Ron Paul Nuttiness In Plain Sight

Ron Paul Revolution
Ron Paul Revolution

Ron Paul will never be president, despite certain of his ideas 1 having resonance, because too many of his thoughts are just looney-tunes. Like this one from the GOP debate back in September.

But there was a key moment when Ron Paul was asked about the fence. He was against it, which is sensible enough. But his reason for being against it wasn’t that sensible or even that sane. As I noted in my live blog, Paul’s objection was that the fence could end up being used to “keep us in” after the financial collapse; specifically its real purpose might be to stop Americans from “leaving with their capital” after the breakdown of law and order in the USA.

Now you don’t have to be that deeply steeped in the arcana of the militia movement and the extreme conspiratorial right to know where this kind of thinking comes from. It’s right there with the FEMA concentration camps, the black helicopters, the post-economic collapse race war and the like.

Think about this. Paul’s worried about the fence because after America’s disastrous 100 year experiment with a central bank (the Fed) collapses in Mad Max style rioting in the streets, the government will be trying to keep good Americans from fleeing to Mexico with their capital. Over the fence. With their capital. To Mexico.

Here were Paul’s actual words

I think this fence business is designed and may well be used against us and keep us in. In economic turmoil, the people want to leave with their capital. And there’s capital controls and there’s people control. So, every time you think of fence keeping all those bad people out, think about those fences maybe being used against us, keeping us in.

This wasn’t twenty years ago. It was three months ago. And if you know the kind of mindset this stuff comes from, in some ways I find it more worrisome (though certainly less offensive) than the newsletters.

(click here to continue reading Plain Sight Watch | Talking Points Memo.)

This was one of the few GOP debates I was drunk enough to sit through, and I replayed this soundbite a couple times because it was so odd. Does Ron Paul really think there is a chance that a border fence with Mexico is going to stop rich Americans from leaving? Wack-a-doo!

Footnotes:
  1. like ending the Drug War, or other wars, or reducing the Defense Department’s budget, etc. []

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