There has been much hubbub about Dr. Paul being racist – a charge I consider beyond the pale. It is making the rounds because of some newsletters that were printed in a publication bearing his name while he was busy with his career – and he made the mistake of not proofreading the material, simply trusting those who wrote the newsletters.

If you are going to judge Ron Paul on whether he is prejudiced, I think you should listen to every recording you can.  I consider myself free of prejudice (having been brought up that way) and have yet to hear Ron Paul utter anything to arouse suspicion that he may be prejudiced, so I seriously doubt the claims.  As a devout Libertarian, it would be entirely at odds with his beliefs.

I can imagine he has some well-meaning intentions for not wanting to “out” those responsible for the newsletters, but that would be conjecture, so I will keep them to myself. He has already taken the blame for allowing these newsletters to be published without first checking them.  So, he has accepted responsibility for not minding the store – and virtually everyone who knows him (including many independent journalists) finds it implausible that Paul could have been supportive of these articles, let alone written them.  Only those with something at stake seem to be pursuing the “racist” angle.

I encourage you to listen to Paul speak – in the present and in any old videos you can find online – and decide for yourself if this is a racist, as some claim.  If I may, I would like to suggest that you do take into the consideration the opinion of the NAACP’s Nelson Linder.  He speaks positively of Ron Paul in this video:

Among the Republican Presidential candidates, Ron Paul easily has the most support by minority voters.  In fact, if you look beyond the race of all of the candidates, including Obama, Ron Paul is really the most favorable to the plight of the poor and minorities.  Hear what some of them have to say:

As for material with Dr. Paul speaking for himself, here is a good place to start:

In the last election, we were promised change. Instead, we’ve gotten more war, more involvement in the internal affairs of foreign nations, and higher domestic spending, all while we go further and further into debt. We simply cannot afford to another five years like the past 11 (8 under Bush and 3 under Obama).

Why did this happen; that is, how could such a sincere-sounding campaign for “Change” end with a presidency that is so utterly pro-establishment? I think the primary reason is that our president is beholden to Wall Street and other special interests just as much as any past president. Follow the money: Obama got even more campaign money from big Wall Street firms and other large corporations — including major military contractors — than John McCain. Given that, how could we expect things to change in any meaningful way?

We have the chance within our grasp to do something about it in 2012. Ron Paul does not get big money from these firms because they know that he will not return political favors. He is principled and will not be bought. His monetary support comes almost entirely from small contributors like you and me. He is finally leading some of the polls in Iowa, indicating he has a real chance of winning there. That said, we CANNOT REST. We must continue to talk about him to friends and relatives. Buy signs, bumper stickers, buttons — whatever you can — and display them.

Most people in the country do not follow politics as closely as those of us who read and write about politics online do. Most people get their politics in sound bites on the news shows, whose producers, writers, hosts, and invited pundits spend a great deal of time and effort in figuring out how best to get viewers and listeners to come around to their views. In other words, they are propagandists. Remember when the Soviet new agency, TASS, was ridiculed here by our serious journalists for the state-approved propaganda it would spew? Well, our problem may not be state-dictated propaganda, but it is propaganda, nonetheless. Instead of purely objective journalism, we have well-connected people deciding what is reported and how it is to be reported. We need to overcome this propaganda through sincere communication of the truth with one another. The more the pundits proclaim that Ron Paul “can’t win,” the more you can be sure that they simply fear losing grip on their piece of the status quo. Don’t believe them. Read and listen to the words of Ron Paul, himself. (YouTube is a great resource for videos of Dr. Paul speaking about the issues.) Think about the resultant guarantees of your personal liberty, your life and your loved ones’ lives, the protection of your personal property, and the likelihood that we will earn respect the world over for exercising restraint out of strength instead of trying to be the rulers of the world. No doubt, if you read enough, you will find more reasons for electing Paul for President. If it is required in your state and you have not already done so, register to vote in your state’s upcoming Republican primary and urge your friends, family, coworkers, and any other acquaintances to do the same. Through word of mouth, and from heart to heart, we can make the difference. We can elect Ron Paul for President.

Ron Paul has said that he does NOT want Iran to have a nuclear weapon. He has, however, said that he can understand why Iran would WANT one. He has pointed to CIA intelligence reports that Iran is nowhere near actually having a nuke — which means that spurious reports to the contrary are akin to the Irag/WMD fear-mongering we heard leading up to THAT war. In other words, guard your children; the chicken hawks want them to fight — and possibly die — in another unnecessary war.

I have been spending much of my free time (scarce as that is) on Twitter, trying to reach people through discussions there. Unfortunately, brief as my periods of free time may be, it is difficult to express well-considered opinions in 140 characters or less. So, I will endeavor to spend more time here — and encourage people to consider what they find here as they decide for whom they wish to vote in the upcoming elections.

In Liberty,
Bob Giesen