Rightbloggers Close Ranks Against Ron Paul, The Wrong Kind of Small-Government Conservative
Everyone else has been the GOP Presidential front-runner -- why not Ron Paul? He's one point behind the current Next President of the United States, Newt Gingrich, on the cusp of the Iowa caucuses, and has been on the Jay Leno Show.
Naturally this has led to attacks on Paul -- but not so much by the fabled Main Stream Media as by his alleged fellow conservatives. Have you heard, for example, about the racist sentiments in some old Ron Paul newsletters? If you follow rightbloggers, you've heard plenty.
James Kirchick, who chronicled the hair-raising statements from Paul's newsletters in the New Republic four years ago, returned in the most recent edition of conservative magazine The Weekly Standard to amplify on them. (Sample quote: "Order was only restored in [the L.A. riots] when it came time for the blacks to pick up their welfare checks.")
Conservatives who normally are, let us say, unconcerned with racism were suddenly mortally offended by it in Paul's case.
"It's important for voters to remember Paul's insurmountable, self-inflicted handicap, and why he has no chance of becoming president," said Alana Goodman at Commentary. "In a civilized, decent nation, Ron Paul will be unelectable," said Bookworm Room. "If he does want to be taken seriously, it's time for him to answer for this garbage," said Dan Riehl.
"Big problem - and growing," said Jeffrey Lord at The American Spectator. "I grant permission to anyone to take the content in this entry and redistribute it," Conservatives Network headed its roundup of Paul newsletter stories. "The truth needs to get out."
William Teach of Right Wing News reported that Paul had once received a donation from a white supremacist, and added (we suppose in case his regular readership wondered why that was such a big deal), "Good luck explaining that away during a General Election with an opponent who is half Black."
Even the Muslim-hating Pam Geller of Atlas Shrugs got in on the act. "Proof of Ron Paul's racism and lies," she keened. "Considering how anti-Jewish he is, this is hardly surprising..." Jeez, next Pat Buchanan will start ranking on Paul.
Soon the Huffington Post was able to report to the wider world that "Ron Paul's Controversial 'Newsletters' Edge Back Into The News Cycle." Mission accomplished!
At The Astute Bloggers, Avi Green won the Chutzpah Award for wondering "why the MSM may not be covering [Paul's] horrific writings," and answering himself, "No doubt some of them are concealing this in hopes he'll at least score a minor victory in Iowa, which alone could give them the perfect opportunity to attack the conservative movement for being what they've been working so hard to prove they're not - racist." That liberal media -- they never give a racist Republican a break unless it's strategic.
And they still don't like him. Go figure!
Karl at Patterico's Pontifications found the real villain of the story: conservative reporter Dave Weigel. "Weigel voted for Ron Paul and announces he may again in 2012," reported Karl. "...You would think someone who enjoys casually flinging the race card at Fox News and FoxNation wouldn't vote for a candidate with a long history of disseminating racist, anti-gay and crypto-anti-Semitic tracts... Next time you read some piece where Weigel is riding around on a high horse, crusading against the fringe right, just remember that's a show for his left-leaning bosses; he dismounts to get into the voting booth." We're surprised Karl didn't suggest Weigel's left-leaning bosses ordered him to vote for the racist Paul in order to embarrass the movement. We're through the looking glass here, people!
There were other reasons rightbloggers couldn't vote for Paul. Foreign policy, for example. That small-government talk is all well and good, but true conservatives know it doesn't apply to the Pentagon.
This is the establishment-conservative POV, as recently exemplified by the Wall Street Journal's Kimberley Strassel, who, after some blahblah about Paul being "in many ways, the ideal candidate for a conservative electorate hungry for a principled GOP nominee" and "the 'intellectual godfather' of the tea party movement," disqualified Paul on the grounds that he "fundamentally denies American exceptionalism and refuses to allow for decisive action to protect the U.S. homeland."
Rightbloggers got right on it.
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