[Peace-discuss] Ron Paul and racism

[C. G. Estabrook]

For reasons best set out by Walter Benn Michaels ("The Trouble With Diversity"), 
whenever regnant liberalism (whose current representative is the Obama 
administration) is attacked, it typically responds with charges that its critics 
are "racist."

See, e.g., Kevin Zeese' account ("Can the Right and Left Work Together to Oppose 
War and Empire?") of a Voters for Peace-sponsored "meeting of 40 people from 
across the political spectrum who oppose war and Empire ... In discussing this 
publicly, so far I have only heard from one person on 'the left' who opposes it. 
He was a co-founder of Progressives for Obama and he lumps everyone on the 
conservative side into what he calls 'racist populism.'"

Alex Cockburn raises the issue in his column this week, "The Bogus Hispanic 
Crime Wave." According to AC, "It’s all nonsense. There’s no crime wave swollen 
by brown gangbangers to city-destroying proportions. If you want a lucid walk 
through the data you can turn to … The American Conservative, whose March issue 
features a cover story by the magazine’s publisher, Ron Unz. There’s a photo of 
a tattooed gangbanger, and the title “HisPANIC,” then the subtitle: 'The Myth of 
Immigrant Crime.'"

The article produced frenzied attacks, including from liberal sources.  But 
Cockburn points out,

"The Ron Paul movement, fresh from its remarkable victory in the CPAC 
presidential straw poll, was quite supportive. Not only did the Ron Paul News 
website prominently highlight Unz’s article and mention it in a twitter feed to 
their supporters, but LewRockwell.com, a popular website closely associated with 
Ron Paul, republished large excerpts of the piece, and followed it up with 
several blog items focusing on the ongoing debate  surrounding the piece. A 
couple of the leading anti-Immigrationist publications struck  back with lengthy 
and detailed critiques.  Unz responded to these with specific rebuttals 
published on the TAC website, where his original article can be found."

http://www.counterpunch.org/cockburn03052010.html

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