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<H3><A
title="http://www.bakersfield.com/opinion/x4969737/Anti-Lincoln-radicalism-of-Ron-Pauls-poison-pill
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href="http://www.bakersfield.com/opinion/x4969737/Anti-Lincoln-radicalism-of-Ron-Pauls-poison-pill">MICHAEL
GERSON: Anti-Lincoln radicalism of Ron Paul's poison pill</A></H3>
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<P>Let us count the ways in which the nomination of Ron Paul would be
groundbreaking for the GOP.</P>
<P>No other recent candidate hailing from the party of Lincoln has accused
Lincoln of causing a "senseless" war and ruling with an "iron fist." Or regarded
Ronald Reagan's presidency a "dramatic failure." Or proposed the legalization of
prostitution and heroin use. Or called America the most "aggressive, extended
and expansionist" empire in world history. Or promised to abolish the CIA,
depart NATO and withdraw military protection from South Korea. Or blamed
terrorism on American militarism, since "they're terrorists because we're
occupiers." Or accused the American government of a 9/11 "cover-up" and called
for an investigation headed by Dennis Kucinich. Or described the killing of
Osama bin Laden as "absolutely not necessary." Or affirmed that he would not
have sent American troops to Europe to end the Holocaust. Or excused Iranian
nuclear ambitions as "natural," while dismissing evidence of those ambitions as
"war propaganda." Or published a newsletter stating that the 1993 World Trade
Center attack might have been "a setup by the Israeli Mossad," and defending
former Ku Klux Klan Grand Wizard David Duke, and criticizing the "evil of forced
integration."</P>
<P>Each of these is a disqualifying scandal. Taken together, a kind of grandeur
creeps in. The ambition of Paul and his supporters is breathtaking. They wish to
erase 158 years of Republican Party history in a single political season,
substituting a platform that is isolationist, libertarian, conspiratorial and
tinged with racism. It won't happen. But some conservatives seem paradoxically
drawn to the radicalism of Paul's project. They prefer their poison pill covered
in glass and washed down with battery acid. It proves their ideological
manhood.</P>
<P>In many ways, Paul is the ideal carrier of this message. His manner is vague
and perplexed rather than angry -- as though he is continually searching for
lost car keys. Yet those who reject his isolationism are called "warmongers."
The George W. Bush administration, in his view, was filled with "glee" after the
9/11 attacks, having found an excuse for war. Paul is just like your grandfather
-- if your grandfather has a nasty habit of conspiratorial calumny.</P>
<P>Recent criticism of Paul -- in reaction to racist rants contained in the Ron
Paul Political Report -- has focused on the candidate's view of civil rights.
Associates have denied he is a racist, which is both reassuring and not
particularly relevant. Whatever his personal views, Paul categorically opposes
the legal construct that ended state-sanctioned racism. His libertarianism
involves not only the abolition of the Department of Education but a rejection
of the federal role in civil rights from the Civil War to the Civil Rights Act
of 1964.</P>
<P>This is the reason Paul is among the most anti-Lincoln public officials since
Jefferson Davis resigned from the U.S. Senate. According to Paul, Lincoln caused
600,000 Americans to die in order to "get rid of the original intent of the
republic." Likewise, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 diminished individual liberty
because the "federal government has no legitimate authority to infringe on the
rights of private property owners to use their property as they please." A
federal role in civil rights is an attack on a "free society." According to
Paul, it is like the federal government dictating that you can't "smoke a
cigar."</P>
<P>The comparison of civil rights to the enjoyment of a cigar is a sad symptom
of ideological delirium. It also illustrates a confusion at the heart of
libertarianism. Government can be an enemy of liberty. But the achievement of a
free society can also be the result of government action -- the protection of
individual liberty against corrupt state governments or corrupt business
practices or corrupt local laws. In 1957, President Eisenhower sent 1,000 Army
paratroopers to Arkansas to forcibly integrate Central High School in Little
Rock. This reduced Gov. Orval Faubus' freedom. It increased the liberty of
Carlotta Walls LaNier, who was spat upon while trying to attend school. A choice
between freedoms was necessary -- and it was not a hard one.</P>
<P>Paul's conception of liberty is not the same as Lincoln's -- which is not a
condemnation of Lincoln. Paul's view would have freed African-Americans from the
statism of the Emancipation Proclamation and the Civil Rights Act. It would have
freed the occupants of concentration camps from their dependency on liberating
armies. And it would free the Republican Party from any claim to conscience or
power.</P></FONT></DIV>
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<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Verdana>___________________________________</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Verdana>Wayne A. Fox<BR><A
href="mailto:wayne.a.fox@gmail.com">wayne.a.fox@gmail.com</A><BR></FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>