Antiwar “Lefts” embrace ultra-right Republican candidate Ron Paul By Jerry White and Jeff Lincoln 22 January 2008
Over the last several months, a section of the antiwar protest movement in the US has turned with increasing enthusiasm towards the candidacy of Ron Paul, the long-time Republican Congressman from Texas, who is seeking his party’s presidential nomination. With a stable of leading Democratic and Republican candidates committed to the continued occupation of Iraq and extension of US military power around the world, Paul’s promotion of a “non- interventionist” US foreign policy and his criticisms of the Patriot Act and other attacks on civil liberties have won him support from a section of politically inexperienced students looking for a means to oppose the war. The Texas congressman’s maverick image has been further enhanced by the vitriol with which his fellow Republican candidates responded to comments Paul made during a debate in Iowa, when he said terrorism was chiefly a response to US meddling in the Middle East. This was followed by the decision of Fox News to exclude him from the debate on the eve of the New Hampshire primary. That Paul can be construed as an “antiwar candidate,” is a measure of how far to the right the American political and media establishment has moved. It is one thing, however, for the politically naïve to be fooled by his demagogy; it is quite another for ostensibly “left” commentators to deliberately conceal his reactionary politics and perpetuate the fraud that the former Libertarian Party candidate for president can be a catalyst for building a powerful antiwar movement. Take for example, Alexander Cockburn, who wrote in his regular column in the Nation magazine that Paul is “rock-solid against war and empire and the neo-liberal corporate state,” adding that the Texas Republican is “a principled fellow who’s won passionate support (and millions in modest cash contributions) from ordinary Americans.” http://www.wsws.org/articles/2008/jan2008/paul-j22.shtml On Jan 9, 10:32 am, News Journalism <[email protected]> wrote: > It takes little effort to understand the connection of the USA's > authoritarian government with Bellamy dogma (its national socialism > and the Pledge of Allegiance). Indeed, it would take all the ingenuity > of the cleverest academics not to understand > it.http://rexcurry.net/pledge-allegiance-pledge-allegiance.jpg > > The memoirs of Ludwig von Mises, written from his exile in Geneva in > 1940, contain this moving, even tragic, passage: "Occasionally I > entertained the hope that my writings would bear practical fruit and > show the way for policy. Constantly I have been looking for evidence > of a change in ideology. But...I have come to realize that my theories > explain the degeneration of a great civilization; they do not prevent > it. I set out to be a reformer, but only became the historian of > decline." See "Ludwig Von Mises Notes and Recollections" by Ludwig Von > Mises and Hans F. Sennholz; also see the article "Memories of Ludwig > von Mises" by Hans F. Sennholz. (concerning Mises' exile from National > Socialists in Germany)http://rexcurry.net/swastika3swastika.jpg > > "I was fascinated to see the pictures of US school kids saluting the > flag, as they do seem to have an uncanny resemblence to images from > the period of the National Socialist German Workers' Party. In this > respect they are similar to images you explained from the 20's and > 30's of people giving the 'Olympic' salute which was identical to the > National Socialist German Workers' Party. This salute was given not > only at the Olympics but at all sorts of other sporting events. I've > seen pictures in the local papers for Northamptonshire from the 1930s > of English school children giving the salute as they march past!" - > Philip C.http://rexcurry.net/bookchapter1a1c.html --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ Thanks for being part of "PoliticalForum" at Google Groups. For options & help see http://groups.google.com/group/PoliticalForum * Visit our other community at http://www.PoliticalForum.com/ * It's active and moderated. Register and vote in our polls. * Read the latest breaking news, and more. -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
