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Hey sailor, just how strange a political bedfellow have you got in mind?

DCblogger's picture
Submitted by DCblogger on Wed, 01/11/2012 - 10:10pm
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ron paul

The one and only Gene Lyons with a great reality check on the Ron Paul discussion.

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lizpolaris's picture
Submitted by lizpolaris on

Ron Paul's whole history as a conspiracy theorist is right out of the "Protocols of the Elders of Zion"

Sorry, that's not a reality check. It's Godwin-esque hyperbole designed to dismiss the candidate as unserious and unhinged. Are we playing that game too? As in, challenge the status quo and get smeared with whatever association can be pulled out of the air?

Far better to discuss perceived or manufactured slights regarding racism or anti-Semitism than to talk about: our neverending war on Terra, the pointless prohibition of our war on Drugs, the failures of the Federal Reserve, the unconstitutionality of indefinite detention, the stupidity of continuing to prop up fraudulent banks and investment firms...need I go on?

Submitted by lefttown on

Of course, just below the surface, is the idea that anyone who would vote for Paul in the primaries for whatever reason, is also a little unhinged and harbors deep resentment towards women, Jews, minorities, etc.
At least Lizz Winstead, supposedly a comic, comes right out with it:

He is unique in that his racist newsletters, coupled with his staunch antiwar stance, have won him the undying support of that coveted "racist pacifist" faction of the American electorate.

Antiwar voters supporting Ron Paul are now "racist pacifists." Isn't she a hoot. I'm sure her extreme nastiness masked as humor earned her an invitation to an Obama cocktail party or two.

Submitted by Alcuin on

"Of course, just below the surface, is the idea that anyone who would vote for Paul in the primaries for whatever reason, is also a little unhinged and harbors deep resentment towards women, Jews, minorities, etc."

It's always dangerous to make generalizations about the voting choices of anyone but one's self. I hope this isn't your generalization - perhaps you are channeling some one else?

Speaking only for myself, I am voting for Paul in the primary to register my opposition to the corrupt political system in this country. Will that vote mean anything? Nope. Because Paul is not going to be any party's nominee and he won't be elected to the presidency. But voting for him is the closest I can come to poking a stick in the eye of the beast. And that beast is furious - look at all of the pwogwessives all up in arms about Paul. It's about time that there was some discussion of what is wrong with the sorry state of the Left in this country. If it takes voting for Paul to bring that discussion about, then so be it.

Roman Berry's picture
Submitted by Roman Berry on

...by commenters when published over at Salon.com as well. And that's the appropriate reception. Greatly disappointed to see this sort of thing coming from Lyons.

lambert's picture
Submitted by lambert on

Because I'd love to see it.

* * *

To me, interesting point is the last sentence in Lyon's piece (which I note is a takedown of that vapid butterfly Sirota, and not Greenwald or Stoller):

However, Birge also wonders "where's Obama saying, 'I was elected on getting us out of Middle-East wars. I'm not starting another'?"

Well, we'll see, won't we?

Grant the thesis that Paul is both unhinged and backed by a loathesome collection of neo-Confederates.

In what way -- other than demeanor and class and cultural markers -- is that worse than being backed by a loathesome collection of "savvy businessmen"? And what makes us believe that Obama isn't unhinged? He presents well... But don't his eyes look dead to you?

Submitted by MontanaMaven on

Instead of discussing the terrible state of the state, we get "He's a racist nut job. And he's an anti-Semite whack-a-doodle). Meanwhile we have real sociopaths running the government and heading our financial institutions and a good part of our multinational corporations that are determined to poison us and inflict mayhem. Sociopaths are in the book on mental disorders. Therefore the guys, yes mostly guys with a few war mongering women, are "crazy" and a lot more dangerous than a whack-a-doodle.

Aeryl's picture
Submitted by Aeryl on

The "Hillary mentioned RFK and wants Obama assasinated" junk was a smear. The darkened video story on Daily Kos was a smear. The "the bombs were landing when I was in Kosovo" refutation was not a smear. Talking about Obama and Rezko was not a smear, but trying to paint Obama as a socialist terrorist because he met Bill Ayers, was a smear.

Also, it is entirely possible for these two things to be true, at the same time.

Paul holds positions that are superficially identical to lefty positions, though they come from an inherently violent right wing ideology that is incompatible with the concepts of justice and liberty.

And

Paul is a racist anti-Semetic gold bug crank, who plays upon the fear of a privileged class about its loss of privilege to gain political power. The man is practically ideologically identical to Pat Buchanan.