A review of "Ron Paul: America´s Most Dangerous Nazi"
A. J. Weberman is a notorious gadfly, self-proclaimed
expert on Bob Dylan's garbage and researcher into the conspiracy surrounding
the JFK assassination. He is also a member of both the Yippies and the Jewish
Defense Organization (a somewhat less extreme version of the Jewish Defense
League, but still too much for the ADL). Weirdly, the only critical book on
libertarian presidential candidate Ron Paul is written by this strange
character. If you're looking for a balanced, scholarly account of the
interfaces between libertarianism, conservative populism and Dixiecrat racism,
you won't find it here.
Weberman sets the stage already at page one: "Ron Paul is no libertarian; he is a crypto-Nazi. Crypto-Nazism is a term implying a secret support for, or admiration of, the genocidal political and economic system invented by Adolf Hitler." Further: "This book rips the cloak of deception off of Ron Paul and expose his true pathological genocidal self, a Nazi swine without a swastika. (...) He was, and is, a clever calculating Liberty Lobby / Spotlight type Nazi, a Nazi without a swastika, bent on the mass murder of the Jewish people and on sending the Blacks home to Africa. (...) That is why Ron Paul, like the Spotlight scum that created him, is determined to create a situation where millions of Jews are murdered. He is a filthy Nazi pig and he must be stopped."
Ron Paul's admirers have rejected Weberman's garbology out of hand. Should we? I'm less sure. Behind all the rhetoric, typos and irrelevant digressions, Alan "Jew" Weberman does present some pretty disturbing information on both Paul himself and his allies (or would-be allies).
Paul had friendly relations with Spotlight, the publication of Willis Carto's Liberty Lobby, which is indeed a Nazi front group. In 1985, Paul began to publish newsletters, which were heavily advertised in Spotlight. Recently, Paul admitted that he had ghost writers, but who were they? The usual speculation is Lew Rockwell, a former Paul associate and founder of the Ludwig von Mises Institute. He has denied involvement, and Weberman believes that the real ghost writer might have been Willis Carto himself! The political line of the newsletters does seem similar to the line of Liberty Lobby: "pro-German" statements, defence of Nazi war criminals, support for David Duke, racist slurs against Blacks, conspiracy theories about Israel, etc, etc. Small wonder Paul decades later revealed that he never wrote his own newsletter - but that simply raises the question why he didn't stop its publication. Didn't he knew the opinions of the ghost writers? Didn't he knew his own employees?
Among would-be supporters of Paul, not necessarily endorsed by him, are overt White supremacists, Muslim fundamentalists (including our old friend Yousef al-Khattab), Nation of Islam, Lyndon LaRouche, a few leftists and even a few Jews, including the inevitable Neturei Karta. Of course, Weberman believes that Paul is in on it all. Nor does Weberman like Lew Rockwell, Murray Rothbard or Ludwig von Mises, whom he claims are fascists, racists and/or self-hating Jews. My sick sense of humour was properly satisfied by the chapter in which Weberman exposes various individual weirdoes who (for reasons all their own) supported Paul's recent candidacy. There's Aakash Dalal and Anthony Graziano, suspected of fire-bombing a synagogue and the home of a rabbi. Further, we have Anson Chi who was seriously injured by a homemade bomb, and Adam Kokesh who was interrogated by the Secret Service after implicitly supporting death threats against Mitt Romney on the air. Not to be outdone, a certain Douglas Wright (who had Ron Paul literature in his home) was charged with attempting to blow up a local branch of the Federal Reserve...
Weberman devotes almost half his book attacking Paul's isolationism, which the author believes is really directed against the State of Israel. He claims that Paul's proposals to cut "all" foreign aid would weaken Israel's defences against the Arab states and Iran, thus setting the stage for the destruction of the Jewish state. Paul once sponsored a bill to end all aid to Egypt, Israel, Jordan and Pakistan. He voted no to sanctions against Iran, doesn't seem to regard Iran as a threat, and even seems to believe that they have the right to build nuclear weapons if they so choose. Instead, Paul has condemned Saudi Arabia, attempting to link them with international terrorism. (Weberman is soft on the Saudis, which - ironically - could also be a controversial position if you're a Zionist!) The author links Paul to one Michael Scheuer, a high-ranking CIA operative who Weberman believes was really an "Islamist ideological mole" and a "Jew-hater", responsible for protecting Osama bin-Laden in the years leading up to 9/11. After leaving the CIA, Scheuer have apparently become a vocal critic of the U.S.-Israeli alliance.
Given the traditional animosity between Jews and Blacks in the United States, it's interesting to note that Weberman takes pro-Black positions in his book, presumably because he views African-Americans as potential allies against Paul. On some questions, the author sounds liberal: he supports affirmative action, welfare systems and HUDs. On the War on Drugs, he takes a "conservative" position, i.e. he supports the war on drugs and opposes legalization. However, this too is "pro-Black" since it was also the position taken by the Congressional Black Caucus due to the crack epidemic in poor Black neighbourhoods. By contrast, Ron Paul opposes liberal programs, while supporting the legalization of drugs. In Weberman's opinion, this means genocide of Blacks. Something tells me this pro-Black orientation cannot possibly be the real program of the Jewish Defense Organization...
Well, I *did* say the author is a gadfly, didn't I?
My final opinion of "Ron Paul: America's Most Dangerous Nazi" is that the book, while perhaps garbologically extreme and somewhat disingenuous, nevertheless does raise some disturbing questions about Ron Paul's past and present politics. Perhaps one day a balanced, scholarly study will be published about the difficult interface between libertarianism, conservative populism and Dixiecrat racism?
Weberman sets the stage already at page one: "Ron Paul is no libertarian; he is a crypto-Nazi. Crypto-Nazism is a term implying a secret support for, or admiration of, the genocidal political and economic system invented by Adolf Hitler." Further: "This book rips the cloak of deception off of Ron Paul and expose his true pathological genocidal self, a Nazi swine without a swastika. (...) He was, and is, a clever calculating Liberty Lobby / Spotlight type Nazi, a Nazi without a swastika, bent on the mass murder of the Jewish people and on sending the Blacks home to Africa. (...) That is why Ron Paul, like the Spotlight scum that created him, is determined to create a situation where millions of Jews are murdered. He is a filthy Nazi pig and he must be stopped."
Ron Paul's admirers have rejected Weberman's garbology out of hand. Should we? I'm less sure. Behind all the rhetoric, typos and irrelevant digressions, Alan "Jew" Weberman does present some pretty disturbing information on both Paul himself and his allies (or would-be allies).
Paul had friendly relations with Spotlight, the publication of Willis Carto's Liberty Lobby, which is indeed a Nazi front group. In 1985, Paul began to publish newsletters, which were heavily advertised in Spotlight. Recently, Paul admitted that he had ghost writers, but who were they? The usual speculation is Lew Rockwell, a former Paul associate and founder of the Ludwig von Mises Institute. He has denied involvement, and Weberman believes that the real ghost writer might have been Willis Carto himself! The political line of the newsletters does seem similar to the line of Liberty Lobby: "pro-German" statements, defence of Nazi war criminals, support for David Duke, racist slurs against Blacks, conspiracy theories about Israel, etc, etc. Small wonder Paul decades later revealed that he never wrote his own newsletter - but that simply raises the question why he didn't stop its publication. Didn't he knew the opinions of the ghost writers? Didn't he knew his own employees?
Among would-be supporters of Paul, not necessarily endorsed by him, are overt White supremacists, Muslim fundamentalists (including our old friend Yousef al-Khattab), Nation of Islam, Lyndon LaRouche, a few leftists and even a few Jews, including the inevitable Neturei Karta. Of course, Weberman believes that Paul is in on it all. Nor does Weberman like Lew Rockwell, Murray Rothbard or Ludwig von Mises, whom he claims are fascists, racists and/or self-hating Jews. My sick sense of humour was properly satisfied by the chapter in which Weberman exposes various individual weirdoes who (for reasons all their own) supported Paul's recent candidacy. There's Aakash Dalal and Anthony Graziano, suspected of fire-bombing a synagogue and the home of a rabbi. Further, we have Anson Chi who was seriously injured by a homemade bomb, and Adam Kokesh who was interrogated by the Secret Service after implicitly supporting death threats against Mitt Romney on the air. Not to be outdone, a certain Douglas Wright (who had Ron Paul literature in his home) was charged with attempting to blow up a local branch of the Federal Reserve...
Weberman devotes almost half his book attacking Paul's isolationism, which the author believes is really directed against the State of Israel. He claims that Paul's proposals to cut "all" foreign aid would weaken Israel's defences against the Arab states and Iran, thus setting the stage for the destruction of the Jewish state. Paul once sponsored a bill to end all aid to Egypt, Israel, Jordan and Pakistan. He voted no to sanctions against Iran, doesn't seem to regard Iran as a threat, and even seems to believe that they have the right to build nuclear weapons if they so choose. Instead, Paul has condemned Saudi Arabia, attempting to link them with international terrorism. (Weberman is soft on the Saudis, which - ironically - could also be a controversial position if you're a Zionist!) The author links Paul to one Michael Scheuer, a high-ranking CIA operative who Weberman believes was really an "Islamist ideological mole" and a "Jew-hater", responsible for protecting Osama bin-Laden in the years leading up to 9/11. After leaving the CIA, Scheuer have apparently become a vocal critic of the U.S.-Israeli alliance.
Given the traditional animosity between Jews and Blacks in the United States, it's interesting to note that Weberman takes pro-Black positions in his book, presumably because he views African-Americans as potential allies against Paul. On some questions, the author sounds liberal: he supports affirmative action, welfare systems and HUDs. On the War on Drugs, he takes a "conservative" position, i.e. he supports the war on drugs and opposes legalization. However, this too is "pro-Black" since it was also the position taken by the Congressional Black Caucus due to the crack epidemic in poor Black neighbourhoods. By contrast, Ron Paul opposes liberal programs, while supporting the legalization of drugs. In Weberman's opinion, this means genocide of Blacks. Something tells me this pro-Black orientation cannot possibly be the real program of the Jewish Defense Organization...
Well, I *did* say the author is a gadfly, didn't I?
My final opinion of "Ron Paul: America's Most Dangerous Nazi" is that the book, while perhaps garbologically extreme and somewhat disingenuous, nevertheless does raise some disturbing questions about Ron Paul's past and present politics. Perhaps one day a balanced, scholarly study will be published about the difficult interface between libertarianism, conservative populism and Dixiecrat racism?
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