Ron Paul and DePauw: Guilty by association

Published:Tuesday, September 10, 2013

Updated:Tuesday, September 10, 2013 03:09

Rep. Ron Paul is well known for his laissez-faire governmental stance as a Libertarian. He has served 11 terms in Congress dating back to 1976 and he has run for president three times. Supporters applaud his individualist views on the importance of liberty, low taxes and a limited constitutional government. However, Paul is known for more than just these beliefs.

Throughout his political career, Paul has long been affiliated with extremist, neoconservative and largely countercultural ideas. During the 2008 presidential elections, newsletters from Ron Paul Political Report, published in the 1990s, surfaced. The letters, although published to offer political news and investment advice, also contain passages that are homophobic, racist, anti-Semitic and anti-government.

An October 1990 newsletter slams black activists, saying that their next demonstration should be held at a food stamp bureau or a crack house. In June 1990 the Ron Paul Political Report said, I miss the closet. Homosexuals, not to speak of the rest of society, were far better off when social pressure forced them to hide their activities. The newsletters statements range from making the claim that AIDS is a deliberately engineered hybrid to defending chess champion and Holocaust denier Bobby Fischer.

While Paul has denied responsibility for these articles, he was president of the company that published the newsletter and his name appeared in the masthead. The letters are words of the past, but Paul continues to associate with groups that hold these views.

The day after he speaks at DePauw, Paul will be giving a keynote address at the Fatima Centers Path to Peace conference. The group is notorious for its published writing suggesting that Jewish people should be stripped of certain civil rights and was recently called perhaps the single largest group of hardcore anti-Semites in North America by the publication Salon.

Paul will be speaking alongside Holocaust deniers, geocentrists, who reject the widely accepted heliocentric model of the solar system, as well as individuals who claim that global climate change is a hoax to justify a Jewish and Israeli-led genocide. Many invited guest speakers declined the offer, citing their discomfort and unhappiness with the groups radical, anti-humanitarian beliefs. Paul accepted.

This critique of Paul is neither a reflection of the editorial boards political views nor a refusal to be open minded about the freedom of speech and thought. This is not a political attack. Rather, this is a question of the boundaries of whom DePauw deems legitimate and appropriate to invite to campus and to endorse as a notable speaker.

As a liberal arts university, DePauw should be inviting a diverse group of speakers to the university to open a dialogue amongst students and broaden our minds to new ideas. However, in an educational environment, Pauls toxic anti-humanitarian associations should not be tolerated nor given a platform of legitimization.

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Ron Paul and DePauw: Guilty by association