Yet another one for the “conservatives and Republicans keep saying they’re not racists, but then they do stuff like this” file:

[Ron] Paul’s support for secession does not come as much of a surprise, considering that he has argued in the past that the Civil War was “unnecessary,” and caused by Abraham Lincoln’s attempt to “enhance and get rid of the original intent of the republic” by using an “iron fist.”

[…]

Of course, this is just the latest in a decades-long line of extreme newsletters from Paul. In the past, Paul’s newsletters have argued that Martin Luther King Jr. was a Socialist pedophile, that “malicious gays” enjoy getting and transmitting AIDS, and that “heroic” anti-government militias will soon take power back from the federal government, among many other racist, homophobic, and anti-Semitic conspiracies.

Coincidentally, Paul’s allies on the extremist right share his enthusiasm for secession. As the Southern Poverty Law Center reports, the white nationalist group Stormfront — whose leader has donated to Paul’s campaigns and been photographed with the then-presidential candidate — has helped power the secession petitions’ rapid growth.