V's post above is appropriate to both Gingrich (above) and Ron Paul (below)
Now, as Paul appears heading towards a win in the Iowa caucuses.
several headlines are appearing with derogatory subtexts.
But it appears to me that these articles are based on controversial
Newletters published under Ron Paul's name in the 1980's.
The Atlantic
Michael Brendan Dougherty
12/21/11
The Story Behind Ron Paul's Racist Newsletters
Dec 21 201
Quote:
So as Ron Paul is on track to win the Iowa caucuses,
he is getting a new dose of press scrutiny.
And the press is focusing on the newsletters that went out
under his name in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
They were called the Ron Paul's Political Report, Ron Paul's Freedom Report,
the Ron Paul Survival Report and the Ron Paul Investment Letter.
There is no doubt that the newsletters contained utterly racist statements.
Some choice quotes:
* "Given the inefficiencies of what DC laughingly calls the criminal justice system,
I think we can safely assume that 95 percent of the black males in that city
are semi-criminal or entirely criminal."
* "We are constantly told that it is evil to be afraid of black men, it is hardly irrational."
* After the Los Angeles riots, one article in a newsletter claimed,
"Order was only restored in L.A. when it came time for the blacks to pick up their welfare checks."
* One referred to Martin Luther King Jr. as "the world-class philanderer
who beat up his paramours" and who "seduced underage girls and boys."
* Another referred to Barbara Jordan, a civil rights activist and congresswoman
as "Barbara Morondon," the "archetypical half-educated victimologist."
Other newsletters had strange conspiracy theories about homosexuals, the CIA, and AIDS.
When the newsletter controversy came up again during the 2008 campaign,
Paul explained that he didn't actually write the newsletters but because
they carried his name he was morally responsible for their content.
Further, he didn't know exactly who wrote the offensive things and they didn't represent his views.
But it is still a serious issue. Jamie Kirchick reported in The New Republic
that Paul made nearly one million dollars in just one year from publishing the newsletters.
Could Paul really not understand the working of such a profitable operation?
<snip>
Winning the Iowa caucuses would change all that instantly.
Undoubtedly the movement that Paul inspired has moved far beyond
the race-baiting it engaged in two decades ago.
Young people from college campuses aren't lining up to hear him speak
because of what appeared in those newsletter about the 1992 L.A. riots
Rand Paul tried his hardest to place Paul-style libertarianism into the context of the Tea Party.
And he will likely carry on the movement without this 1990s baggage.
|
The article goes on to discuss how others view those Newletters,
particularly as they are not now as "relevant" as they were in the 80's.
.