Given that we all agree that if you support Ron Paul you support a racist politician

[Puregonzo1188]

can we also all agree that if you support the drug war you support a racist policy? And shouldn't politicians who support this racist policy get the same scrutiny for it that Ron Paul rightfully get's for his racist newsletters and comments?

[Fumesucker]

1. Obama supports the drug war because he doesn't want other people ruining their lives the way he did.

Imagine what he could have accomplished if he'd never succumbed to the misery of drug use..

[ClassWarrior]

2. ROFL...

DUzy nominee?

NGU.

[joshcryer]

3. Obama supports the drug war because he thinks it's a winning issue.

I expect him to soften his approach on marijuana, because he's going to be quite pressured to do so since half the population now supports it (when he got elected it wasn't quite half the population).



http://www.gallup.com/poll/150149/Record-High-Americans-Favor-Legalizing-Marijuana.aspx

[ClassWarrior]

6. So you think he'd support Jim Crow laws if he thought it was a...

..."winning issue?"

And how do you know what he thinks?

NGU.

[joshcryer]

8. It's in his language.

Go back and look at any video where he's questioned about marijuana, in many of them his answers are very calculated. It would not be hard to say "I support legalization." Why doesn't he do it?

Either he believes that it would be a bad thing (having smoked marijuana, almost half the population having tried or smoked it regularly, and that half the population believes it should be legal), or he just thinks it's not a good campaign issue (coming out for legalization would fill the soundbytes of right wing attack ads).

Which seems more logical? That he ignores all the reasons for legalization or that he sees the campaign issue?

[Fumesucker]

10. Can you imagine how much better Obama's life would have been if had gotten busted with drugs?

And then got the help he was so desperately crying out for?

He could have been a cook or maybe a waiter at a high class restaurant if had only gotten help with his drug problem.

[SixthSense]

16. The tide has turned

President Obama, let my people go!

[Puregonzo1188]

9. Perhaps we'd have Single Payer?

[saras]

4. If you support the American government you support a racist government

If you buy fast food ANYWHERE you support racist industries that destroy brown people for your cheap food. If you buy stuff from chains (not just WalMart, all of them), you're supporting a racist global economy. America, as a country and a population, is fucking racist. The only way to avoid them is to live in a shack in the woods miles from the nearest road or cell tower.

Ron Paul, as a politician, supports a lot of stupid and evil things, no doubt about it. So do, from my own values, EVERY OTHER MEMBER OF CONGRESS, IN BOTH HOUSES, AND THE PRESIDENT.

Should I refuse to deal with them? Should I refuse to choose better ones over worse ones?

[limpyhobbler]

5. +1 n/t

[BootinUp]

7. OK, how is the drug war "racist"? I missed the bulletin on that apparently.

[Puregonzo1188]

11. The drug is systematically design to target people of color. That's why crack use to give you a

higher sentence than powdered cocaine. That's why African-Americans make up only 13% of all American drug user, but 35% of American drug arrests, 55% of American drug convictions, and 74% of those incarcerated for drug offense.

The drug war is predominantly a war on poor people and people of color. It was intentionally designed that why by Richard Nixon, since Southern states could no longer bar blacks from voting, but they could bar "felons" from voting.

[Luminous Animal]

12. This issue has been studied and restudied...

http://www.drugpolicy.org/issues/race-and-drug-war

Unfortunately, the highest profile people and organizations that are focusing on the racist aspect of the drug war are libertarians. And, I believe that they are using racism as a means to advance the party and the concept... not because they care about racism.

[Puregonzo1188]

14. Excellent point Luminous--that's why Ron Paul even said the drug war was racist himself.

This quote, is from when he was running for President as a Libertarian in 1988

"“We do know that opium was used by the Chinese, and the laws prohibiting opium were issued because the Chinese were not welcome in this country. We do know that because of heroin use among blacks, at a certain time, the laws were made to be used against them. And there were times when many Latin American immigrants used marijuana and the laws were made to use against them. But low and behold the drug that inebriates most of Congress has been mostly untouched, because their over there drinking alcohol.”

It even predates his racist newsletters.

Only thing it proves is that Ron Paul speaks out of both sides of his mouth playing up to racist and playing up to opponents of the racist drug war. But at least it shows that even a racist quack like Ron Paul knows the drug war is racist.

[Fumesucker]

13. Blacks use drugs at a slightly lower rate than whites..

And yet blacks are arrested and convicted in far greater proportion than whites for those crimes.

One in three black males in the USA will spend time in prison at some point in their lives..

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/02/01/blacks-far-more-likely-th_n_817105.html

An African-American convicted of a low-level drug crime in Cook County is eight times more likely than his white counterpart to face prison time for it, according to a new report released yesterday.

The report, published by the Disproportionate Justice Impact Study Commission, analyzed arrest data from 2005, the most recent year that complete data is available. It was commissioned by the General Assembly in 2008 to research the notion that minorities -- and particularly young black men in inner cities -- were disproportionately subjected to drug arrests, prosecution and sentencing.

[SaintPete]

15. Can I support something Ron Paul said

without having to agree that I supported what a racist politician said? What if an acceptable person said something identical to something Ron Paul said? Can I pull an exemption, or is it that once Ron Paul says a thing, it's his? He owns it...?

Is it an all, or nothing at all game?

I'm just trying to understand all the rules that (we all agree) are involved in figuring out the Dewey Decimal system for political thought.

[Puregonzo1188]

17. Only in world of rational discourse can you do such a thing.

[Pacafishmate]

18. One thing that you can say in support of Ron Paul is that you actually know what he stands for.

Although he may have unusual views, I'd say he is more admirable than a typical politician. Someone who votes for Paul knows what they are getting. Many people who voted for Obama did not get what they expected. They got the usual pro- big business politician, but dressed up in a different way. Paul is not the typical politician. Whether that is good or bad is a personal matter.