Rigging an election

The New Republic published an article today entitled "Angry White Man: Ron Paul's Bigoted Past." In the article, the author discusses a newsletter published, but not written, by Ron Paul that he claims is extremely racist. Among his gripes:

1. Ron Paul believes that the War Between the States (AKA the "Civil War") should not have been thought.
This statement is not racist. Ron Paul simply believes, as I do, that states have the right to secede if they choose to do so and that Abraham Lincoln's mission was not to free the slaves, but to strengthen the federal government at the expense of the people.

2. Ron Paul is anti-semitic because he called Israel "socialist." Israel, like Europe, tends to be more socialist than the United States. This is a fact. Criticizing Israel is not anti-semitic. Furthermore, the author of this insidious article mentioned early in the article that this was published by an organization founded by a Jewish man named Murray Rothbard, who inspired a young Ron Paul.

3. Some of the articles talked about militias. This goes back to the issue of States' rights, and it is likely these militias that Ron was referring to. Ultimately, the people of the States' give power to the federal government, not the other way around.

It should also be noted that Ron Paul likely did not write any of these articles himself, just as Steve Forbes is not the author of everything in Forbes magazine. Ron Paul specifically states that he did not edit this article.

Most shameful of all, this was published on the morning of the New Hampshire Primaries, in which Ron Paul likely had at least 10% of the vote going into the primary. He now (as of 9:45pm Tuesday) has 8%.

I believe that the New Republic deliberately released this article on this day in order to damage Ron Paul in the state with more libertarian leaning independents than any other. Publishing this article is pure election manipulation. While not illegal, I question the ethics of this magazine.

The New Republic should be ashamed of itself.

Ron Paul's statement is available here.