While all you brilliant minds try and keep the public divided with your constant diversive tactics using race the American people are waking up. We will make a truce. We won't believe the lies against the most honorable man who has run for recent history Ron Paul and we wont believe Obamas Trinity church should lose its tax exempt status and that he in fact is not a racist. Why don't you for a change do your job and focus on the issues and we'll sort out the rest in out feeble way.
Thanks so much.

Blah, Blah , Blah. Talk racisim maybe no one will notice the economy is tanking and people are dying overseas for the wrong reasons.

How bout you not refer to the lies of Ron Paul being a racist and we wont believe Obama is. We'll just talk issues. In which case Ron Paul is the only hope for this country.
We are tired of your smears and lies.

hilarious! the 'downfall' of Ron Paul! as if he had some massive following. libertarianism is the modern equivalent of the pie in the sky hippie idealism and utopianism of the 60s. its just a Rorschack test or a political movement. everyone who is frustrated with the two major parties just imagines that they would all agree together about everything they're upset about and look to silly people like Ralph Nader, or Ron Paul, as some kind of savior. of course, put them all in a room together, they'd agree about practically nothing and would get nothing done. but its much easier to complain from the sidelines than it is to try to make your agenda part of one of the party's agendas, so that's what people do. many people who donated to Ron Paul aren't racists, but we're talking about somebody who doesn't believe in a living Constitution, who wants to abolish every social institution - nearly all of which were created to combat the oppression and tyranny of the cultural majority - to which Paul and his followers belong. racism is built into the whole thing from the get-go. and the anti-war Republicans giving him money are just very confused people...

Onceler,

You are misjudging Paul's supporters. There was a great deal of confusion before Paul brought clarity to the relationship between US foreign policy and its monetary policy. It's actually rather fascinating, and I could recommend several illuminating books, if you are interested.

Dr. Paul has removed my apathy!

Cheers,

John H. Huckans, Ph.D.

Mori Dinauer:

Thanks for flying in. However, let me suggest a bit more research into this matter. You'll know you're there when the word "cosmotarian" is engraved in your brain and you know what comes after "orange".

One of the main reasons some at Reason oppose RP is because he opposed IllegalImmigration. Reason not only supports that, they support completely OpenBorders. If RP's ideas had caught on a bit more he would have cost some powerful people money, and preventing that appears to have been the motivation for the TNR hitpiece, something that Reason happily joined in on.

See also the posts here:
formerbeltwaywonk.wordpress.com

I agree with the previous commenter. Absolutely nobody cares what Libertarians think. They are a tiny, tiny minority with no constituency, only an absurdly vocal internet presence. They are properly classed as political cranks along with LaRouchians and other weirdos.

That being said, the libertarian movement is starting to have a race problem. Eric S. Raymond, libertarian crank #1, and self-appointed author of the "libertarian FAQ", once wrote:

More generally, libertarians hold no brief for the right wing's rather overt militarist, racist, sexist, and authoritarian tendencies

Yet Raymond in the last few years has called for a species of "cultural genocide" in order to rid our planet of the affliction of Islam, and spoke about the challenge to US society created by the inherent mental inferiority of blacks. It would seem that the libertarian movement is increasingly regressing to those very "militant, racist" tendencies Raymond once decried.

How this can reconciled with libertarian dogma is an interesting question, but doubtless libertarians will find a way. Their crack philosophers will discover an "empire exception" that allows for race hatred, border paranoia and militaristic empire building, while retaining the core belief in a fantasy utopia free of taxes, gun control, and tooth decay. Since libertarian dogma operates as nothing more than a pseudointellectual rationalization for vulgar self interest in any case, the transformation will not be difficult.

I've always been puzzled by Tapped's impression of who the Ron Paul supporters were, at least in this little recent blow up. I'm very much under the impression that they were young-ish independent market jocks and long time hard asset investors who despise the Fed and the little incestuous relationships you get in the financial industry and that are about everything *but* a "free market."

They had a lot of money to throw in the path of anything expressing a dissenting opinion in order to make a lot of noise, and they did.

I'd be surprised to discover that they're expending energy dissing our (non-existent) welfare queens, when it seems to me they're eyeing up our very much existent welfare kings.

I also think it's interesting that a lot of these issues are coming home to roost now, and I don't think it's coincidental. Rather, they have their fingers on the real pulse of American finance.

I wouldn't necessarily align with all their pespectives, but I find this take on the phenomenon rather one-sided.

Or, to put it another way, it may be the case that the "libertarian" argument is moving on. These days, the objections to taxation, for example, that I am seeing have everything to do with servicing the debt. It is sort of galling to be propping up the welfare kings' little feifdoms.

I don't expect to vote for RON PAUL tomorrow, but I damn well know how to take a point worth taking.

Libertarians don't believe in much of anything except hearing the sound of their own voices and are unwilling to really do anything in the way of real scarifice (doing that would be counter-libertarian inan ultimate, philosophical sense, anyway). They are best ignored beyond the hope that they might siphon off a few GOP votes.

I just attended the libertarian party virginia state convention on Saturday. I noticed one key difference with libertarians and the democrats and republicans.

The libertarians started off the event listing their problems as a party, their inability to draw votes or grow large, the issue of racism+Ron Paul's effect, and the trouble of spreading the message out to the nation.
Then the rest of the meeting was business, and small discussions on how to improve these problems.

If you compare that with the Democrats who have for the most part failed on the issue of foreign policy and Iraq. The democrats in power still largely don't acknowledge their failure to get out of Iraq.

Then the Republicans have completely abandoned fiscal conservatism in all but name, and Ron Paul was hated by most republicans for bringing these issues up.

The libertarians are way more self critical then the two major parties. The fact that it has been around for almost 40 years and losing almost constantly shows that it has dedicated support. I just have very strong doubts that the same would happen if the ideals of the current two most powerful parties were put in the position of the libertarians.

Ron Paul's campaign, in number of sheer donors and dollars, obviously created a pool of people enthusiastic about libertarian politics.

Does anybody know what happened to all that money? It seemed like he was outraising everyone on the Republican side, but I never heard about him spending any of it and his campaign looked like it was run on a shoestring.

Let me say that I never understood the level of hostility towards Ron Paul, in particular, by members of Tapped and other left-leaning blogs.

On issues of deregulation, taxation and abortion he was identical to most of the Republicans running.

On issues of race, he was far less offensive than Tom Tancredo, Duncan Hunter and even Mitt Romney. His legislative score from the NAACP was often better than John McCain's. Accusations of racism against him usually involved 10 and 20 year old quotes which still left him in a better category than Rudy Giuliani (considering the latter's reaction to the deaths and beatings of several black New Yorkers).

And on the critical issues of the day, civil liberties, domestic spying and Iraq, he was a better bet than half the Democratic members of Congress.

I find it rather amusing! The socialists have turned McCarthyism into a tool, substituting the screech of "communist! with a screech of "racism!"

Socialism is slavery, yet that doesn't seem to bother the people in the progressive movement.

And by the way, Martin Luther King believed in creationism.

This is not a "Libertarian Golden Age" but what I enjoy calling "The Age of Re-Enlightenment". The first Age of Enlightenment was fueled through an abundance of knowledge. For about the last fifty years, ones want or ability to access knowledge has lessened. Since the revolution of the internet, knowledge is now more abundant than ever. This is why the internet is a major vehicle of Paul's support.

Hogwash, your a tool and you know it.

Teflon Ron baby the smears won't stick

Legacy, you want legacy, follow the money$$$.

Why isn't anyone asking old Ron where all those donations are going? After 1988, you think people would be a little more curious who is pocketing the money... of course, I am sure that they will have a new Nadia Hayes scapegoat appear who will take the blame while Ron and Lew play innocent, just like 1988.

I hear Paul's new home is pretty nice, and all paid for by his salary from his PAC.. of course, when his followers treat him like a messiah, they ignore the fact he is as honest as Kevin Troudau.

Are we really wondering how Libertarians can get rid of their racist history? Is this even a question a Democrat in 2008 can ask? Until Reagan, the Democrats were the party of racism, period. I think the Democrats have managed to get tha out of their system pretty well. But how, oh how, could the libertarians ever manage it?

Does it really matter if there any bonafide racists within the libertarian movement...?

It's annoying that there are ideologically inconsistent people here, sure, but it seems that all the parties have been battling the bigotry beast this election.

The Republicans were showing that many within their ranks were religious bigots, and the Democrats were showing that they are more racist and sexist than they cared to think....

"the Democrats were showing that they are more racist and sexist than they cared to think"

I don't know that the Democrats are racist and sexist so much as they cast, recast, and rework *everything* into a racial and/ or gender issue. This gets EXHAUSTING for those of us who recognize that it is just such a counter productive narrowing of our line of vision that benefits the Republican Party and the agendas they promote.

There's no doubt in my mind that the DLC wanted to win the election on cultural issues by putting forth our two great "firsts" and *not* dealing with anything substantive.

I think it's good that circumstances and the electorate are *forcing* the candidates to move beyond the Party elite's navel gazing proclivities.

Do I think it will last if one of them wins? Maybe not. But there's always 2012 and, yes, the Republicans have been known to play cultural politics, too.

I would think you'd want to shift the ground, but it doesn't always look that way.

It's a disease.

Ha ha ha ha ha ha! Your smear tactics are so amusing.

Next I am sure you will entertain us by revealing how the myriad of Obama's racist allegations did nothing to stop his career or popularity but actually catapulted it.

And then, of course, the real story behind the media blackout and belittlement of Ron Paul. Hint: it has nothing to do with racism.

Dream on, you are hopelessly deluded.

Ron Paul is the FUTURE and we will not go away. Get used to it.

Just one month after setting the world record for single day campaign contributions, Ron Paul's name was mentioned in only 4 stories in the mainstream media out of 2,188 between January 14th and February 10th.

Now, that's in contrast to:
756 stories about Hillary Clinton
760 stories about Barack Obama
674 stories about John McCain
424 stories about Mitt Romney
281 stories about Mike Huckebee

However, Ron Paul's message of civil liberties, freedom from an oppressive government and equality for all American citizens is so strong and compelling, that he has managed to gather hundreds of thousands of loyal and dedicated supporters all over America and the world.

I'd like to see any other candidate accomplish that without any major media coverage.

We Love Ron Paul!
Ron Paul or Bust 2008

Same old noise...if you're not into "forced equality" via socialism, they call you a racist. Yet, the wealfare state has created deeper poverty. I guess "it takes a village" to destroy America.

Libertarianism is Americanism!

Seriously, I challenge you to research and write about, the deliberate MSM bias on Ron Paul Coverage, last three weeks leading up to the Super Tuesday. Why was Larry King Live with Ron Paul never aired the day before IOWA Caucus? Why was he kept out of NH Fox news debate the weekend before NH Primary? Why didn't they air the interview on 20/20 with John Stossle?

I am sure that if Murray Rothbard were alive today, he would repudiate his comments about unleashing cops on the citizenry.