THE EYE IN THE PYRAMID

He asked if there was an international conspiracy to overthrow our government. The answer is yes... —Ron Paul, August 30, 2003

Ron Paul is what David (Orcinus) Neiwert, a leading authority on the radical right, calls a transmitter: an ostensibly respectable figure whose advocacy of fringe positions lends them a legitimacy they could never otherwise aspire to. Paul, a tireless foe of the United Nations for more than 30 years, is one of the higher-profile proponents of the familiar "New World Order" conspiracy theory, a paranoid fantasy in which a shadowy group of powerful players is perpetually plotting to conquer the world. Like many on the fringe, Paul takes his fear of other countries to ridiculous extremes; when asked by radio host Alex Jones in November 2005 about a report that Dutch and Mexican troops were helping out with Hurricane Katrina relief operations, Paul called it "a horrible precedent, and it's all part of the NAFTA scheme and globalization and world government." (MP3 is here; exchange begins at about the 17:55 mark. Paul is a favorite guest of "9/11 Truth" guy Alex Jones, who has never heard a conspiracy theory he couldn't embrace, from way back; he has appeared on Jones' program three times since February.)

So who are these shadowy forces who are plotting to dismantle our Constitution and surrender our sovereignty to a one-world government? Paul explained, in a 2004 interview:

They're certainly not known to a lot of people; it's actually what they're doing. But then again, it's not absolute secrecy. If you look around you can usually get the information. There was a time when nobody even knew who was a member of the CFR or the Trilateral Commission. I think it's a bad sign that they're not as secret as they used to be. They're bolder now. But there is an agenda. They're behind the scenes in many way—very secretive.

The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) and the Trilateral Commission are what Cecil Adams calls "discussion groups for world leaders that have become a target of right wing crazy people," who tend to mention them in the same breath as sinister insinuations about "international bankers" (no points for guessing who they are).

GOLD!

And then there's the money. Even more than fleet-footed black criminals, the impending collapse of the world financial system has long been Paul's greatest obsession. The July 29, 1985 issue of Barron's profiled Paul, then settling into his new role as an investment guru following three terms in Congress. The magazine quoted a pitch letter for Paul's new investment bulletin:

Dear Friend. Will you survive the "new money"? You must be prepared, because within one year, the U.S. Treasury will impose a radically different currency on the American people. Government officials won't tell you the truth about this ominous new development and most of your neighbors will be caught napping.... I saw the ugly new bills, tinted pink and blue and blighted with holograms, diffraction gratings, metal threads and chemical alarms."

The government, Paul assured his readers, would be recalling the old currency at the same time, which would cause a real problem for "the underground economy," most of whose participants are doing "a very worthwhile thing" that's good for the country. Paul's June 1985 newsletter told of one Professor Claude Martin of the University of Michigan, who supervised consumer testing of the new money in 1983: "Today... the professor sounds frightened and refuses to talk. After muttering that he no longer is permitted to discuss the project, he hangs up." Professor Martin discussed the project at length with Barron's (the article notes dryly) and said he'd never spoke to Paul. When confronted with this discrepancy, Paul said he'd heard the story from another person, "who I choose not to name." Ten years later, of course, the Treasury did begin redesigning our paper money—minus, one presumes, the chemical alarms—but never recalled the old bills; civilization did not fall.

Paul's solution? Gold, young feller, gold! As with Bush and tax cuts, Paul has never found a problem for which gold was not the solution. A longtime proponent of returning the US to the gold standard, Paul's writings on gold—and there are a lot of them—are liberally sprinkled with references to the Federal Reserve, Bretton Woods, and the rest of the usual gang of tropes; they imbue the shiny, somewhat arbitrarily chosen metal with almost supernatural powers to save us from the impending doom that is always just around the corner but, somehow, never quite arrives. Fortunately, Barron's notes, the ever-helpful Paul had just the thing for the discerning gold buyer, "a coin dealer you can trust": Ron Paul & Co., Dealers in Precious Metals and Rare Coins.

RON PAUL AND THE CLINTONS

In the 1990s, like every far-right lunatic worth his salt, Ron Paul turned his frenzied attention to the Clintons. A 1993 direct mail piece from Paul ran through the checklist, missing nothing along the way:

What kind of a man is Bill Clinton? Our families tell much about us. Clinton's wife is a far leftist with very close female friends...

(Wink, wink.)

...(while her husband is a sexual playboy of John F. Kennedy

proportions). A friend of mine who attended Yale Law School with Hillary says that she was known as the "class commie." Today, I guess, she is merely a pinko. And "Co-President" of the United States. According to the Washington Times, Clinton's mother spends every day at the horsetrack near corrupt Hot Springs. According to The New Republic, as a nurse anesthesist, she once let a patient die while doing her nails. She was found to be criminally negligent, and then cleared. Her son Bill, the governor, then promoted the man who cleared her. You may have read about the uproar over pardons of hardened criminals signed by a state senator who was temporary Arkansas governor during the inauguration. Now the Washington Times reports that the pardons were engineered by Clinton before he went to Washington. One of the criminals let out of prison was the son of a politician who had been exposing Clinton's black and white illegitimate children with photos and addresses. "Woods colts," they're called in Arkansas slang. Then they made a corrupt deal. The man agreed to shut up during the campaign; Clinton agreed to spring his son.

Emphasis mine. For Paul, no rumor about the Clintons was too outrageous to pass on. In the March 15, 1994 issue of the Ron Paul Survival Report, Paul addressed the death of Vince Foster, whose 1993 suicide was twisted by the far-right enemies of democracy into a series of increasingly outlandish conspiracy theories alleging that Foster was actually murdered and that Clinton ordered it.

These scurrilous and reprehensible stories were told and retold tirelessly in far-right organs for Clinton's entire presidency, always flying just under the radar of mainstream media notice. Paul's retelling repeats all of the standard libels. He characterizes Hillary Clinton, without offering any evidence, as "Foster's ex-paramour"—in evident contradiction of Paul's other "theory" about the then-First Lady—and suggests that the "murder" was tied up in some way with the cocaine habit Paul accuses Bill Clinton of having:

There is another story that has gained some importance in the upper reaches of Washington, D.C. It alleges that Bill Clinton has long used cocaine, and that Foster was his "connection".... I (Ron Paul), am reminded about all the stories of CIA-Contra cocaine smuggling through the Mena, Arkansas, airport when Clinton was governor, and his supposed protection of the racket. The cocaine speculation would explain certain mysteries. During the campaign, Bill never released his medical records.... [C]ould the reason for his reticence be DOPE? Clinton has perpetuated troubles with his throat and voice, which could be related to the nasal drainage a cokehead experiences. He is also an insomniac, which dopers are. None of this is conclusive, of course, but it sure is interesting.

Emphasis mine. This excerpt comes to us via "Focus of Demons," a 1994 pamphlet published by the conspiracy theory-oriented Phoenix Journal.

DUDE IS WACK

This stuff is important to me personally because I remember the heyday of the radical anti-government right wing. I remember the day those attitudes cost 168 Americans their lives. I remember living not 300 miles away from Oklahoma City at the time, attending the University of Kansas, and wondering if we had just witnessed the Fort Sumter of a new civil war, and whether any of my neighbors would not fight for America, if push came to shove, but would take up arms against her. And I remember, all too well, that Ron Paul and his ilk were heroes to the people who filled the Internet with hate and conspiracy-mongering. And it's going to take a hell of a lot more than a few sweet words against the war to make me forget that.

I'll repeat what I said in my first Ron Paul diary: I understand how important, how visceral, opposition to the war is for a lot of people. It is for precisely this reason that it is so important that Kossacks understand that, opposition to the war aside, Ron Paul is not our friend. For a final thought, I couldn't possibly top the garrulous Professor Claude Martin: "He's a nut."