Glenn Loury and John McWhorter, two of the country’s leading (and very mainstream) black intellectuals have a fascinating talk about Ron Paul. One of my favorite parts is the way they rather delicately refer to the general weirdness of the Israel lobby’s extreme influence on American discourse (between 3:00 and 6:00)—though so far as I know neither man has made writing about the Mideast any kind of priority. Also revealing and impressive is their dismissive attitude towards the “Ron Paul is a terrible racist” camp; they view Paul as certainly implicated in the newsletters and find them unfortunate but seem to perceive (and why shouldn’t they have some sixth sense about this?) that racism is not at all an important part of who Ron Paul is. I have to admit, though I’ve read and admired Loury and McWhorter’s pieces for many years, there is something about this video which makes me almost choke up with gratitude for America’s civil rights movement.
From the video:
LOURY: [Paul asks] ‘Why do you want to go bomb Iran?’ Can you give me an answer other than genuflection at some politically-correct nonsense? Will you please tell me why you’re going to war with Iran, rather than this anti-Islamic hyper-pro-Israeli pandering? That’s completely contemptuous of the people listening to this political discussion that you would talk in those terms.
So he deserves to be refuted rather than written out because he farted in church… He’s very important to the political discussion.
McWHORTER [echoing]: Suppose a child asked you, ‘Why are you going to bomb Iran?… Why are we so concerned with not ruffling the feathers of Israel?’ Just a child… Ron Paul’s…capable… of asking questions like that… It’s sad that a person who asks questions on that level and is not afraid to and is clearly somebody of intelligence could not be elected….
Actually, among black intellectuals they are both considered to be conservatives, though they contest that and I don;t think its entirely fair. They just go into areas not sanctioned by the Democratic party line on issues that touch on race.
I am ever curious when the Ron Paul love-fest will end over here on Mondoweiss. As a news source which is acclaimed and highly respected, I only expect the best. Simply because there is an unlikely voice whispering sentiments that social justice movements have been yelling about for decades in the United States regarding Palestine doesn’t require the silence on Ron Paul’s domestic policies of exclusion. As a principled movement in solidarity with Palestinians, I am shocked and heartbroken to see progressive and radical folks/publications catapulting Paul to messiah status without first thinking: Is Paul anti-racist? (For those late to the game, I’ll answer: no.) Does Ron Paul even remotely have Palestine on his mind or is he simply propagating hyper-containment policies? Look no further than Paul’s domestic immigration policy to see what he thinks of folks who are not Anglo-Saxon (or domestic social policies regarding folks who don’t identify as white, straight, or male). His (mis)conceptions on “America” and where it lies is so misconstrued that one does not have to have read a handful of political science texts to know that Ron Paul has no space in a discourse for social/political/cultural justice in Palestine, but instead should be relegated to the columns for notes scribbled about how we should all envision a world which we don’t want to live in.
Next time you hear Paul speaking, listen for how many times he even mentions the word Palestine.
“his ability to stand outside of the usual discourse”
” I am shocked and heartbroken to see progressive and radical folks/publications catapulting Paul to messiah status without first thinking: ”
Personally I couldnt be happier wih how Mondo has approached RP. As with most subjects, its been open forum without any policing of ideas. There have been articles for and against Paul and lots great debate in the comments. To ignore that and suggest people have come to support RP “without…thinking” is frankly silly.
There is a lot nuanced positions you can take on RP from fully supporting him, to supporting him as a form of dissent, to acknowledging his FP ideas are good to disliking him completely. I’d suggest you make up your own mind about him and not waste time being heartbroken over other peoples deciscions .
Best wishes,
The American Elitists Power wants to widen nonchalantly the influence of their Private Empire (called also USA) at any costs. At the expense of their own common citizens, (using them when needed) and with a total disreagard for opinion, safety or well being of other nations.
They try to rob Iran, Russia, China , Syria, many S. American countries from their local power and influance. They aspire to be the wordly hegemon, yet for the world they still want to present themselves as those, who bring ” peace ,freedom, democracy ,human rights and lady gaga ,blah, blah” .
There is no nuclear balance in the Middle East. Israel was the first country who moved this balance in their favour. Israel is obviously a great friend of America. Friend , who is cruel , unpredictable, erratic, calculated and extremely selfish.
Friend, who is very well protected by “democratic” American Empire.
Why??
If America is such a great democratic country that respects peoples rights,
why then it supports unconditionally Israel that breaks daily all those rights??
This doesn’t make any sense.
Israel is a huge danger to the worldly peace and stabilisation.
Either we will give Iran a chance to militarize itself ,so it isn’t afraid of psychopathic Israel , or we force both of those countriues to disarm themselves.
Now we let criminal , psychopathic Israel run around the world fully armed, and we hope that it isn’t going to hurt anybody because……….
Because why????