Rand Paul’s daddy Ron Paul, the Angry White Man, who spawned a generation of obstructionist haters | CPT PPP Coverage

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I didn’t intend to research Kentucky Senator Rand Paul’s father Ron Paul. I initially was reading about the early life of Oath Keeper Stewart Rhodes (I’m assuming we all know he shot himself in the eye), and was surprised to learn that Rhodes had worked for Congressman Ron Paul in his Texas, and Washington D.C. offices and had been a volunteer in Montana during Ron Paul’s 2008 presidential campaign.

I didn’t think it was explosive information until I read the February 1, 2022 DK diary by David Neiwert in which he interviewed Rhode’s ex-wife Tasha Adams. The way Adams explained it, the Ron Paul presidential campaign of 2008 was the seminal event that caused Rhodes to start the Oath Keepers.  

What Adams said was: “I think what he [Rhodes] saw was the energy of the Ron Paul movement—he saw the money, he saw the youth, he saw the people willing to donate their hours and their time, and—you know, typical narcissists, that’s what they do, they absorb energy from people, right?—and so I think he saw all that energy, he saw all that and he wanted to find a way to take it for himself.”

It was news to me that when Rhodes founded the Oath Keepers in 2009, he went after the veterans, military personnel, and police officers he and Adams had met during the campaign, who were drawn to Paul’s libertarian views. In fact, Rhodes focused on recruiting and encouraging them to remain true to the oath they swore to defend the Constitution and to disobey orders they considered illegal. Rhodes badly wanted to be their leader, and recruited many of them, who had nowhere to go after Paul’s campaign ended in 2012, and before Trump declared his intention to run for president in 2015.

When I looked up Ron Paul, I was flabbergasted. I knew that he had been a Libertarian Congressman who had run for president three times; twice against former President Obama. What I didn’t realize was that the former Air Force flight surgeon and OBGYN, was the orchestrator of a well-organized grassroots movement that had attracted some people who would later join the Oath Keepers and others who were just like the MAGAs, without the moniker or the caps. Neither did I know that for decades Paul had published (They were written under his name although he said he neither wrote them nor read them) and profited from political newsletters that were “chock-full of conspiratorial, racist, and anti-government ravings.” Just like Trump’s slurs and lies, Paul’s newsletters slurred and lied about revered people, like the Rev. Martin Luther King, and others.

According to author James Kirchick, “who exposed the newsletters, and did a broader investigation into Paul’s history of associations with all manner of groups and individuals on the extreme right, Ron Paul was truly an Angry White Man, and that was the title of Kirchick’s book about him, which was published on the day of the 2008 New Hampshire primary.”

Before writing this diary, I knew nothing about the United States Libertarian Party, which defines itself as a party that “promotes civil liberties, non-interventionism, laissez-faire capitalism, and limiting the size and scope of government.” But, if the behavior of the right- wing Libertarians can be used as an example, they are all “angry white people.” During the Trump years, I had no idea that the MAGAs who participated in the Insurrection; refused to wear masks, get vaccinated, stop attending huge COVID spreading events, stop harassing parents in school board meetings and at schools, stop threatening and harassing election workers, hospital doctors and nurses, politicians, POC, Muslims, Jews, and LGBTQ children and adults possibly considered themselves to be right-wing Libertarians. To me, they just were/are lawless, racist, violent, intellectually challenged, selfish, amoral, anti-Semitic, anti-Muslim, homophobic, misogynistic, anti-American Republican gun-toting extremists, seditionists, and/or domestic terrorists. And, I still believe that’s true. I also didn’t know that Libertarianism means that you believe in Originalism regarding the Constitution, which is the position of Clarence Thomas and Ron Paul, such odd bedfellows.

“As a Congressman, Ron Paul’s nickname ‘Dr. No’ reflects both his medical degree and his assertion that he would “never vote for legislation unless the proposed measure was expressly authorized by the Constitution. This position frequently resulted in Paul casting the sole “no” vote against proposed legislation.” And, it meant that Justice Clarence Thomas, for most of his SCOTUS career until recently, also voted alone, even when he agreed with other conservatives because he “made up” his Originalist positions.

When Ron Paul launched his third and final presidential campaign in 2012, according to Mother Jones, “his extremist positions were met with jeers from the party establishment. To name a few of Paul’s positions: He didn’t believe in the IRS or the Federal Reserve. He wanted to abolish half of federal agencies, including the departments of Energy, Education, Agriculture, Commerce, Health and Human Services, Homeland Security, and Labor; Eviscerate  Entitlements (He said Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid were unconstitutional), Enable State Extremism (Allow states to set their own policies on abortion, gay marriage, prayer in school); Legalize Prostitution; Legalize Drugs (including cocaine and heroine); Keep Monopolies in Tact (Remove federal anti-trust legislation); Stop Policing the Environment; Get Rid of the Civil Rights Act; and End Birthright Citizenship, among other things. And, his foreign policy was American Isolationism.”

And, the people who supported Paul, among others, were survivalists, white supremacists, anti-Zionists, anti-government extremists (who wanted no legal restraints), American Isolationists, Libertarians, conservatives, people in the military and law enforcement (they were some of his largest donors), young, disaffected Democrats and independents who loved his isolationist stance on foreign policy and libertarian approach to social issues, anti-war activists, and rich folks (who wanted no governmental restraints to restrain their greed and hunger for power). I would imagine he also appealed to racists, homophobes, misogynists, and evangelicals. In effect, they were just like current day MAGAs and members of the Republican cult, although there were far fewer of them back then. (They must not believe in birth control or abortion because they seem to have experienced exponential growth.)

And, their behavior during Paul’s campaign was similar to how Trump’s MAGA supporters behave. “Paul’s boisterous supporters raised hell in caucus states. His cheering throngs were loud and clear at the presidential debates. And, even after Paul withdrew, the feeling was that his followers would continue to make nuisances of themselves at state conventions.”

When Paul was asked what he wanted from a campaign, that he couldn’t win, he said he wanted his followers to run for office, win, and continue to do that to expand the movement and its influence in government. At the time, main stream Republicans felt that Ron Paul and his followers would fade out of the picture. Four years later, the coalition of people Paul had gathered together had greatly expanded, and they elected Trump as president.

After reading all that I did, what I don’t understand is why former Congressman Ron Paul never has never been publicly blamed and pilloried righteously castigated for the inestimable damage his actions, newsletters, opinions, and followers have done to our democracy, democratic institutions, and to human decency within our country.  He also hasn’t been publicly identified in MSM for being  Stewart Rhode’s role model. Nor has Kentucky Senator Rand Paul, his son the obstructionist, been tarnished for his father’s actions, opinions, and behavior,  which is consistent with his own, although he has tried to rebrand himself for a larger audience. But, we should never forget how dangerous they both are. 

As James Kirchick so eloquently wrote in 2018 when his book Angry White Man, was published: “Long before Donald Trump emerged as the most prominent purveyor of a racist conspiracy theory concerning the country’s first black president, played political footsie with white supremacists, condemned “globalism,” sold himself to the masses as a guru of personal enrichment, attacked American allies as scroungers, and made overtures to authoritarian regimes like Russia, there was Ron Paul. The ideological similarities between the two men, and the ways in which they created support, are striking.”