Today in “This is America” 82-year-old former Texas Congressman Ron Paul found the time to tweet out a racist cartoon to his 657K followers.
The tweeted image depicted a number of racist exaggerations usually found in cartoons from the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Included were a Black man with large inflated lips, an Asian man with slanted eyes and Jewish man with a large hooked nose.
Furthermore, the picture depicted these minorities forming a fist punching Uncle Sam while proclaiming “Cultural Marxism.” The message is not a subtle one, especially in the age of Trump. The rising economic and political power and cultural influence of minorities in America has made a large number of White people nervous about America’s direction.
The cartoon’s message is that minority cultures and immigrants are not only not a part of America, but are actively anti-American.
Afer a swift Twitter backlash Paul deleted the original tweet and soon replaced it with a new tweet with the same text but with a different picture. The new and improved picture decried political correctness, no doubt a response to those who called him out on his original racist tweet.
It’s a common tactic among politicians and those on the far right to blame over-the-top political correctness for the outrage they receive for their unabashedly racist behavior.
This tweet won’t come as a surprise to those familiar with Rand Paul’s history. In reference to the Civil Rights Act of 1964 he argued that it was interference into the labor market an d violated the US Constitution because it reduced individual liberty. Note the Civil Rights Act of 1964 outlawed discrimination based on race, color, religion sex or national origin.
Paul also opposed affirmative action and in one of his newsletters referred to the Martin Luther King Jr. Holiday as “Hate Whitey Day.”
Ron Paul served in the US House of Representatives as a Republican for 22 years. Ron Paul’s son, Rand Paul, currently serves as the junior US Senator from Kentucky.