Ron Paul was on Meet the Press on Sunday (transcript here). The horse-race obsessed mainstream media ignored many controversial subjects discussed and news reports following the show primarily centered around the fact that he continued to leave the door open a crack to run as a third party candidate. Matters of much greater substance, regardless of whether you agree with him or not, were barely mentioned in the media. These included abolishing the federal income tax, whether the Civil War was justified, his opposition to the Civil Rights Act, and whether Iran poses a military threat to Israel.
As usual, it was left to the blogosphere to discuss the matters of substance, and most likely this discussion was reduced due to most of us being busy over the holiday weekend. Among blogs discussing the substance of the interview are Matthew Yglesias, The Agonist, OpEdNews and Poligazette.
The other topic which did come up, and which also did receive some media attention was the manner in which Paul seeks earmarks for his district. Paul typically requests that they be added to spending bills and then, in order to appear to preserve his purity, he votes against the bill. Paul supporters have come up with a number of justifications for this but I doubt their arguments convince anyone else. The manner in which Paul tries to have it both ways only makes him look more hypocritical.
Not surprisingly the recent accusations that Ron Paul has been meeting with white supremacists are making it into the mainstream media with this account at The New York Times Magazine. Lew Rockwell.com, which has consistently defended Paul against all allegations, hardly helps Paul’s cause by referring to everyone who opposes Paul as either communists or fascists, such as in its reference to the New York Times as the Stalin News. This only strengthens the view that Paul and his supporters are a bunch of extremists who are out of touch with reality.
As I’ve noted several times, the questions of a connection between Paul and white supremacists, along with neo-Nazis, are Paul’s own fault in light of the racist writings in his newsletter and Paul’s failure to return the contribution of Stormfront founder Don Black once this was identified. The frequency with which Paul’s supporters spam the internet with racist and anti-Semitic comments also adds to this perception even if Paul cannot necessarily be blamed for the views of his supporters. As long as Paul and his supporters fail to see what is wrong with their actions they verify suspicions regarding their lack of principles. Even if Paul himself does not share their views, his acceptance of such supporters is troubling enough.