Rand Paul has never held political office and has no record to stand on, yet he is running for Senator of Kentucky. The main drawing point to Rand Paul is not himself, but his father’s name and the Tea Party movement. In an interview with Alan Colmes, Ron Paul admitted that there are no major differences in the political philosophies of himself and his son.
Both Ron and his son opposed the Civil Rights Act of 1964, for forcing private businesses to integrate. They will claim that it is for “libertarian” reasons. But if you look deeper into the Ron Paul “Revolution,” you will see that it is just as connected to white supremacist movements as libertarian ones. Ron Paul is not your traditional ideological Libertarian. His brand of Libertarianism is rooted in the John Birch Society and the Ludwig Von Mises Institute. Both of these institutions try and hide their racism, while promoting racist policies.
You would think that Republican philosophies on race would have changed in 50 years. Still, Rand and Ron’s philosophy on Civil Rights is no different than Barry Goldwater’s, who ran for President in 1964 with the support of the John Birch Society and racist whites in the South who wanted to continue segregation. The website PublicEye.org, writes:
The JBS simultaneously discouraged overt displays of racism, while it promoted policies that had the effect of racist oppression by its opposition to the Civil Rights movement.
While The John Birch Society may have claimed not to be racist, their support for racist policies, has led them to be a magnet for white supremacists.
The Society’s anti-communism and states rights libertarianism was based on sincere principles, but it clearly served as a cover for organizing by segregationists and White supremacists. How much of this was conscious, and how much unconscious, is difficult to determine. That the Birch Society clearly attracted members with a more hate-filled (even fascistic) agenda is undeniable, and these more zealous elements used the JBS as a recruitment pool from which to draw persons toward a more neonazi stance on issues of race and culture.
Despite its nefarious history, Ron Paul has been a longtime supporter and friend of the John Birch Society, speaking as they keynote speaker at their 50th anniversary and holding rallies with them. Like The John Birch society, Paul has become a magnet for Neo-Nazis who support him online on sites like Stormfront. Paul even has a picture with the Internets most notorious Neo-Nazis, Don Black and his son Derrek, the founders of Stormfront. Paul also famously refused to give back a donation from Don Black.
I’d be interested in hearing if Rand Paul agrees with his father that the Civil War shouldn’t have been fought and that the north was wrong for invading the South. Another seemingly racist position, that Ron Paul defends with libertarian “states rights” ideologies.
What Ron Paul and Rand Paul do is provide an intellectual cover and defense for blatant racism. This, along with Ron Paul’s history of promoting racism through his newsletters, is why they receive so much support from white supremacists. The two driving forces for the Paul’s political philosophy, the Ludwig Von Mises Institute and the John Birch society both serve as intellectual fronts for racism. The Ludwig Von Mises society is labeled a Neo-Confederate organization by the Southern Poverty Law Center for its support of the South in the Civil War and criticisms of Abraham Lincoln and the John Birch society is famous for producing people who go on to be Neo-Nazi leaders such as Revilo P. Oliver, Tom Metzger, William Pierce, and Kevin Strom.
In his newsletters, Ron Paul would often praise white supremacist leader David Duke. It appears that Ron learned a lot from Duke’s failed run at governor of Louisiana in 1991, in which he was defeated yet received a good deal of media attention. In 1991, Ron Paul wrote:
“Is David Duke’s new prominence, despite his losing the gubernatorial election, good for anti-big government forces? our priority should be to take the anti-government, anti-tax, anti-crime, anti-welfare loafers, anti-race privilege, anti-foreign meddling message of Duke, and enclose it in a more consistent package of freedom.”
Ron Paul has backed away from the racism of his newsletters but still holds on to his racist positions on the Civil Rights Act, the Civil War and hate crime legislation on “libertarian grounds.” Paul has in essence become David Duke without the Klan hood, holding the same positions while toning down the racist rhetoric.
Given that Rand has done nothing to distance himself from his father’s views, and has no other legs to stand on than his father’s name, one can assume that Rand holds the same views. Given Ron Paul’s racist newsletters and his connections to the John Birch Society and the Ludwig Von Mises institute, it is no coincidence that his “libertarian” positions also happen to be racist. Either the Pauls come from the white supremacist wing of the Libertarian movement, or the Libertarian wing of the white supremacist movement.
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