Posted on 04/18/2008 4:27:27 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
In recent weeks the thundering Ron Paul freight train has kind of derailed. Even though Paul announced that he was ending his campaign on March 8, his supporters are apparently convinced that he's still a viable candidate, despite his repeated public statements that they should move on and try to do some good working within the GOP. Nonetheless, many of them are pushing for a final surge and a surprise (and entirely delusional) victory at the GOP convention this summer. Admittedly, Paul is still making a lot of speeches and pushing his agenda, so maybe that's contributing to their confusion, but he's made it pretty clear he's campaigning for his ideas not an office.
Yet if anyone had any question about the viability of Paul as a national candidate, the issue ought to be put to rest by his recent decision to leap boldly onto the electrified third rail of politics and accept an invitation to be the keynote speaker at this fall's 50th annual convention of the John Birch Society.
For those not already familiar with the John Birch Society, it is a secretive and rather paranoid extreme-right organization which was originally founded in the era of Joe McCarthy's witch hunts to help root out the communist infiltrators who infested American society. Those communists were easy to spot because they were all immigrants or blacks or Jews, plus the occasional homosexual. The Birchers have always been big on 'real' American values and good at finding imaginary windmills to joust at. They borrowed a lot of ideas from their enemies in the process, including much of the methodology and organizational structure of Soviet covert operations of the Stalinist era, with a well developed propaganda machine, multiple front groups, and a cell-like organization.
The Birchers kind of lost their way during the 1980s and 1990s, eclipsed by the rise of the religious right and losing focus with the fall of communism, but today they are back and stronger than ever, riding a wave of conspiracy fanaticism which has grown from seeds they've been nurturing for years. They're still racists and anti-Semites and nativists and isolationists and conspiracy obsessed. Their followers are fanatics and the organization has a lot of the characteristics of a cult. Many participants are intensely religious and the membership has a lot of overlap with groups like Christian Identity. I give them credit for putting up a fairly reasonable seeming front on their website, but if you read their publications, email lists or blogs you see what issues really excite them.
Today they are fighting the same old battle with new names, and the fallen communist empire has just resurfaced in the even more nefarious guise of the 'new world order'. The idea that America is threatened by a huge, covert, and many-headed conspiracy is selling like hotcakes. You can see their books at booths in the gun shows and flea markets, they're all over the Internet, and they've pretty much taken over the chaotic fringes of Ron Paul's presidential campaign. Some 'patriots' like Timothy McVeigh find their brand of anti-government populism inspiring, and activists like radio ranter Alex Jones and the '9/11 Truth' movement take many of their talking points from Bircher sources.
During the Republican primaries, Ron Paul made an effort to distance himself from the JBS as concern grew that so many of his most vocal supporters seemed to be coming from the dangerous fringe of conspiracy paranoia and reactionary bigotry. Make no mistake, a lot of good people supported Ron Paul, and the campaign offered a lot of positive ideas for much needed reforms for the nation. But at the same time a lot of the campaign's energy came from Birchers who saw it as a chance to spread their message of nativism, protectionism, isolationism, and intolerance into the mainstream.
As I rooted for Dr. Paul I often found myself clinging to the fact that endorsements from JBS-related groups and the Aryan Nation and holocaust deniers and David Duke weren't really Dr. Paul's fault. He couldn't choose who endorsed him, any more than he could reject donations from supporters based on their beliefs. After all, it was his principles he was running on, not theirs.
As it turns out, I was just fooling myself. The masks came off last week when Dr. Paul accepted the invitation to speak at the JBS convention and called the group a "great and patriotic organization." Ron Paul's supporters can now stop claiming their candidate has any real legitimacy. Paul can also stop his protestations that only a small faction of his followers believe in crazy conspiracy theories, because by embracing the Birchers he has confirmed everyone's worst suspicions and made it very clear that he is as deeply mired in the culture of bigotry and intolerance as the worst of his followers.
We now know that David Duke and WAR didn't endorse Paul by mistake. They endorsed him because he shares their beliefs. Despite his pretensions of being a libertarian, Paul is a reactionary extremist of the worst sort. This is not like the lunatic fringe endorsing Paul. This is Paul endorsing the lunatic fringe. With any luck this revelation will motivate his more idealistic followers to sever their ties with the Birchers in the movement and try to find a permanent home among the real libertarians and reformers of the Republican Party. There's plenty of room and plenty of welcome for them if they leave their Bircher comrades and their intolerance and hate behind.
Dr. Paul's campaign is over. Maybe his career is too. I hope it's still possible to salvage some good out of the movement he spearheaded.
No, to change the direction, the very first thing we need to do is stop looking for government answers. Imagine what Reagan would say with all these 'Conservatives' looking for someone to say I'm from the government and I'm here to help.
Well said, I totally agree. I am a supporter and fan of Ron Paul’s positions and ideas but I will say he doesn’t lay out a plan very well on how to implement them effectively.
Paul was never a serious threat to the party and hasn’t even been an asterisk for months now. How many celebratory post-mortems will you folks have?
Why waste energy on this when you can work for your candidate McCain? If he wins, you will get what it appears you all want: a defense hawk who will work with Kennedy to further undermine thousands of miles of border and a defender of the Constitution who will work with Fiengold to further restrict the first amendment.
Not that I’m bitter or anything.
But...he had his picture taken with Reagan once! That PROVES he’s the only true constitutionalist!
Exactly. This guy’s as left as you get. Just because he doesn’t like Paul doesn’t make him a conservative. He’s got every leftist platitude in the book written into this thing.
Ron Paul is still a viable candidate for the GOP. He won all of the online polls!
/s
Insert laugh-track here.
Cue to scene of of Republicans voting in favor of Bush's prescription drugs boondogle and record deficits, Cue to a scene of McCain's proposing government-backed. Cue to scene of McCain's speech blaming "greed" as a cause of the mortgage crisis. Cue to McCain's support of bailouts via Fed inflation. Now, cue to Paul's consistent votes and speeches denouncing all of the above and his call for individual responsiblity.
That’s McCain’s call for “government backed mortgages.”
It is interesting how the so-called far left and the so-called far right have much in common. One group might me more interested in class warfare and the other group might want racial warfare, but both groups share many of the same hatreds. They hate America because America is tolerant. They tend to hate Jews in general and Israel in particular, while they are sympathetic to the Jihadists. They hate people who are successful. They believe there is a conspiracy behind everything.
When I was a member 40+ years ago, there not only was no racism but one of our small group was black.
Like many political organizations, the JBS failed to adjust to the end of the Soviet Union.
Once there was not a Soviet threat, all the penetration of our government by communist sympathizers became moot.
I personally salute the JBS for a job well done. They need not apologize to anyone for their efforts—least of all the false accusations of being racist, fascist or mentally disordered.
Generally, the term "witch hunt" has been reserved for cases where the targets of the movement either didn't exist or did nothing wrong. If there were "communist infiltrators who infested American society" (as all the evidence overwhelmingly indicates and the article itself apparently concedes) then it wasn't a "witch hunt."
The journalistic equivalent of the kid who grunts at you when you thank him for your cheeseburger at McDonalds.
And yet, one could argue that the corrosive fruit of their mission is tearing our society apart to this very day.
Also, the Soviet threat was reorganized, not removed.
McCarthy was right.
I second that! Perhaps McCarthy’s tactics were wrong, but he did uncover a lot of communists. Especially, in Hollywood.
As a Jew and a Bircher and a Ron Paul Republican, I can attest that that article was complete nonsense!
Sign-up date: April 18, 2008
“other than attempt to hold back incremental-ism”
...mainly because the incrementalism was in the direction of increasing the size & scope of the federal government.
Name one major domestic program that has been reduced in size or dismantled since we had control of the executive and Congress.
“we need to do is stop looking for government answers”
That’s just a bizarre comment, considering that real conservatives, constitutionalists and libertarians want the government to stop “providing answers” (ie. unconstitutional spending). Regardless, I can’t ignore a government whose spending and monetary policies are making it almost impossible to save or help create a future for myself, my wife or my children.
“The fundamental ideal of Conservatism is the power of the individual to achieve his full potential in spite of the system”
By “system”, conservatives mean “free market”.
By your definition of conservatism, Jews in Nazi Germany were at fault for not finding innovative workarounds to the gas chambers.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.