In a comment on Green Commons, Colby Peterson played the "Walter Williams card":
This is Ron Paul's view on racism, just because he doesn't support
affirmative action and privilege programs doesn't make him a racist...
You can disagree with him politically, but you cannot say he's not for an
equitable society or for equal opportunity. This is just a different method to
the same ends. Were you even aware that Ron Paul is considering an
Black man (Walter E. Williams) as his running mate?
Wow! Hold the presses!
Ron Paul is considering a Black man!
Here's the problem: I have followed Walter E. Williams career for many years and the man is a total rightwing nutcase.
You don't have to take my word for it. Point your browser to the conservative web site, Jewish World Review, and you'll find all Williams' recent writings lovingly archived. Here of some samples of recent wisdom from Dr. Willams, a Black man:
Rules of Engagement, May 2, 2007
The March 23 Iranian capture of 15 British Royal Navy sailors should raise a number of questions. The sailors were part of the crew of HMS Cornwall, a state-of-the-art frigate bristling with high-tech surveillance devices and advanced weaponry. The sailors, dispatched in small boats, were boarding and inspecting merchant vessels in Iraqi waters for contraband...
The West's survival requires that we wake up and recognize the true character of the enemy we face. We are involved in a clash with a culture that has little regard for the Western values that hold the sanctity of human life dear. Terrorists specifically target civilian populations. It makes no difference to them whether their victims are babies, women or children. In fighting the war on terrorism, the West goes to considerable lengths, often risking the lives of our troops, to avoid civilian casualties. The West has the means, but not the will, to utterly destroy terrorists and countries that give them sanction. I hate to think of what the terrorists might do to give us the
will.
The Temperamental Minimum Wage, May 9, 2007
The first fundamental law of demand postulates that the lower the price of something, the more will be demanded, and the higher the price, the less will be
demanded. To my knowledge, there are no known exceptions to the law of demand.
That was until last fall when 650 economists, including several Nobel Laureates,
signed a letter calling for an increase in the minimum wage...
Creating Effective Incentives, May 22, 2007
What should our response be if terrorists set off a nuclear explosion, or some other weapon of mass destruction, in one of our cities?...
Holding the country responsible would mean that in response to an attack we'd totally destroy their military bases, power plants, communication facilities and, if necessary, totally destroy their major cities. You say, "Williams, that's unthinkable!" Yes, while unpleasant, it is thinkable. That's precisely how 50 years of peace were maintained between the Western powers and the former Soviet Union. . .
Compassion Versus Reality, June 6, 2007
Dr. Thomas Sowell, a distinguished economist and longtime friend and colleague, recently wrote a series of columns under the title "A War of Words." He pointed out that liberals succeed in duping the public because they are so clever with words that they give the appearance of compassion. Liberals talk about the need for "affordable" housing and health care. They tarnish their enemies with terms such as "price-gouging" and "corporate greed." Uninformed and unthinking Americans fall easy prey to this demagoguery...
So, this is a guy the antiwar movement is supposed to rally around? This is the "proof" that Ron Paul is for an "equitable society" and "equal opportunity."
The Idiocy of Old "Race" Politics
For nearly forty years both Democrats and Republicans have played this cynical game: pointing to their favorite handpicked token Negro or Hispanic and saying: "See! I love Clarence Thomas (or Ron Brown, or Henry Cisneros, or Condolezza Rice, or Alberto Gonzalez), therefore, I'm a nice guy!" This is a politics practiced by people who never seriously cared about civil rights issues in the first place. This is a politics practiced by people who think "minority" voters are stupid and "White" voters are more stupid.
For thirty years rightwing Republicans have trotted out the likes of Thomas Sowell and Walter Williams to say reactionary stuff that most mainstream Republican politicians would never dare say, themselves. And then, to add insult to injury, these conservatives get self-righteous about how their token "minorities" were picked "on merit." Thus, in this instance we are actually supposed to believe that Walter Williams is the man Ron Paul thnks is the "most qualified" person to run for vice-president of the United States.
That's crap! In the final analysis it doesn't matter what a person's color or ethnicity is. In the final analysis what matters is their character and what they stand for. If Ron Paul is considering Walter Williams, that's a big point against Ron Paul.
This week, Ron Paul made an appearance before a bunch of Google employees in Northern California.
Googlers Applaud GOP Presidential Candidate Ron Paul
San Jose Mercury News, July 14, 2007
He said he does not support network neutrality... nor does he support tech-friendly immigration reforms... And he doesn't believe in federal student government loans, which a huge majority of the audience, by a show of hands, had used to make it through college... he thinks fears of global warming are "overblown." And then he raised the question of why American business should be subject to more regulation if so much pollution is coming from China.
"I don't agree with him on everything, especially immigration," said Google employee Vijay Boyapati, an Indian immigrant who gained citizenship last year...
Ron Paul comes to address a very tech-savvy audience in Silicon Valley in liberal Northern California and insults half the people in his audience to their faces (Please note how nevertheless the corporate "Murky News" headline about the "Free Market" Ron Paul is friendlier than anything it would print about an antiwar "Lefty" like Dennis Kucinich).
A Liberal Democrat - Green - Libertarian alliance around Ron Paul? I don't thnk so.
4 comments:
...And Alex Walker plays a different sort of race card, the one that exposes the old progressive trend of valuing people of color only if they fit the progressive litmus test.
Apparently the fact that a people of color would be considered for a high profile position only matters to Greens if the person of color in question is in agreement with Green politics.
And Greens bitch all day and night about the underrepresentation of people of color in public life and when one dares step out of line, he's a nutjob. So which token minority will the GP choose to show the world that they're less racist than everyone else?
But what was the point of all this, oh yeah, Ron Paul could choose a black guy, but I guess its just because he's black and not because he's a hardcore libertarian that would compliment Paul's campaign pretty well, minus the hawk streak, which Paul would pretty much stop right away.
And yup, as you point out later in your column, Ron Paul still isn't a Green, you've got that right, and nope, neither is Walter Williams.
If more of black America listened to Walter Williams explanations of economic reality and the fact that there are no quick fixes, I would have a lot fewer relatives on welfare with broken families.
More blacks would also be keen to the fraud perpetrated upon them disproportionately through the Federal Reserve's "monetary policy".
Ron Paul would choose Williams because of the views I have stated above. If he didn't have such views, he wouldn't be on Ron Paul's radar despite his race.
But of course, many Greens have the itchy trigger finger when it comes to race. And of course when someone who espouses views that imply limited government, they are chosen only as a "token".
Yes, greenies, black people can libertarian and recognize government for the violence purveying fraud that it is.
If this article is representative of the way the Green Party thinks than I'm glad I know nothing about it.
I understand your logic completely, but I seriously disagree (Lol and I'm a Ron Paul supporter). No one was saying Ron Paul would choose a black running mate for the race card, just that some black conservatives were high on his list, and that that alone should expunge him as a racist.
Just my own two cents: I don't know much about Walter Williams, but Thomas Sowell is G-d. Both the quotes you have there, his sociology book "Ethnic America," and other editorials you can read also. (though apparently you've seen his stuff alredy) If I had to choose a Vice President, I actually probably would choose Thomas Sowell, the man's a genius, and he's honest and to the point.
Lol actually, I would only not choose him as a runnig mate because other candidates would be better, IE well-known conservatives who can give Paul mainstream attention; hence I think the choice comes down to the most well-known of all the qualified conservatives. We had a hard enough time chanting "Ron Paul, Ron Paul" enough to get people to remember the name, we're not doing it again.
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