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The little white slip that keeps showing

Published by digby on June 22, 2015

The little white slip that keeps showing

by digby

I wrote about Rand Paul and the influence of white supremacists on him and libertarian philosophy today for Salon:

And now, a book he wrote called “The Tea Party Goes to Washington” has come under renewed scrutiny, owing to the fact that it includes one fake quote from Thomas Jefferson after another. This is so common on the right, however, that people hardly even mention it anymore. Aside from sending out chain emails every year with a bunch of bogus quotes that make the founders sound like they were early members of the John Birch Society, they have anointed a known hoaxter by the name of David Barton as their official Founders’ historian.
In a rare moment of right wing integrity, Barton’s publisher withdrew his book once it was discovered that he’d just made stuff up. No word on whether Paul’s publisher will feel compelled to do the same. But then, they weren’t bothered when it was revealed that Paul’s Tea Party book was co-written by a close associate by the name of Jack Hunter, also known as “The Southern Avenger”, so why would this little problem cause them to have second thoughts about distributing the book now?
You’ll remember that the Southern Avenger was a right-wing shock jock and member of the League of the South, a  racist group which is known for such statements by its leading members as, “somebody needs to say a good word for slavery — where in the world are the Negroes better off today than in America?” (Tea party hero and  Sovereign Citizen Cliven Bundy had similar thoughts about whether African Americans were better off as slaves picking cotton.) Hunter himself left quite a trail of racist sentiment behind including musing that he thought Abraham Lincoln was “one of the worst figures in American history.”
Yes, like his father before him, Rand Paul has consorted with a number of neo-Confederate white supremacists (is there any other kind). For instance, aside from his Southern Avenger buddy, back in 2010 his spokesman had to resign when it was discovered that his MySpace page was riddled with racist rantings from friends and acquaintances which he’d not bothered to remove.
Paul has disassociated himself from these racists once it’s been revealed (although he has agreed to appear at events featuring them). After all, he’s a man of principle and we all know that he wants nothing more than to reach out to the African American community and try to persuade them that the libertarian philosophy is one which will benefit them the most. It’s a little bit embarrassing to have white supremacists in the inner circle. It might even remind people of what Jonathan Chait pointed out at the time Hunter was unmasked as the Southern Avenger:
Now, obviously, you can like Ron and Rand Paul without being the slightest bit racist. Very, very few Rand Paul fans are glad Abraham Lincoln was shot. At the same time, the logic of southern white supremacy and the logic of libertarianism run along very similar lines. They both express themselves in terms of opposition to federal power and support for states’ rights.
Segregation was in large part a policy of government, not the free market. But it took intrusive federal power to destroy segregation. Barry Goldwater expressed his opposition to the 1964 Civil Rights Act in classically race-neutral, anti-big-government terms. The deep connection between the Pauls and the neo-Confederate movement doesn’t discredit their ideas, but it’s also not just an indiscretion. It’s a reflection of the fact that white supremacy is a much more important historical constituency for anti-government ideas than libertarians like to admit.
So, perhaps it’s not just low taxes and regulations that lure libertarians into joining the Republican Party even though it’s full of theocrats, authoritarians and militaristic imperialists. 

I talked about all the Republican hedging on the flag too. They’re all such brave leaders they can’t even admit that the flag is a noxious symbol of white supremacy and should come down. Defenders of “states’ rights” to the very end.

Update: Just listen to the first couple of minutes …

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