The Republican presidential candidate has denied writing inflammatory passages in the pamphlets from the 1990s and said recently that he did not read them at the time or for years afterward. Numerous colleagues said he does not hold racist views.
But people close to Paul’s operations said he was deeply involved in the company that produced the newsletters, Ron Paul & Associates, and closely monitored its operations, signing off on articles and speaking to staff members virtually every day.
“It was his newsletter, and it was under his name, so he always got to see the final product. . . . He would proof it,’’ said Renae Hathway, a former secretary in Paul’s company and a supporter of the Texas congressman’s.
The newsletters point to a rarely seen and somewhat opaque side of Paul, who has surprised the political community by becoming an important factor in the Republican race. The candidate, who has presented himself as a kindly doctor and political truth teller, declined in a recent debate to release his tax returns, joking that he would be “embarrassed” about his income compared with that of his richer GOP rivals.
Yet a review of his enterprises reveals a sharp-eyed businessman who for nearly two decades oversaw the company and a nonprofit foundation, intertwining them with his political career. The newsletters, which were launched in the mid-1980s and bore such names as the Ron Paul Survival Report, were produced by a company Paul dissolved in 2001.
He's a snake oil salesman just like the rest of them. And like every other hack, huckster, cheat and thief, his message is tailored to the gullible and those who want to believe. Whether or not Ron Paul actually believes that racist nonsense isn't the point: the point is he was willing to use it in order to reach a particular demographic of people who did, and he purposefully sought their political and financial support in order to win.
That makes him a complete scumbag in my book. Period, point blank. He traded on the politics of hate for years. The 2012 race was made for him, and lo and behold, he's getting enough attention now to be considered a threat. He's either a liar willing to push racism and bigotry as a fundraising tool, or he actually believes this foul idiocy. I'm not sure which one is worse overall, because either way the poison he's infected this race with will ravage the body politic for a long, long time.
There is nothing that Ron Paul can possibly say that qualifies as "a good point" while he's pushing garbage like this. And if he is saying things that you believe America needs to hear, then you had better find another messenger than this fool, because American will rightfully never take that message seriously as long as Ron Paul is the voice of that message, and with ample cause. He's too tainted. End of story.
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