MadFloridian has written a great summary of the disturbing aspects of the Ron Paul phenomenon. The piece exposes the lunatic short-sightedness of many current "progressives" who liken Paul to -- get this! -- Howard Dean. In reality, the two men have about as much in common as Arizona's meteor crater and Mahler's Des Knaben Wunderhorn.
Paul has enormous appeal to white nationalists. At what point do we judge the man by his followers?
Every year or two, we should re-read the cautionary tale of the Nazi rise to power. The parallels are unsettling: A major power loses a war...the populace loses faith in the normal democratic process...the left's refusal to compromise alienates the middle class...right-wing citizens form ad hoc private armies...superstitious belief systems become wildly popular... We still have a key ingredient missing: The sharp economic downturn. When or if that happens, a fringe-dweller might have a shot at power.
5 comments:
So the anti-war, anti-imperialist and anti-patriot act guy is a nazi?
First, I asked you not to be anonymous.
Second, I don't think Paul is a Nazi. He's a Libertarian, which is disastrous enough. However, the fact that white supremacists gravitate toward his movement is disturbing, perhaps even to Paul himself.
Third, You'd be surprised how many actual Nazis can espouse positions which may appear, at first glance to be progressive. You might want to look up Gottfried Feder. Or the more recent "Third Position" fascists. Guys like Francoois Genoud in France.
(I know you won't actually do the homework, but, you know, let's pretend.)
Fourth, you didn't understand my major point. I drew the parallel to the rise of Hitler to show that under certain circumstances, a fringe player can rise to power. That individual might be Nazi, or he might be some other type of fringe dweller.
A Libertarian, say.
Hell, even a Communist. Not very damn likely in this country, but perhaps in some other.
Discredit the "normal" democratic process, and the previously unthinkable becomes possible. That's my point.
A lot of "unthinkables" have already become possible through the normal democractic process.
What is the point of comparing Ron Paul to Hitler if all they share is being a fringe player? Or are you intimating that they share more than that?
If you want to compare a candidate to Hitler in this political climate, don't you think it would make more sense to pick the one closest to our Reichstag? That'd be Rudy.
Rudy, detestable as he is, is not an outsider.
Look, it's obvious you have never read a book about Hitler's rise to power. I used to have a shelf full of them.
Like many others, I support the Ron Paul campaign mainly because his foreign policy is far better than that of any of the leading Democrats. I do not want him to be president. I also hope that it leads to discussion of small-government ideas, even if he is too extremist.
John in NC (decentralist leftist, not progressive.)
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