content of his newsletters. I've been working at the country's leading
> > libertarian magazine on and off since 1989, and it was news to me.
>
> > If I thought Ron Paul might be president in 2009, I'd have to admit that
> > his newsletter negligence raises questions about his judgment and about the
> > people he'd choose to advise him. But since the value of the Paul campaign
> > lies in promoting the libertarian ideals of limited government, individual
> > freedom, and tolerance, the real problem is that the newsletters contradict
> > this message.
>
> > On CNN Paul emphasized that racist libertarian is an oxymoron, since
> > libertarians judge people as individuals. He should follow through on that
> > point by identifying the author(s) of the race-baiting material and
> > repudiating not just the sentiments it represents but the poisonous,
> > self-defeating strategy of building an anti-collectivist movement on group
> > hatred.
>
> > © Copyright 2008 by Creators Syndicate Inc.
>
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