JBHE: Latest News for 12/20/07

The White Supremacists’ Choice for President

Early next month voters will cast the first ballots in the 2008 presidential caucuses and primaries. Although given almost no chance of becoming the Republican nominee, Congressman Ron Paul of Texas has made a splash on the campaign trail and has astonished most political observers with his ability to raise money over the Internet from small donors.

Congressman Paul is a libertarian who wants to bring U.S. troops home from abroad, abolish the IRS, and do away with scores of federal programs. But Congressman Paul also has an uncompromising streak of racism. In 1999 Paul was the only member of the U.S. House of Representatives to vote against awarding the Congressional Gold Medal to Rosa Parks. Last year he was one of 33 House Republicans to vote against the extension of the Voting Rights Act. He has gone on record as saying that the Civil Rights Act of 1964 violated the Constitution and reduced individual liberty.

At one point Paul wrote a scathing criticism of the famed African-American congresswoman Barbara Jordan in his newsletter, the Ron Paul Political Report. Paul wrote: “The University of Texas affirmative action law professor is a fraud. Everything from her imitation British accent to her supposed expertise in law to her distinguished career in public service is made up. She is the archetypical half-educated victimologist, yet her race and sex protect her from criticism.”

In another issue of his newsletter, Paul wrote that it was his opinion that nearly all black men in Washington, D.C., were “semicriminal or entirely criminal.” He wrote further that black teenagers frequently were able to get away with their crimes because they are “unbelievably fleet of foot.” In another issue of his publication, Paul wrote that black people were more inclined toward crime than any other profession and “intellectually incapable of grasping important social and political issues.” Paul wrote in the same issue that “only 5 percent of blacks have sensible political opinions.”

Paul has received nationwide support from white supremacists such as David Duke and leaders of the National Alliance, Stormfront, and other neo-Nazi groups. The white supremacist Stormfront Web site features an article and a public forum promoting Paul’s candidacy.