Tuesday, November 06, 2007

One endorsement Ron Paul shouldn't want.

Regardless of the merits of the Ron Paul campaign, or the problems depending on your perspective, there surely are some endorsement he shouldn’t want. And Hutton Gibson is a premier example of the wrong kind of endorsement.

Everyone remembers his son, Mel Gibson, and his famous drunken outburst about the evil nature of Jews in the world. Gibson blamed the tirade on his tendency to be a drunk.

In fact what Mel was spewing forth comes directly from Daddy Gibson when he’s cold sober.



Mr. Gibson believes himself an expert on the secret plot to take over the world. He and Paul thus speak the same language on many such topics, which is why Paul is so favored by the conspiracists at the John Birch Society. But while the Birchers want to talk about “international bankers” and “insiders” they frown on identifying the bankers as Jewish. Daddy Gibson has no problem engaging in gutter anti-Semitism and is a favorite speaker at various neo-Nazi conferences. In one interview Hutton Gibson said the Vatican Council was “a Masonic plot backed by the Jews”.

One can’t hold Mr. Paul responsible for his endorsements. That he received maxed out donations from leaders of the white racialist movement and endorsements from people like Gibson are not directly his fault. But it should be noted that conspiracy talk and Paul’s anti-immigration stand encourage such things. I personally think his stand on immigration is wrong, immoral and unlibertarian and his conspiracy talk is just daft. But clearly some other people take that sort of talk very seriously indeed. And if Mr. Paul doesn’t want to be painted with the same brush used on the likes of hate-mongers like Hutton Gibson it is best that he actively discourage their endorsements and openly reject them and their donations.

And it certainly doesn’t help that Paul’s supporters are spreading this endorsement around. While Paul doesn’t live up to my expectations he is a damn sight better than many of the wacky fringe types that have gathered around his campaign.

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