A while ago, I wrote an article in which I spoke of \u201cPaulophobia.\u201d\u00a0 Paulophobia, I claimed, is a cognitive disorder.\u00a0 Like a parasite, it eats away at its victim\u2019s intellect.\u00a0 Perhaps because of this, it also corrupts his moral character.\u00a0 To encounter a Paulophobe whose disorder has reached an advanced stage is to come face-to-face with Irrationality incarnate.\u00a0 At the mere mention of Ron Paul\u2019s name, this sort of Paulophobe practically begins to foam at the mouth.\u00a0 Everything in which he previously claimed to believe\u2014his ideals, his principles, his values\u2014he abruptly throws to the wind as he frantically searches for every and any aspersion, no matter how incredible, that he can cast against Congressman Paul.\u00a0 The Paulophobe doesn\u2019t just want to discredit Paul as a presidential candidate.\u00a0 He wants to discredit him as a human being.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Unfortunately, once Paulophobia has reached this stage, it is terminal, for it is now impervious to reason.\u00a0 There is no other conclusion to draw given the following facts.<\/p>\n
Those suffering most acutely from Paulophobia are Republicans, self-styled \u201cconservatives\u201d (read: neo<\/em>conservatives).\u00a0 Now, Republicans have always claimed to believe in smaller, more limited, decentralized government.\u00a0 In short, they pride their party on being the party of liberty, the party that is committed to preserving and protecting the United States Constitution.\u00a0<\/p>\n Yet when they have the opportunity to nominate the only presidential candidate in their primary race who even they recognize is most committed to \u201climited government\u201d and the Constitution, they call him a \u201ckook\u201d and \u201cextremist.\u201d\u00a0 Some Paulophobes like talk radio hosts Michael Medved and Mark Levin go further to imply that he is evil.\u00a0 <\/em>Medved continually insinuates that Paul is a \u201cracist\u201d and a \u201cneo-Nazi.\u201d\u00a0 Levin has explicitly said of Paul that he is \u201cpoison.\u201d\u00a0 Both adamantly deny that Paul is authentic.<\/p>\n Republicans, especially since they have been ejected from power, inexhaustibly complain about \u201cout of control\u201d spending.\u00a0 Our country is on the precipice of ruin, they note, because of the profound profligacy of the Democrats.\u00a0 This next election promises to be the most important of our lifetime, for this may be our very last chance to saveAmerica.\u00a0<\/p>\n But when one <\/em>Republican presidential candidate comes along and proposes one trillion dollars <\/em>in spending cuts within the first year of his term <\/em>as President, they either pretend that he doesn\u2019t exist or they spare no occasion to marginalize him.\u00a0 This is like a man lost at sea who, in spite of longing for salvation and knowing that the ship in the distance is his last chance at it, refuses to be rescued.\u00a0 Moreover, he attempts to chop off the arm of the ship\u2019s captain who reaches out to him.<\/p>\n Republicans, like professional Paulophobe Rush Limbaugh, repeatedly claim their party alone embodies the spirit of the Founding Fathers.\u00a0 The Founders, mind you, although a philosophically heterogeneous group, never so much as contemplated a federal<\/em> government that would demand<\/em> of all<\/em> Americans that they refrain from using any <\/em>product, however potentially self<\/em>-destructive it may be.\u00a0<\/p>\n However, when Ron Paul contends that it is unconstitutional and immoral for the federal government<\/em> to criminalize drug usage, such Paulophobes accuse him of wanting to \u201clegalize\u201d drugs.\u00a0 Ron Paul, they shout hysterically, is in favor of legalizing heroin and cocaine!\u00a0\u00a0 If these Paulophobes were capable of it, just the slightest bit of rudimentary logic would make plain to them the implication of this line of thought.\u00a0 If Paul can be convicted of wanting to \u201clegalize\u201d drugs because of his<\/em> opposition to the federal government\u2019s criminalization of them, then inasmuch as the Founders didn\u2019t seek to criminalize drugs, they too can be said to have favored the same.\u00a0 Far from being a radical, much less a radical \u201cleftist\u201d (as Paulophobe Dick Morris recently described him), Paul\u2019s position on drugs is but another example of his desire to restore the vision of our Founders.<\/p>\n Republicans have often (and quite pathetically, actually) taken to accusing their Democratic rivals of being \u201cracist.\u201d\u00a0 It is Democrats, they claim, who seek to keep blacks \u201cdependent\u201d upon the government by way of welfare and a massive assortment of race-based preferential treatment policies.\u00a0 Thus, Democrats are \u201cracist\u201d against blacks.<\/p>\n Because of his belief that we should eliminate foreign aid toIsrael, these same Paulophobic Republicans say of Ron Paul that he is \u201canti-Semitic.\u201d\u00a0 Two observations are here in order.\u00a0<\/p>\n First of all, Ron Paul does not single out Israel: he wants an end to all <\/em>foreign aid.\u00a0 More importantly, though, these Paulophobes fail to recognize that if Democrats are \u201cracist\u201d because of their desire to keep blacks dependent upon the United States government, then inasmuch as these Republicans want to keep Israel dependent upon the United States government, it is they <\/em>who are \u201canti-Semitic.\u201d<\/p>\n To put the point another way, if it is the enemies<\/em> of \u201cracism\u201d who oppose welfare dependency for blacks, then it is the enemies <\/em>of \u201canti-Semitism\u201d who should oppose welfare dependency\u2014i.e. \u201cforeign aid\u201d\u2014forIsrael.\u00a0 This means that it is the Republican Paulophobe who is the real \u201canti-Semite,\u201d while it is Paul who is \u201cpro-Semitic.\u201d \u00a0<\/p>\n In accordance with the 9\/11 Commission Report as well as numerous reports that have been supplied by the Central Intelligence Agency, Ron Paul regularly observes that the attacks of September 11, 2001 specifically and Islamic hostilities toward the United States generally are in large measure the function of an interventionist American foreign policy.\u00a0 That is, the federal government\u2019s actions in the Islamic world are causally related to the terrorism that we are now combating.<\/p>\n For this, Republicans accuse of him of \u201cblamingAmerica.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n But if Paul can be said to be a member of \u201cthe blame America First\u201d crowd because of his stance that the federal government <\/em>has acted objectionably vis-\u00e0-vis the Islamic world, then his accusers who have made their careers railing against the federal government\u2019s objectionable treatment of American citizens must be members of the same crowd.\u00a0 Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Mark Levin, and all self-avowed champions of \u201climited government\u201d and \u201cindividual liberty,\u201d it turns out, are in reality the most vociferous of American Haters, for they are tirelessly criticizing the federal government for something or other.<\/p>\n Republican Paulophobes imply that Ron Paul is a \u201cracist\u201d because of some articles from decades ago that were published in his newsletter.\u00a0 As was just noted, Republicans accuse Democrats of being \u201cracist\u201d because of their support of welfare entitlements and affirmative action for blacks.\u00a0 They have also leveled this charge against Democrats when the latter opposed the enterprise of spreading Democracy to the Islamic world, a world, Democrats suggested, that wasn\u2019t yet ready for this ideal.\u00a0 So, from the Republican\u2019s perspective, a (white) \u201cracist\u201d is one who either promotes policies that deleteriously impact non-whites, or resists those policies that allegedly promise to benefit them.<\/p>\n Sadly for Republicans, by this standard they <\/em>are among the biggest \u201cracists\u201d of all.\u00a0 Their \u201cWar on Drugs\u201d has devastated the black poor.\u00a0 As such black thinkers as Thomas Sowell and Walter E. Williams have long noted, this \u201cwar\u201d has transformed black communities throughout the country into virtual combat zones and economic wastelands.\u00a0 And if their \u201cWar on Drugs\u201d has ruined the lives of many blacks, their \u201cWar on Terror\u201d\u2014alternately and more euphemistically characterized as \u201cthe Freedom Agenda\u201d\u2014has been even worst for Muslims.<\/p>\n But if Republicans are the biggest \u201cracists\u201d by their own standard, then Ron Paul is the biggest \u201canti-<\/em>racist\u201d by the same.\u00a0 Paul wants to end both \u201cwars\u201d and, thus, spare the lives of countless numbers of non-whites.<\/p>\n Republicans say that Ron Paul\u2019s foreign policy is \u201cisolationist,\u201d \u201cna\u00efve,\u201d and \u201cdangerous.\u201d\u00a0 One Paulophobe, Newt Gingrich, has even gone so far as to suggest that whoever<\/em> supports it is \u201cindecent.\u201d\u00a0 At the same time, Republicans have established for themselves a reputation of being pro-military.<\/p>\n Yet if Ron Paul is \u201cisolationist,\u201d \u201cna\u00efve,\u201d and \u201cdangerous\u201d when it comes to foreign policy, then all of those veterans and active duty <\/em>military personnel who endorse him are \u201cisolationist,\u201d \u201cna\u00efve,\u201d and \u201cdangerous.\u201d\u00a0 Ron Paul, a veteran of the United States Air Force, receives more contributions from the members of our armed forces than all of the other candidates combined.\u00a0 <\/em>\u00a0He receives ten times <\/em>the amount that Mitt Romney receives and one hundred times <\/em>the amount received by Newt Gingrich!<\/p>\n Republicans know that they cannot win the presidential election of 2012 unless their candidate can get the independent vote and that of racial minorities.\u00a0 But polls show that Ron Paul beats <\/em>Obama among independents and receives more <\/em>of the non-white vote than every other Republican candidate.\u00a0<\/p>\n Still, Republican Paulophobes can\u2019t even bring themselves to conceive of the possibility that Paul could secure their party\u2019s nomination.\u00a0 Like the very word \u201ccancer\u201d that those from earlier generations couldn\u2019t bring themselves to utter, just the idea of a nominee Paul strikes terror into their hearts.<\/p>\n The Republican Paulophobe, I hoped to have shown, is a walking contradiction.\u00a0 There is, though, one final consideration that shouldn\u2019t be lost upon us.<\/p>\n Republican Paulophobes know that should Ron Paul not get his party\u2019s nomination and choose to run on a third party ticket, or should he encourage his devoted following to turn its back on the GOP, then President Obama is insured a second term.\u00a0 Hence, a little prudence dictates that Republicans refrain from treating him unjustly.<\/p>\n But they insist upon treating Paul to one injustice after the other.<\/p>\n The Paulophobe is impervious to reason.\u00a0 Maybe, though, another crushing loss, courtesy of Ron Paul and his followers, will cure him of his condition. \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Jack Kerwick, Ph.D.<\/p>\n originally published at The\u00a0New American\u00a0<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A while ago, I wrote an article in which I spoke of \u201cPaulophobia.\u201d\u00a0 Paulophobia, I claimed, is a cognitive disorder.\u00a0 Like a parasite, it eats away at its victim\u2019s intellect.\u00a0 Perhaps because of this, it also corrupts his moral character.\u00a0 To encounter a Paulophobe whose disorder has reached an advanced stage is to come face-to-face…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":399,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-336","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n