Thank you for making me even more of a supporter of Ron Paul after that smear attack of yours on Reason. Its one thing to offer a intelligent critique of his policies, but your article is just ignorant name calling.
Seriously, what’s with the anti-Ron Paul stance?
Limited government in the form of sensible foreign policy (no wars unless declared) and reigning in the Fed.
Sounds like a Libertarian stance to me.
Haha! Really, Mathew? No citations at all, none. Just a bunch of rehashed ad hominem, poorly written at that! It is no surprise to me that virtually NO ONE reads your blog. Hack!
I don’t really write here, Quint, but thanks for checking in! You can catch my column in the Denver Post — or RealClearPolitics/Reason.com/TownHall.com/Washington Examiner, etc …
Matthew,
well supported? Calling someone an anti-Semite and racist without backing it up with a single quote or another shred of evidence is not something I would call well thought out or well supported. In fact I can imagine fewer things in poorer taste.
Upon further examination I could not find anything that indicated that Ron Paul was an anti-Semite or a racist. In fact he regularly quotes Jewish economists so I doubt he has much of a problem with them.
I must say I expected more from someone writing for Reason Magazine.
I never said that you wrote in quotes “Ron Paul was an anti-Semite or a racist.” I said that you called him an anti-Semite and a racist. This shouldn’t be news to you as you wrote “Paul’s newsletters of the ’80s and ’90s were filled with anti-Semitic and racist rants…”.
Were we to interpret this in some other way than that you find him anti-Semitic and racist? Or is saying or writing anti-Semitic or racist things not what makes you an anti-Semite or racist? I don’t see why you would distinguish between: “X is a racist.” “X writes racist things.” Or did you mean that he was a racist in the ’80s and ’90s but is not anymore? I didn’t get the point of that paragraph. Just looked like unsubstantiated ad hominem attacks to me which do not belong in “Reason Magazine”.
The fact that Ron Paul’s newsletters in the 80s and 90s were filled with racist and anti-Semitic rants is methodically substantiated. So substantiated, in fact, that Paul himself said, “I do repudiate everything that is written along those lines …”
And I never claimed Paul wrote them (Reason pretty much proved it was Lew Rockwell who did, which is no surprise).
At the time I wrote:
“It’s exceedingly difficult for me to believable that Paul was unaware of the content in a newsletter bearing his name. Judging from what I’ve read and heard from the man, I do not believe he wrote these things. But I’m not sure it matters.”
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For now, this is my lightly used personal blog. Elsewhere, I'm a nationally syndicated columnist (you can find most of my columns here and here and here -- and for years I wrote here), a blogger at The Blaze, and Editorial Manager at Mercury Ink. My bio is here. You can contact me at dharsanyi (at) gmail.com or follow me @davidharsanyi on Twitter.
11 comments ↓
David,
I guess Ron Paul must be doing well now that you’re calling him “unserious.”
It’s interesting how much of American political writing has become not much beyond name-calling and smears, two things Paul doesn’t engage in.
No wonder you’re worried.
DrewJ
David,
What kind of libertarian argues for a “robust and proactive” national defense?
That means perpetual war.
DrewJ
Dear David,
Thank you for making me even more of a supporter of Ron Paul after that smear attack of yours on Reason. Its one thing to offer a intelligent critique of his policies, but your article is just ignorant name calling.
Seriously, what’s with the anti-Ron Paul stance?
Limited government in the form of sensible foreign policy (no wars unless declared) and reigning in the Fed.
Sounds like a Libertarian stance to me.
Dear David,
Forget all of these other commentators. Your attack on Ron Paul was well written, well thought out, and well supported.
Keep it up,
Matt
Haha! Really, Mathew? No citations at all, none. Just a bunch of rehashed ad hominem, poorly written at that! It is no surprise to me that virtually NO ONE reads your blog. Hack!
I don’t really write here, Quint, but thanks for checking in! You can catch my column in the Denver Post — or RealClearPolitics/Reason.com/TownHall.com/Washington Examiner, etc …
Matthew,
well supported? Calling someone an anti-Semite and racist without backing it up with a single quote or another shred of evidence is not something I would call well thought out or well supported. In fact I can imagine fewer things in poorer taste.
Upon further examination I could not find anything that indicated that Ron Paul was an anti-Semite or a racist. In fact he regularly quotes Jewish economists so I doubt he has much of a problem with them.
I must say I expected more from someone writing for Reason Magazine.
Anna, can you provide the quote in which I write that “Ron Paul was an anti-Semite or a racist” because it’s news to me.
I never said that you wrote in quotes “Ron Paul was an anti-Semite or a racist.” I said that you called him an anti-Semite and a racist. This shouldn’t be news to you as you wrote “Paul’s newsletters of the ’80s and ’90s were filled with anti-Semitic and racist rants…”.
Were we to interpret this in some other way than that you find him anti-Semitic and racist? Or is saying or writing anti-Semitic or racist things not what makes you an anti-Semite or racist? I don’t see why you would distinguish between: “X is a racist.” “X writes racist things.” Or did you mean that he was a racist in the ’80s and ’90s but is not anymore? I didn’t get the point of that paragraph. Just looked like unsubstantiated ad hominem attacks to me which do not belong in “Reason Magazine”.
The fact that Ron Paul’s newsletters in the 80s and 90s were filled with racist and anti-Semitic rants is methodically substantiated. So substantiated, in fact, that Paul himself said, “I do repudiate everything that is written along those lines …”
Here is more: http://blogs.denverpost.com/thespot/2010/02/24/more-on-ron-paul/
And I never claimed Paul wrote them (Reason pretty much proved it was Lew Rockwell who did, which is no surprise).
At the time I wrote:
“It’s exceedingly difficult for me to believable that Paul was unaware of the content in a newsletter bearing his name. Judging from what I’ve read and heard from the man, I do not believe he wrote these things. But I’m not sure it matters.”
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