Creep of the Week: Ron Paul

Ron Paul is, by far, the Republican Presidential hopeful with the most indie cred. Not only is he against the war, he's also attracted a dedicated following who are throwing fist fulls of money at him via the Internet. He's the Howard Dean of Republicans. He's also been "blogging" before blogging was cool – hell, before blogging even existed – via political newsletters that go back to 1978.
Unfortunately, the 20 years of newsletters don't exactly highlight Paul's chewy libertarian center folks are so wild about. In fact, the Ron Paul Political Report says things that should give voters great pause, if not scare the shit out of them.
According to a Jan. 8 article in The National Republic, the Report often praised Rep. William Dannemeyer "who advocated quarantining people with AIDS." On gays in the military the Report concluded, "Homosexuals, if admitted, should be put in a special category and not allowed in close physical contact with heterosexuals." Limp wrist jokes were made, a longing for "the closet" was expressed and Donna Shalala was called a "short lesbian."
The Report also loved AIDS – or, more accurately they loved the political ammunition the issue gave them. As for people living with the disease, well, "[T]hese men don't really see a reason to live past their fifties. They are not married, they have no children, and their lives are centered on new sexual partners. … [T]hey enjoy the attention and pity that comes with being sick."
That's gay men for you. Drama queens until the end.
In 1990 AIDS was described as "a politically protected disease thanks to payola and the influence of the homosexual lobby," according to TNR. Readers were warned to steer clear of blood transfusions because gays were "poison[ing] the blood supply" The Report also claimed you could get AIDS from saliva and that AIDS carriers "should not be allowed to eat in restaurants."
But then, it was the 1990s and thinking about gays has come a long way since then. Sure the views espoused in the Report are despicable, but gay bashing had yet to become politically incorrect. So we can't be too hard on Paul, can we?
Well, even if homophobia was more or less accepted in the 90s, racism was not. The Ron Paul Report is rife with gems like this one from June 1992 issue about the aftermath of the Los Angeles riots: "Order was only restored in L.A. when it came time for the blacks to pick up their welfare checks." In 1990 the newsletter referred to the federal holiday named after Martin Luther King Jr. as "annual Hate Whitey Day." They also referred to King as a "philanderer" who "seduced underage girls and boys."
What does Paul have to say about all of this? He didn't write the articles and has no idea who did. Keep in mind, the newsletter had his name on it, but the articles that ran in it contained no bylines and Paul was, according to him, completely oblivious to what was being written and published in his name for two decades.
Frankly, I find that a little hard to believe. But then, I'm just a short lesbian.