The Smear Campaign
against Ron Paul
Wednesday, January 16, 2008
By Nelson Hultberg
The world of politics is a snarly snakepit of danger and insufferable
media hokum where a candidate's every word, action and nuance throughout
his life are susceptible to being dredged up, twisted, and smeared
by those who oppose him, especially if the opposition is the establishment.
To enter such a perilous arena requires the courage of a tightrope
walker and a skin as thick as a crocodile. Not an easy combine to
come by. I watch Ron Paul taking on this torture chamber, and I'm
amazed at the fortitude required, to say nothing of the integrity.
Yet neophyte, lefty libertarians (preening so with pronouncements
on Paul's "integrity credentials") blast him because he has a few
tiny stains on his garb after a lifetime of endeavor in this torturous
political world.
To put this another way, political engagement as a constitutionalist
in Washington is like embarking on the boat trip Bogart and Hepburn
took in The African Queen. The slightest miscalculation will
bring one crashing into the jagged rocks of scandal. The only difference
is that the jagged rocks threatening Bogart and Hepburn were natural.
The scandals threatening a challenger of today's establishment are
manufactured by its media henchmen if they can find even a semblence
of an opening.
To navigate this river, one certainly needs an abundance of character.
But one needs something else also, which is money. No one makes it
without the green. Now over a lifetime of navigating the river, it
appears that on occasion Ron Paul did not exactly pick Mother Theresas
to lend his name to in order to assure continued recognition among
big conservative donors. So let me get this straight. Because Paul
failed to sufficiently divorce himself from a few tough-talking "racial
nasties" who were trying to play H.L. Mencken in a newsletter published
under Paul's name 15 years ago, we are supposed to now abandon him?
This is a horrendous sin? No, I don't think so. This is simply the
crude arena of politics. Politics is not a charming game of croquet
on a manicured lawn during a balmy spring evening in the Hamptons.
It is Uglyville in a raging hailstorm that one has to brave as winter
descends.
I doubt there is a politician out there who has the "integrity credentials" of
Ron Paul, and certainly not one who understands the political-economic
forces in today's America that threaten to destroy what few vestiges
of sanity and freedom we have left. So please, all young pup, lefty
libertarians -- lighten up. Your moral gravity lectures are aimed
at such inconsequential targets here. We old timers have seen your
kind before prancing through your 20s and 30s, spewing out naïve
exhortations about the world of politics -- as if political campaigns
can be fought on the high moral plain where ivory tower theorizing
is conducted.
Those who deal in the conveyance of words and ideas don't have to
depend on a massive influx of steady cash in order to continue playing
on their field of endeavor. Politicians do. And if they succumb to
an occasional hobnobbing with crude, uncultured humans so as to attain
financial viability, then we old timers simply overlook it as long
as rights are not being violated and such hobnobbing is not viciously
repetitive.
You see, we know that all men are born into this world with a drive
for self-preservation that can never be molded into a priestly persona.
We old pros know that the measure of a man's mettle in politics is
not how pristine his life has been, for men can never be perfect.
The measure of a man's mettle in politics is how courageously resilient
he is in face of the endless cant, sophistry, and smear tactics that
come with combat in the arena. If his moral lapses are miniscule
and his freedom achievements are profound, then this man is a leader
that we need to reckon with.
A Modern Day Cincinnatus
In a 2003 article I did on Ron Paul, I wrote the following:
"Times of great crisis in history are usually the crucible from
which nations form new leaders and new visions. Such leaders seem
to just suddenly appear often out of nowhere to alter the national
path pursued, to cleanse the old ways, and stake out a saner, more
just means of living and governing.
"Is it God, destiny, fate that are somehow at work to bring about
a saving metamorphosis in which some visionary soul rises to the
occasion to stir the passions of the people and bring about a righting
of the ship? Whatever the force may be, our country is in dire
need of its power today.
"If such a force is at work in history, I pray that it is exerting
some heady pressure upon the one politician in Washington who has
never been a politician. That man is Congressman Ron Paul from
the 14th District in Texas who has always been a throwback to the
original 'citizen statesman' that the Founders promoted as the
ideal type of leader for the Republic they had formed.
"It is said that the Founders modeled their 'citizen statesman'
after the example of Cincinnatus of Rome.... Well, we have a modern
day Cincinnatus right now among us. Off and on over the past three
decades, he has been serving the Republic that the Founding Fathers
gave us, rather than the unlimited Democracy into which the socialists
have transformed us. He bills himself as the 'Taxpayers Best Friend,'
and he backs it up with a myriad of brave cost cutting measures....
Ron Paul stands like a majestic oak of clarity and sanity in defense
of the American ideal. His watchword is 'steadfast adherence to
principle.' Compromise if need be on the means of implementation.
But never on the principle itself. Never on the Constitution. Never
on the rights of man."
Americans haven't had a presidential aspirant of this caliber since
Goldwater in '64 and Taft in '52. Yet our young pup, lefty libertarians
proclaim themselves "so disappointed in Paul" because his editorial
scrutiny over hundreds (perhaps thousands) of associates throughout
the past 30 years allowed a few intellectual ruffians to slip past
the gate.
Cincinnatus helped to save the Roman Republic in his day. Ron Paul
is his modern likeness. Only he can unify the divergent factions
in the freedom movement to make it a cohesive power strong enough
to actually have an impact. We older, conservative libertarians look
at the callow "chirping sectaries" among the leftist libertarians,
and we recoil in astonishment at their naivety, their dearth of understanding
as to priorities, their utter ignorance about the imperfect nature
of man.
We confront today an almost insurmountable enemy in the liberal
/ neocon empire. In this fight we do not need dilettante moralists
with cherubic faces flexing their 30 year old cerebrums, so untested
in the dangerous rivers that comprise life and politics in the modern
day. Such dilettantes need to see the big picture. Most importantly
they need to get off their pompous high horses. Life has just begun
to teach them about their own imperfections in face of life's convoluted
intractabilities.
Modern politics is a Machiavellian game of contemptible compromises
and corruption from which no participant can stay aloof. One can
only attempt to stay afloat in this cesspool until one can garner
enough votes and name recognition to make a difference in the nation's
destiny. Most politicians learn to like the contemptible game and
forget about trying to clean it up. Not Ron Paul, though. His entire
life has been spent toward ridding us of this game and its corruption
by restoring the country to its original ideals.
Such a cause requires an internal toughness that young people can't
even begin to understand. It also requires much money and unfortunately
a certain measure of callousness about who donates it. Because of
our natures, there will always be imperfections in even the lofty
eagles. Ron Paul is as lofty an eagle as there is out there. That
the dilettantes have lost their fervor for him because he unknowingly
let racial ribaldry slip into an occasional newsletter penned by
some associates in years' past is such a petty imperfection to get
one's shorts twisted in a knot over. Wake up and grow up is the message
that lefty libertarians need to grasp.
Our cause can never be to condone the "politically correct ritual" that
the Jamie Kirchicks and Jessie Jacksons on the left are trying so
noxiously to ram down our throats. That many of the young pups in
the freedom movement patronize this leftist ritual is not a good
sign for the cause of freedom. The tides of history have a way of
sweeping causes populated by herd thinkers into the dust bin of obscurity,
and the PC crowd is a pitiful herd indeed. "Choosing the right priorities" is
the lesson here. This means that small imperfections in a politician's
judgment are NOT the enemy at which to aim our guns. The tyrannical
usurpation of man's rights via income taxation, monetary inflation,
and arrogant militarization are the enemies. Priorities for god's
sake! If we don't get them right, the freedom movement is doomed.
© 2008 Email Nelson Hultberg .... Author's
Bio .... More articles by Nelson Hultberg
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