Within the conservative movement, there is a huge rift. That rift is between the Paulbots as some of them are called and other conservatives. While there are some Ron Paul supporters who are decent people, who you can talk politics with and debate the issues. Unfortunately those people are a minority among Ron Paul supporters.
What is worse is not only are these Ron Paul supporters obnoxious, disagreeable and rude. Some of them are dangerous.
From the Examiner:
Jere Brower, his wife Clara, and his 4-year-old daughter Ana, have a very good reason to believe Texas Congressman Ron Paul when he said people view his supporters as "dangerous."
The 38-year-old Atlanta man and his family have been targeted by militant Ron Paul supporters, one of whom threatened to "kneecap" him, then rape his wife and young daughter. Mr. Brower said he has also received death threats from supporters of Ron Paul.
The trouble started when Brower and some of his Facebook friends decided to have a laugh over Ron Paul's ties to racist and anti-semitic groups.
He wrote a post on Facebook intended to be a joke, but some Paul supporters took it seriously - too seriously.
"If you live in South Carolina and want to have some fun with these Paulbots here is what we do," he wrote.
"Go online and buy or make your very own KKK robe, complete with hood (hood is important). Then get some Ron Paul signs or make your own. Follow Paul around South Carolina and be sure to get photographed by the media. Again, hoods are important. All can be Klansmen for Paul. Black, white, Jewish, Asian - those Paulbots will s**t a brick."
What started as a practical joke ended with rabid Ron Paul supporters threatening Brower. They wanted to go to his employer and try to get him fired. Then it got worse.
They flooded his phone with messages which were threatening. The worst of it came when they threatened to shoot him and rape his wife and young daughter.
Fortunately Brower went to the police and they are handling this.
While the threats of violence are the most extreme instances of what the Paulbots have done, their behavior is consistently obnoxious.
Perhaps the most disturbing part of all of this is the lack of concern from the Paul campaign. They don’t seem to care that so many of their followers are so anti-liberty. They do not care that some of their followers are little more than thugs.
Mark Levin has had some choice words for Ron Paul followers. Erick Erickson over at Red State has banned them from his site. We have tossed many of them off of Tea Party Nation for being obnoxious.
Ron Paul needs to have a long chat with his followers. He needs to make them understand that liberty means people have the right to make their own decisions. That means we get to decide we do not like Ron Paul if we want.
That is liberty.
Responsibility means Ron Paul needs to denounce the violence inspired by his followers and tell them people do have the right to disagree with him.
Ron Paul needs to do this. I doubt he will.
Tags: Paul, Paulbots, Ron, erickson., erik, levin, mark, supporters
Permalink Reply by John Ray on Sounds like everybody loses here to me. Sheets and hoods are just out. Nobody anywhere near a Republican or anybody who calls himself one needs to even talk about it. We were started as the party for equality for all, perhaps we can keep that up, after a century and a half, we ain't dead yet. Next, Ron Paul supporters get mad about this, I can't blame them for that, and overreact, shamefully. A little beneath our common dignity that last part, unfortunate. Makes Ron Paul, running as a Republican, look bad again. In the year of our Lord in which we find ourselves, I predict there will be plenty of incivility and uncivilized behavior, enough to go around for all. Let's see, just as a quaint and old fashioned idea, if we can let it originate in our real opponents' camp, and put a quiet end to it in our own. I am, in a very modest way, a businessman. I find that I succeed, if modestly, better when I am soft spoken, humble, and quietly charming. Remember, the obnoxious among our opponents we will never convince or convert. The quieter mainstream, sane people, we need them to understand always that they have friends among us.
Permalink Reply by Russell Edmund Fowler on With the State of the USA, all voting before the 2006 we had no real problem of who you wanted to vote for. But now with lots of Radical in office or running for office, the real reason we got to be careful that we get the radicals out of office. The main one is Obama himselft.
I am for Newt right now, but whoever becomes the nominee for the GOP, I will vote for that person. Can't be worst than what we got now. Don't split the vote or Obama has a better chance of being re-elected.
Permalink Reply by Dario on Ron Paul borders on "insanity" and his rhetoric is quite frightening. Seriously, Mr. Paul speaks like a person with no regard for the security and safety of America. He constantly talks of taking certain things down, but has no legitimate replacements for the things he wants to get rid of. He is a man of "no answers", just wants to change everything. It is true that there are many things about our government and culture that DO need to be changed but Mr. Paul's rants and ravings are those of a mad man.
Permalink Reply by Richard Banko on If you vote third party before voting for Paul - by default Obama will win - the same thing happened with Clinton - you just said you would cut off your nose to spite your face
Permalink Reply by Elaine on Oooo, Richard, I cannot tell you how many times I have said "exactly" what you are saying. They don't listen. When they don't get their way -- I wonder if they will feel ashamed that they helped him get back into office?
Permalink Reply by Ray A. Gilmore on Nope, because they think they are righteous.
Permalink Reply by paul miller on I think when and if we stoop to their level by name calling, then we are no better than they are. Calling them funny names like Paulbots or any other names is not something we would like to have done to us and it is disrespectful. I don't think we should lower our standards by name calling or making jokes about them and we hope they will not do that to us either. It accomplishes nothing at all. I never have liked or supported Ron Paul's message but like the rest of us he should be free to his opinions and let the voters decide. Isn't that the freedom we are all fighting for here?
Permalink Reply by Vern Shotwell on Those who attack others, spam us or refuse to follow simple rules of etiquette get off easily by only being called a few names!
More logical, I think, is to ban them from our presence.
© 2013 Created by Judson Phillips.
