The attack of the Libertarian neo-Nazis

Rebellion
November 14, 2007

A reader responds to Playing by their rules:

Great analysis. Have you noticed how the same charge is being made against Ron Paul? He’s the last person in the world who could be accused of appealing to neo-Nazis, but it’s happening, and his detractors are getting some mileage out of it. What a joke.

You’re right on both points. I think Paul is really shaking these people up. It seems their self-esteem requires having a powerful leader to worship, and splendid little overseas victories to make them feel good about themselves. Paul is commiting the unthinkable by letting folks realize we actually have a choice, that we can actually debate whether this country must follow the course of endless war and intervention the Neocons demand.

But the anti-Paul hysteria is almost laughable. Check this out:

Indeed, Ron Paul has become the most popular candidate among right-wing extremists, including white separatists, neo-Nazis, and conspiracy theorists who believe that “the Zionists” were behind 9/11. …

Ron Paul will take money from Nazis. But he won’t take telephone calls from Jews.

And if the above was too subtle for you, check out this dazzling display of lunacy, with the screaming title, The Ron Paul Campaign and its Neo-Nazi Supporters.

All I can say is – these people are truly frightened of this candidate. Apparently, they don’t want a debate on whether the US should try to control the world, ending up in a series of endless wars, and wrecking what’s left of our republican institutions. The pro-war crowd has just got to have its wars, and Paul is a threat to their prospects for glory and treasure.

Actually, the slam that Ron Paul is attracting neo-Nazis is ludicrous. Paul believes in smaller, less intrusive government, and dispersed political power. His anti-war stance is solid. But Nazis glorify the power of the state, especially in aggressive war, and believe in centralization of political power. As William Shirer wrote of the early days of Nazi rule:

…Within a fortnight of receiving full powers from the Reichstag, Hitler had achieved wht Bismarck, Wilhelm II and the Weimar Republic had never dared to attempt: he had abolished the separate powers of the historic states and made them subject to the central power of the Reich, which was in his hands. He had, for the first time in German history, really unified the Reich by destroying its age-old federal character. … as Minister Frick explained it, “The state governments from now on are merely administrative bodies of the Reich.” Shirer, The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, p. 279.

Now that’s the kind of government Nazis want. Paul, on the other hand, would be dismissed by any Nazi as a libertarian, decentralizing peacenik. So what’s the appeal?

Actually, someone who gets off on the glorification of the state, nationalistic wars of aggression, and the prospect of the US military wiping out hundreds of thousands of brown-skinned people has the perfect candidate who promises to do just that if elected. I speak, of course, of Benito Giuliani. Now there’s a candidate for Nazis.