Unorthodox

Ron Paul's thought-provoking choice on racist's $$$
by Frank James

"You have to hand it to Ron Paul. Most presidential candidates who weren't running as white supremacists themselves would reflexively return a donation from a self-proclaimed racist so fast they would break speed records for financial transactions.

But as has been reported, Paul has decided to keep a $500 donation from Don Black of West Palm Beach who runs a website called Stormfront whose slogan is "White Pride World Wide."

As Paul's campaign explained, it plans to keep the money because that will reduce the cash Black has to spend on spreading his controversial ideology by $500.

And, according to the campaign, another good will occur. Paul will have $500 more with which to spread his libertarian message of freedom from big government, including his opposition to the Iraq War.

One freedom Paul has comes from the unlikelihood he'll receive his party's nomination. If he were a real threat to be the Republican nominee, he would've given back the money immediately since no top tier candidate would want to take a chance on losing the big prize because of the kind of controversy surrounding this kind of controversy.

But a lot of money is given to candidates by supporters with views out of the mainstream, views many other Americans would find objectionable. That's a given. The only difference is that Black doesn't hide his views.

Still, the unwritten rule in politics is that when you find yourself getting money from someone controversial because of what they do or say, someone with views repugnant to most Americans, you give their cash back like it's radioactive.

Paul's approach is certainly unorthodox, like so much about the man. That doesn't necessarily make it wrong. And because it's so different a way of handling such a situation, it presents an opportunity for a discussion about what's right and wrong in such situations. In short, it makes you think."