This is not news for those like The Gadfly who kinda make a point of paying attention to this shit ... but Rand Paul really has some issues with people of color that he needs to come clean on.
Observe:
If there’s one thing most political media can agree upon it’s that Senator Rand Paul is as authentic as it comes. He’s a man of principle who doesn’t bend with the wind just because it’s politically expedient to do so. Indeed, he’s bravely running for the nomination for president in the Republican Party despite his courageous willingness to confront both the establishment and the base on the hard issues.
Well, it is true that he has waffled somewhat on foreign policy, which is supposedly one of the libertarian bedrock principles, but hey, he’s running for president and he needs to assure Republican voters that he will defend America from the bad people. Surely, he’ll return to his isolationist principles just as soon as he is elected. He’s also done a little plagiarizing.
And now, a book he wrote called “The Tea Party Goes to Washington” has come under renewed scrutiny, owing to the fact that it includes one fake quote from Thomas Jefferson after another. This is so common on the right, however, that people hardly even mention it anymore. Aside from sending out chain emails every year with a bunch of bogus quotes that make the founders sound like they were early members of the John Birch Society, they have anointed a known hoaxter by the name of David Barton as their official Founders’ historian.
In a rare moment of right wing integrity, Barton’s publisher withdrew his book once it was discovered that he’d just made stuff up. No word on whether Paul’s publisher will feel compelled to do the same. But then, they weren’t bothered when it was revealed that Paul’s Tea Party book was co-written by a close associate by the name of Jack Hunter, also known as “The Southern Avenger”, so why would this little problem cause them to have second thoughts about distributing the book now?
You’ll remember that the Southern Avenger was a right-wing shock jock and member of the League of the South, a racist group which is known for such statements by its leading members as, “somebody needs to say a good word for slavery — where in the world are the Negroes better off today than in America?” (Tea party hero and Sovereign Citizen Cliven Bundy had similar thoughts about whether African Americans were better off as slaves picking cotton.) Hunter himself left quite a trail of racist sentiment behind including musing that he thought Abraham Lincoln was “one of the worst figures in American history.”
Yes, like his father before him, Rand Paul has consorted with a number of neo-Confederate white supremacists (is there any other kind). For instance, aside from his Southern Avenger buddy, back in 2010 his spokesman had to resign when it was discovered that his MySpace page was riddled with racist rantings from friends and acquaintances which he’d not bothered to remove.
One doesn't associate with hate mongers like the "Southern Avenger" unless one shares similar views with such people.
It's too bad because The Gadfly actually is on the same page with a few of Paul's political positions such as his anti-war stance and his pro drug decriminalization views, but when The Gadfly hears that Paul is chummy with white supremacist dirt bags like Jack Hunter and that ilk, it is a game changer and is cause enough for The Gadfly to cross Rand Paul off of his list as a possible GOP candidate that The Gadfly could conceivably cast a vote for.
As such, The Gadfly is still waiting for the Republican party to put forth a candidate who is not batshit insane, believes that sending young men and women in to war is always a last option, understands the human condition and cares enough about it to want to better it, and who isn't a fucking bought and paid for tool of wealthy industrialists and plutocrats. The Gadfly is pretty much of the belief he has a long wait ahead of him in this regard . . . .
----TFG
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