I think that he may have held many of those views to a lesser degree, but has always been more concerned with the New World Order side of the right-wing nutty arena than the racist/anti-semite/etc side. The problem is that he has worked closely with and taken money from people who do hold those views for years and years, and apparently doesn't have much of a problem with that. I'm sorry, but if a bunch of fucking NEONAZIS think I'm their guy, I'm gonna start speaking loud and fucking clear about how goddamned wrong they are and, also, go fuck yourselves.
He didn't say that MLK was a hero; he said that he agreed that the color of a person's skin shouldn't matter. Not the same thing at all. It's that kind of really careful parsing that lets him get away with it for regular folks...but indicates to the crazies that he thinks we should ignore racism.
He may have been more fervent in his youth. He may not have cared as much or realized how he would look to a national audience. In any case, I agree with Tara - why doesn't he step up and say how he's changed? My guess is that it's because either he hasn't or he doesn't want to lose that constituency...or both.
For instance, Senator Robert Byrd joined the Klan as a young man in the early 1940s and has repeatedly, publicly apologized and talked about what a mistake it was, and how he had a narrow and naive outlook on the world when he was young. Him, I believe. Ron Paul, not so much.
As for whether he's sane or not, i gotta go with with a maybe, maybe not. I read somebody describing the Nazis who ran Germany, and how they weren't stupid. They were extremely smart, thoughtful people...but they were like clocks with a few missing gears. They would run correctly for a while, then suddenly jump ahead a few minutes without warning...and keep running. This keeps on happening until the time is so off it's out of this world. It doesn't mean that the clock isn't running, and it doesn't mean that the clock doesn't tell the right time sometimes. It just means that you shouldn't trust what it says.
I think that he may have held many of those views to a lesser degree, but has always been more concerned with the New World Order side of the right-wing nutty arena than the racist/anti-semite/etc side. The problem is that he has worked closely with and taken money from people who do hold those views for years and years, and apparently doesn't have much of a problem with that. I'm sorry, but if a bunch of fucking NEONAZIS think I'm their guy, I'm gonna start speaking loud and fucking clear about how goddamned wrong they are and, also, go fuck yourselves.
He didn't say that MLK was a hero; he said that he agreed that the color of a person's skin shouldn't matter. Not the same thing at all. It's that kind of really careful parsing that lets him get away with it for regular folks...but indicates to the crazies that he thinks we should ignore racism.
He may have been more fervent in his youth. He may not have cared as much or realized how he would look to a national audience. In any case, I agree with Tara - why doesn't he step up and say how he's changed? My guess is that it's because either he hasn't or he doesn't want to lose that constituency...or both.
For instance, Senator Robert Byrd joined the Klan as a young man in the early 1940s and has repeatedly, publicly apologized and talked about what a mistake it was, and how he had a narrow and naive outlook on the world when he was young. Him, I believe. Ron Paul, not so much.
As for whether he's sane or not, i gotta go with with a maybe, maybe not. I read somebody describing the Nazis who ran Germany, and how they weren't stupid. They were extremely smart, thoughtful people...but they were like clocks with a few missing gears. They would run correctly for a while, then suddenly jump ahead a few minutes without warning...and keep running. This keeps on happening until the time is so off it's out of this world. It doesn't mean that the clock isn't running, and it doesn't mean that the clock doesn't tell the right time sometimes. It just means that you shouldn't trust what it says.
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