I’ve heard a lot of foul things said about Ron Paul before, but this just takes the cake. It just makes my blood boil when some people can go on like this completely divorced from the reality of modern American life. Why yes, my skin is probably darker than yours and my surname has enough vowels in it to qualify as ethnically charged. And no, I am not Italian. Does all this matter? Probably only if I were claiming victimhood of an oppressed minority. People with my voting record need not apply.
So if I am to take these rants about Ron Paul at face value, America is by default a largely racist country with absolutely no opportunities for non-Whites and women. The only thing keeping this country from a Nazi-style fascist state is civil rights legislation enacted during the racially charged and turbulent 1960’s. Am I with you so far? America would revert to its true state as some sort of Klan-infested southern hamlet of 500 souls if these protections suddenly vanish. How we go from electing Obama with 53% of the popular vote to country-fried racism and sexism overnight is beyond my abilities to comprehend. As my algebra instructor always said, “Please show your work”.
Upon further analysis, perhaps we as Americans are obsessed with race, albeit not in ways that we have been conditioned to think? Take Mr. Obama, for example. Here’s a man who definitely would have felt the burden of being a mixed race child in a decidedly racist country. What do the facts suggest? While I’d grant you that if he had been raised in the aforementioned enclave of racism, his life and opportunities would have been stunted. However, in Honolulu, Los Angeles, New York City, Cambridge MA, and Chicago, the argument can and should be raised that his race was an asset to his career. Let me be brutally honest here. If the man’s name was Tony Smythe or Seymour Schwartz, he’d still be in the Illinois Senate. Let’s go even further. Choose the metro area nearest you, and you’ll find a self-declared and enforced bastion of multi-culturalism. Where outside of these handfuls of isolated rural towns stuck in the last century will you find this kind of discrimination? This has next to nothing to do with civil rights legislation and everything to do with the prevailing culture of the time. The worst thing anyone can be stained with (not to mentioned an easy career killer) is to be accused of racism. Any company accused of this, regardless of merit, would have to terminate the offending party or face a media onslaught and cultural boycott. Even a case of racial discrimination in some bayou backwater is likely to draw a TV news crew from any major network. This is not to say that racism is completely dead, but racists are the modern day lepers.
I voted for Ron Paul in my state’s caucus. This vote I do not regret, nor will I be ever convinced that this was wrong, especially from amateur political pundits on a forum designed to offer support to ex-JWs. Don’t think you can just post some boilerplate psuedo-logic about how you think Ron Paul’s policies will lead to the fourth incarnation of the Klan will make me reconsider my support. I for my part can comprehend why people would want to support Obama. I do not take for granted that not everyone who supports the man supports every last thing he’s had his hands in. In particular his attendance and membership in a racially charged church where the pastor in all seriousness claimed that the US government invented AIDS to kill blacks would be an issue for many. What I do understand that, and what people who are the self-anointed guardians of tolerance should take note of, is that you support a candidate for many different reasons. Whether we admit it or not, a primary reason would be who the alternative is. With that said, you don’t have to go into an elaborate explanation as to why you would choose Obama over someone like Romney. In fact, if you still support the man after these three years, it’s pointless to argue with you. My reason for supporting Ron Paul is not because I agree with everything the man ever said. What I can tell you is that I support him because he is the only one serious enough about eliminating foreign aid and debt, and his cause of liberty is painstakingly consistent. You might try to connect dots that aren’t really there to construe this as racist. I find it an ideal concept, a philosophy which truly transcends color, gender, and lifestyles. What Ron Paul understands is that America has been largely transformed into a benign multi-cultural and tolerant society. Some laws simply are not needed anymore, such as forced integration, which was what he was trying to say and subsequently got labeled as a bigot for. Will it serve the cause of racial harmony to bus in suburban whites to inner city schools and vice versa? Probably not. Do I support my son being transferred to an inconveniently located school district on the sole basis of his ethnicity? Nope. Cliques will inevitably develop formed around people’s interests, not solely on color. Ron Paul could have chosen his words better, but I understood immediately what he was getting at.
What never ceases to amaze me are that some of the most vocal and self-righteous purveyors of tolerance and diversity are invariably white and privileged. I certainly am not arrogant enough to claim to speak for all racial minorities, but I’ll speak for this specimen in particular. I don’t need your help. I don’t want it. Stop telling me how to vote. Quit trying to shame me into voting for your candidate. I can and do have my own political positions, and I can cognitively decide upon my own personal philosophy. I have spent my entire life so far answering questions about where I am from. It's nothing to take offense from. I never asked or received any special treatment from anyone. I graduated from college and found myself a job. Not once has the fact that most people will horribly mispronounce my last name upon their first attempt adversely affected my own personal ambitions. Not once have I ranted and raved about my problems with Barack Obama being president to unwilling participants. I’m not going to start now. I won’t go on about my beliefs regarding Ron Paul in what is evidently not a fertile ground for his viewpoint. I’ve read both Ron Paul’s “Revolution – A Manifesto” and Barack Obama’s “Dreams From My Father”. Have you? The former stimulates me intellectually and the latter repulses me. All I can do about that is to cancel out your vote this November with my own. And that is exactly what I plan on doing. If of course that is still OK to publicly announce that you are voting against Obama for philosophic differences. Oh my, I sure hope I don’t offend anyone.
