solarbird | (Reply)

From:

llachglin.livejournal.com

Ron Paul isn't anti-Drug War. He's anti-federalist, which means opposing the federal drug war. Given his stance that it's OK to support government repression against reproductive rights and discriminate against gays at the state level, there's no reason to suspect he would have any problem with state-level restrictions against drugs. He's not anti-authoritarian either. Paul is a conservative Christian even if he's not a Dominionist (his Christmas ad was just as bad as Huckabee's), and he's more than willing to support repression at the state level. Yes, he's anti-interventionist, but so were the America Firsters who wanted to stay out of WWII because they supported Hitler. I say this not as a smear but because Paul's politics are a direct descendant of the politics of that era. You have to look into the real history of right-wing libertarianism in this country. Just read some of Justin Raimondo's posts at antiwar.com for a while, and if you don't get a distinct sense of crypto-fascism then you're not paying attention. (You can also look up Murray Rothbard and Lew Rockwell while you're at it.) The terms "paleolibertarianism" and "paleoconservativism" might also buy you half a clue. This is a movement of far-right social conservatives using states rights as a shield for attacking the liberal changes of the last century, in particular the end of legal segregation. Their state's rights nonsense is a resurrection of segregation by a different name, applied to a much broader program of retrograde repression. It's not an accident that far-right patriots and white racists are enthusiastically on board.

Ron Paul is just as much of an authoritarian as any of the other Republicans, he's just a different flavor. Any Democrat would be better.

Ron Paul also has a long history of seeking out and refusing to repudiate the support of far-right patriots and white racists. That's not a smear; it's history. David Duke is supporting Ron Paul and Ron Paul has not repudiated him, just to take one example. It's not a smear to say that--he's the spearhead of the white power movement and they are actively campaigning for him.

And yes, you do have to be clueless as a liberal or true libertarian to support Paul, because his platform is a total repudiation of social and political liberalism and libertarianism. You might as well be supporting George Wallace.