Ron Paul's Racist, Homophobic Newsletters Gain New Life On Twitter

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Ron Paul's Racist, Homophobic Newsletters Gain New Life On Twitter

18 comments, 391 views, posted 2:12 pm 29/12/2011 in Politics by Cnik
Cnik has 3760 posts, 1452 threads, 0 points, location: Pittsburgh, PA
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With Rep. Ron Paul's rise in the Iowa polls, reporters are once again scrutinizing the congressman's old racist and homophobic newsletters.
At various times over the years, Paul has claimed that the newsletters were the product of ghostwriters and hazy oversight, and that some of the writings on race were based on a study by a criminal justice think tank (that no one has heard of). At other times, he offered a spirited defense of the newsletters. Last week, Paul stormed out of a CNN interview after being questioned about the offensive essays.
Paul is lucky that that the most offensive newsletters were published in the pre-Internet era -- from the '70s through the early '90s -- when newsletters existed as a productive and lucrative way for politicians to share their ideas. While these newsletters have resurfaced on the web as photocopied PDFs, they have yet to go viral like Rick Perry's Strong ad or become a Internet meme like the pepper-spraying cop.
The snark may still come. The newsletters have recently spawned a new Twitter feed -- @RP_Newsletter -- which posts quotes directly from the offensive texts. Here's a sampling:
@RP_Newsletter
Ron Paul Newsletter
Washington, with its racist gov't, racist radio, racist ministers, racist universities, and racist attitudes, is the black New Jerusalem.
December 28, 2011 9:15 pm via web Reply Retweet Favorite
@RP_Newsletter
Ron Paul Newsletter
Homosexuals, not to speak of the rest of society, were far better off when social pressure forced them to hide their activities.
December 28, 2011 8:39 pm via web Reply Retweet Favorite
@RP_Newsletter
Ron Paul Newsletter
Is it any coincidence that the AIDS epidemic developed after they came "out of the closet," & started hyper-promiscuous sodomy?
December 28, 2011 8:41 pm via web Reply Retweet Favorite
@RP_Newsletter
Ron Paul Newsletter
...I've urged everyone in my family to know how to use a gun in self defense. For the animals are coming.
December 28, 2011 3:05 pm via HootSuite Reply Retweet Favorite
@RP_Newsletter
Ron Paul Newsletter
Do your very best to keep your family away from inner cities.
December 28, 2011 1:36 pm via web Reply Retweet Favorite
@RP_Newsletter
Ron Paul Newsletter
3. Boil all [the AIDS patient's] laundry for at least 15 minutes.
December 28, 2011 4:01 am via web Reply Retweet Favorite
@RP_Newsletter
Ron Paul Newsletter
8. Do not allow the [AIDS] patient to eat in a restaurant.
December 28, 2011 4:04 am via web Reply Retweet Favorite
@RP_Newsletter
Ron Paul Newsletter
Am I glad I voted in Congress against an expensive federal holiday for this man [MLK].
December 28, 2011 3:42 am via web Reply Retweet Favorite
@RP_Newsletter
Ron Paul Newsletter
On the holiday honoring MLK, the films shown in the government schools depict whites as evil.
December 28, 2011 3:32 am via web Reply Retweet Favorite

To date, @RP_Newsletter has tweeted more than 1,100 times.

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Comments

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2:21 pm 29/12/2011

griffin

http://ricksincerethoughts.blogspot.com/2008/01/question-was-answered-six-years-ago.html

2:40 pm 29/12/2011

z0phi3l

Paul is gaining some real steam, the powers that be are not happy, so it's back to calling him a racist and a homophobe and Anti Semite too this time around, using widely discredited "articles" he didn't write.

2:43 pm 29/12/2011

Viscera

griff, it doesn't matter if the charges were answered years ago. It doesn't make a good inflammatory story if that were acknowledged.

2:48 pm 29/12/2011

Viscera

Quote:

When I ask him why, he pauses for a moment, then says, "I could never say this in the campaign, but those words weren't really written by me. It wasn't my language at all. Other people help me with my newsletter as I travel around. I think the one on Barbara Jordan was the saddest thing, because Barbara and I served together and actually she was a delightful lady." Paul says that item ended up there because "we wanted to do something on affirmative action, and it ended up in the newsletter and became personalized. I never personalize anything."

His reasons for keeping this a secret are harder to understand: "They were never my words, but I had some moral responsibility for them . . . I actually really wanted to try to explain that it doesn't come from me directly, but they [campaign aides] said that's too confusing. 'It appeared in your letter and your name was on that letter and therefore you have to live with it.'" It is a measure of his stubbornness, determination, and ultimately his contrarian nature that, until this surprising volte-face in our interview, he had never shared this secret. It seems, in retrospect, that it would have been far, far easier to have told the truth at the time.

I'd rather someone who owns up to a mistake then the President we currently have who denies his connections (Rev Wright etc) or blames the previous admin over...and over...and over even 2 1/2 years later

2:54 pm 29/12/2011

elsels

What year were these newsletters written? I'm to lazy too research, but if anyone has the year that would be great.

2:56 pm 29/12/2011

Edorph

According to the links in cnik's post, from the 70's until the early 90's, elsels.

3:11 pm 29/12/2011

HariSeldon

Quote:

His reasons for keeping this a secret are harder to understand: "They were never my words, but I had some moral responsibility for them .

Some moral responsibility for them? So as long as you don't write such filth, as long as all you do is publish them for years and make over a million dollars from such disgusting crap it is okay? That only amounts to "some" moral responsibility?

Quote:

But has he owned up to them? I haven't seen it. I've seen a lot of political double-speak and numerous versions of "the truth". I have yet to see him owning up to them and saying he was sorry and that he has grown since then. He seems to be denying or blaming others.

And if by some chance he was making millions off of them, publishing them for years, signing off on them, etc, etc and still didn't know about the content that would make him even less of a good presidential candidate than if he approved of them.

3:42 pm 29/12/2011

Viscera

what I meant by that is he owned up to not overseeing the blog as closely as he should have. In the end, I don't believe there could be any proof of any president that didn't suffer embarrassment or worse due to not being able tyo watch everything that goes on. It is impossible for a CEO to wach every aspect f a business, that is what department heads are for. Occasionally the people you appoint fail, and they should be punished when they do. But sadly, I don't think that any of us could produce a candidate that hasn't had a subordinate do something that shone a negative light on them. Now if RP did nothing about it, that would be a different matter. I don't know the resolution of that issue, but I agree with the whole "Buck stops here" attitude that the commander in chief should have

3:43 pm 29/12/2011

Viscera

Quote by HariSeldon:

And if by some chance he was making millions off of them,

you can make millions on a blog/newsletter?

4:20 pm 29/12/2011

Cnik

Quote by Viscera:

he owned up to not overseeing the blog as closely as he should have.

This is the scary part, if he can't run a blog, just imagine how poor his oversite would be of a country...... maybe he should run for head of Tumblr before running for head of the USA.

4:23 pm 29/12/2011

griffin

Quote by Cnik:

reporters are once again scrutinizing the congressman's old racist and homophobic newsletters.

Get File

As I recall, he endorsed an openly gay candidate in Texas in the eighties.

9:40 pm 29/12/2011

Quaektem

Quote by Cnik:

This is the scary part, if he can't run a blog, just imagine how poor his oversite would be of a country...... maybe he should run for head of Tumblr before running for head of the USA.

Fast and Furious.

Holder's job should have been under much more scrutiny than a blog editor should require. Sill, if you want to hold someone up to words spoken a couple decades ago we can bring up the spiritual leader of the current President. Reverend Wright has been far more caustic far more consistently than Paul. (then we have Bill Ayers, Obama's own books and all the sealed information about Obama's past... but of course we don't go digging there do we?)

As for the quotes themselves, consider them in context of the time. AIDS was a scary and overblown 'epidemic' in the 80's that was going to kill us all, the NRA has a similar approach to gun ownership, I would not take my family to the inner cities (or some parts of Plymouth), and the level of racism pushed by the government in MLK's name is sickening. Nothing there is that bad unless deliberately taken out of context and considered in the light of current events.

9:44 pm 29/12/2011

You are too kind entirely.

12:11 pm 30/12/2011

Quaektem

Quote by WolfenUWG:

How the eff is Santorum making this last-minute push? He's a bloody idiot.

Evangelicals who have no where else to go.

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