Over at Reason, David Weigel and Julian Sanchez write up their findings on who really wrote the racist bits of Ron Paul's newsletter. In Libertarian circles, they say, it's an open secret that Paul's former chief-of-staff and continuing close associate Lew Rockwell was the author. Rockwell, for years, had a plan to transform libertarianism into a viable political force by constructing a coalition with paleoconservatives around a shared hatred of the "unholy alliance of 'corporate liberal' Big Business and media elites, who, through big government, have privileged and caused to rise up a parasitic Underclass, who, among them all, are looting and oppressing the bulk of the middle and working classes in America." Charming stuff. And rather than denounce Rockwell, or at least admit to his authorship, Paul appears to be protecting him, arguing that these words are of the past and his campaign is in the present. It's a pity because, as Weigel and Sanchez write, he's been able to run a sound, popular libertarian campaign without resorting to the ugliness of past appeals. But part of being standard-bearer is being willing to answer for the sins of your past, and possibly expurgate those tendencies from the movement that you lead. As Weigel and Sanchez write, "Ron Paul may not be a racist, but he became complicit in a strategy of pandering to racists," and he owes his followers a clearer condemnation of that past.
