The Ron Paul Blind Spot

Glenn Greenwald was initially a conservative. He fully admitted that in his first book. Now his views are generally associated with the left, but his takes on civil liberties and a generally non-interventionist foreign policy have a place in the Libertarian Party as well. Given that I fully understand his appreciation of Ron Paul, who as I've said is attracting so much attention because he is the only one out there offering a real critique of US foreign policy, not just as it relates to Iraq but in totality (Edwards and Obama have actually done this to an extent as well, but they're not highlighting it in the same way).

But his long screeds against anyone who dares to bring up the more unseemly parts of Paul's platform is kind of bizarre. You don't just get to pick pieces of somebody's policies when you elect somebody, and Paul comes with the paleoconservative foreign policy views AND the destruction of Medicare, the Education Department, Social Security, and practically every other social program AND the frankly weird belief in the building of a NAFTA Superhighway AND the desire to nullify birthright citizenship AND the strong anti-abortion record (which kind of upsets the whole "individual freedom" thing) AND the free coinage and abolition of the Federal Reserve AND the openly racist statements that appeal to white supremacists AND the Defense of Marriage Act. It's a whole ball of wax. And while I think nobody discounts the importance of Paul's voice in the debate, making points that would otherwise go ignored about Iraq and foreign policy forced into the national debate, these other troubling aspects of his candidacy are not off-limits.

Ezra Klein responded to Greenwald here. I really don't think they disagree all that much. But Greenwald is, I have to say, being fairly petulant. And Dana Goldstein has more.