On the very day that Ron Paul’s new book, The Revolution: A Manifesto, debuts at #1 on Amazon, two new stories popped up that hearken back to a very old topic, race. 

First, my buddy Dave Wiegal over at Reason uses Ron’s endorsement of Lew Rockwell and the Mises Institute as proof that Ron Paul is still keeping company with bigots (Here). Never mind that he starts with the assumption that Lew Rockwell wrote some of the less enlightened diatribes that appeared in Dr. Paul’s newsletters back in the early nineties, offering no proof of that claim, and then uses it to smear Dr. Paul by association.  While very specious and weak, it is indicative of a deeper problem.

As is the story out of California that Holly Clearman, Ron Paul’s State Coordinator, has signed on to run the campaign of one William Johnson, an attorney and advocate for the Pace Amendment which would ban everyone darker than, well, William Johnson, from living or owning property in the United States. To quote:

”No person shall be a citizen of the United States unless he is a non-Hispanic white of the European race, in whom there is no ascertainable trace of Negro blood, nor more than one-eighth Mongolian, Asian, Asia Minor, Middle Eastern, Semitic, Near Eastern, American Indian, Malay or other non-European or non-white blood, provided that Hispanic whites, defined as anyone with an Hispanic ancestor, may be citizens if, in addition to meeting the aforesaid ascertainable trace and percentage tests, they are in appearance indistinguishable from Americans whose ancestral home is in the British Isles or Northwestern Europe. Only citizens shall have the right and privilege to reside permanently in the United States.”

But don’t worry Firsts Nations. You’ll be allowed to stay and enjoy life the way black South Africans did in the Eighties.

“American Indians, Aleuts, and Hawaiians, although not real citizens, will not face relocation, but will be maintained in “tribal reservations” analogous to the arrangement in South Africa.”

So what it is about the message of liberty as articulated by Ron Paul that finds common cause among so many of the ignorant and hateful?

I am not asking rhetorically as a set-up so that I can then dispense my sagely wisdom.  I’m really baffled by it.  I can understand the strain of southern political sentiment that identifies states rights and race. But my 20 plus years of study of the philosophy of liberty puts me firmly in the natural rights camp that empowers individuals and de-emphasis race.

I fear that if we don’t have a revolution of ideas within our movement, we face allowing this cancer to grow and undermine our efforts.

I welcome your comments.