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Originally Posted by nowandthen
What is scary to me is not that these fools show themselves. I find them to make Buchanan,Palin, Paul, and others look digestible. Just as moderate queers complain about drag queens and leather folks, the right wing needs its , "I'm not like them" folks to comfort those who fear difference.
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This is what concerns me as well. Now, I think that Buchanan, Palin and the Pauls are all different varieties of the same species and that there is a continuity between them and, say, David Duke. Here's how I would break things down:
Buchanan, Duke and Palin are all closer to one another than *any* of them is closer to the Pauls. I say this because Buchanan and Duke are just flat out white supremacists and Christian supremacists as well. Palin is, I think, a flat out theocrat while I don't think that Buchanan or Duke are theocrats.
It is the Pauls (Ron and Rand) that I think are the more dangerous. Buchanan is unelectable, his moment has come and gone. Duke is unelectable as is Palin (she doomed herself when she quit being governor halfway through her term). Ron Paul may not be electable outside of the South but Rand just might be. The reason I think they are dangerous is that they favor such a minimal state that neither one of them would, if their public pronouncements are to be believed, lose a minute's worth of sleep if some large company were to institute a policy of overt discrimination. (Think Woolworth's lunch counters here) They would cluck about how 'regrettable' it was that a large company chose to discriminate and then they would happily give that company their patronage. They would then wax philosophical about how 'freedom' includes the freedom to be a racist ass and that while this is a sorry state of affairs, the government should not be involved in ameliorating this.
Now, let's say that this discrimination takes the form of, say, not hiring non-whites. Let's say that this company is the largest employer in town. So effectively if you are non-white your chances of finding a job in this town have now rushed down toward zero. The Paul's would say that while this is sad, the people who found this untenable could just move or boycott the company. I think they are dangerous because until you actually take a hard look at what their libertarian philosophy leads to they might sound reasonable.
Buchanan, Palin, Duke and, realistically, Bachmann you can see the danger a mile away. Either Paul would happily turn the clock back to a pre-1964 America and claim that this was the very essence of freedom.
Cheers
Aj