I mentioned this in my column last week, but I am finding that the observation bears repeating. Hardly a month into 2013, the ideological tug-of-war taking place inside the ranks of the Republican party is both refreshing and portentous. It remains to be seen if the increasingly silenced moderate wing can wrest control of the platform and its awful messaging machine from the radicals who have come to dominate it. It’s a watershed moment for a political party that has fallen out of step with the general public on a whole host of critical issues.
Last week it was a somewhat academic David Brooks column that served as the launchpad for discussion about the GOP’s current and future ability to speak to voters that have been alienated by the right’s anti-immigrant, anti-woman, anti-middle class rhetoric. But this week, we examine the curious case of now-retired Congressman Ron Paul ruffling the feathers of his partymates and a constituency that the Republican Party has traditionally served very well: “war hawks.”
Jumping into the fray of the frenzied gun control debate against the backdrop of a high profile series of civilian casualties, Ron Paul (who now manages his own feed in retirement) took to Twitter this past weekend. In an effort to comment on the untimely death of Chris Kyle, a former Navy SEAL and author of the best-selling autobiography American Sniper who was shot at a Texas shooting range, Ron Paul made a subjective statement that is highly open to interpretation:
“Chris Kyle’s death seems to confirm that ‘he who lives by the sword dies by the sword.’ Treating PTSD at a firing range doesn’t make sense.”
While Paul’s flippant tweet is certainly insensitive to the victim’s grieving family at best, the former congressman does make a couple of spot-on observations. In a time when the Republican Party is contorting itself to link increased gun violence with a lack of resources for the mentally ill (with logic that eats itself as the GOP seeks to further reduce funding for the most vulnerable Americans) it does seem ironic that Kyle was killed while attempting to distract a fellow soldier suffering from PTSD. Isn’t that a bit like taking a recovering alcoholic to a distillery? There’s nothing funny at all about the incident but the way in which a certain section of the political spectrum treats access to guns as a cure-all for whatever ails you has been discredited once again.
And at the risk of reading too deeply into 140 characters, it appears to this columnist that Paul made a second, more obscure point about the long-term effects of the Iraq and Afghani conflicts on a small percentage of men and women who have carried the burdens of war. It is with this pacifist line of thinking that Paul really breaks ranks with party standard bearers. According to this element, continuous conflict is good for America, economically and ideologically. As such, Republican pundits wasted no time jumping on the former congressmen.
But as Peter Weber, a writer for The Week, noted:
“Who can be surprised that conservatives… have been falling all over themselves to condemn Ron Paul for [noting] that the violence wrought by over a decade of nonstop war in America leads to tragedy on the home front?… The most transparent were the conservatives who claimed to be former supporters of Paul who must now go support some more ‘patriotic’ politician: One who doesn’t actually question anything the military does…. This is what it comes down to for most conservatives, of course.”
The speedy vitriol heaped upon Ron Paul by his fellow Republicans is intended to punish him for walking astray of party dictates that it’s all about war and guns, baby. Mercifully the always autonomous Paul has less to lose by speaking his mind than ever – the benefits of old age and retirement. I hope he continues to act as a thorn in the side of GOP mouthpieces. The right may not realize it, but it needs these dissenting voices if it is to have any chance at survival.
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Diane B
Feb. 5th, 2013 at 4:41 pm
If I get what you are saying, I have to make a rare break from sharing your opinion. I am taking what Ron Paul said at face-value, and quite frankly, I find his comment obtuse.
The prevailing issue here, and I believe most members of Chris Kyle’s world share this stance, is that he had to pick up where the government failed yet another one of their own. We don’t know what was going on in his mind, but I would venture to say that he was trying to desensitize his this man by putting him in a safe, trusted environment to perform what he had to in a war zone. Just a thought. Still, he was ready to do more for this man than his former employer did, that is for sure.
Until veterans, nay, everyone, gets the free, unbridled healthcare that the politicians—including Ron Paul and his critics—get, this is just yet another object lesson that goes unlearned.
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djchefron(Moderator)
Feb. 5th, 2013 at 5:20 pm
Ron Paul has always been anti- imperialism so if an opportunity presents itself he will speak out.The republican establishment has always held their noses when it came to Paul.
But the real fireworks are getting to blast off.The coming civil war between the tea party and the less insane republicans.
Karl Rove has said he and his cronies will pick the candidates to run in 2014.Now turd-blossom has a point,people like Steve King,Paul Braun will never win in the general but could win the primary.The teabaggers although at war with reality their battle is with the republican party and that sets up for 4 bags of popcorn.
So all this talk of rebranding,snookering the voters will be DOA.The crazies control the grass roots and they do vote in off year elections.
We have to nominate the strongest people we can and even if someone is a blue dog we need to go all out with our support.
Just remember and this has a ring of truth
If you agree with me on 9 out of 12 issues, vote for me. If you agree with me on 12 out of 12 issues, see a psychiatrist.
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Shiva(Moderator)
Feb. 5th, 2013 at 5:33 pm
Very well put
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diane
Feb. 5th, 2013 at 5:23 pm
I think his comment is very much in line with what republicans think. Their answer to gun violence is more guns. We should all carry guns so we can ‘get’ the other guy, hopefully before he gets us or does further damage.
How is that not live, by the sword, die by the sword?
They don’t much like it when you point out their hypocrisy.
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Just A Dumb Fireman
Feb. 5th, 2013 at 7:33 pm
B-b-b-but they say they believe in JEEEEE-sus!
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bill
Feb. 5th, 2013 at 5:37 pm
kyle will soon be forgotten
he was a souless bastard in my book
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Diane B
Feb. 5th, 2013 at 5:44 pm
Did you read his book? I’m curious. My husband had the same job in the military, and he is far from soulless. It is a job by the sword, for sure—the Sword of Damocles.
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Just A Dumb Fireman
Feb. 5th, 2013 at 7:32 pm
He had a job invading other countries and killing the natives who were fighting to drive out the invaders?
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Diane
Feb. 6th, 2013 at 10:05 am
I trust your screen name is ironic. Yet, your rhetorical response is perturbing, to say the least. It smacks of the type who calls soldiers “baby killers.” And yes, my husband was called that, when he actually saw the carnage from real baby killers. I’m done.
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Just A Dumb Fireman
Feb. 6th, 2013 at 11:15 am
My son was also there for a year and a half. When he finally figured out how he was duped by the Army and all the “patriotic” hoopla, he tried to commit suicide and we didn’t know for a week whether the doctors would bring him back. So, sorry – this was a BAD choice that both your husband and my son made.
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harris stein
Feb. 6th, 2013 at 11:36 am
What? Obviously you are clueless about society and the choices for young men in our “soulless society” who have just graduated from high school and have a choice of……… well, grunt work in an oilfield or something similar or grunt work in the military.
Why don’t you come down off your high liberal horse and get a clue about what life is really like?
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Victoria Lamb, MSHA
Feb. 6th, 2013 at 1:05 pm
Why don’t you learn to disagree with other people without resorting to name-calling?
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harris stein
Feb. 7th, 2013 at 11:00 am
Name calling? Don’t you know the difference between a declarative statement and name calling?
Since you insist that I use name calling to describe Mr. Bill, how does hypocrit sound?
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Just A Dumb Fireman
Feb. 5th, 2013 at 7:31 pm
Chris Kyle earned the end he met. This man made a career out of shooting and killing approximately 150 “insurgents”, more properly described as 150 human beings who were fighting to defend their sovereign nation and their families from a hostile foreigh invasion of people with different-colored skin, an unintelligible language, and a different religion. It always amazes me how many Americans are completely unable to put themselves in other people’s shoes and see a situation from a perspective other than their own.
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harris stein
Feb. 6th, 2013 at 11:43 am
What? You too. Come down off your high horse and get a clue.
I too was bitterly opposed to invading iraq but as an honorably discharged Vietnam Veteran I applaud Chris Kyle as an American warrior who was grappling with PTSD and helping others with PTSD.
He made a choice to enter the armed services and then made a choice to do what he did in Iraq.
Those of us in the 99% of the people who live paycheck to paycheck must make choices every day that will affect us for the rest of our lives.
Get a clue.
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Just A Dumb Fireman
Feb. 6th, 2013 at 1:00 pm
I’m VERY MUCH in the 99%, mac. Sorry. there are always other choices as to how to make a living apart from volunteering to kill people in their own countries.
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Diane
Feb. 6th, 2013 at 2:47 pm
You have got to be kidding me, Mr. Fireman? You have proven my assessment that you are painting this with a large brush. How can you know what is the right choice for my husband, or anyone you don’t know? Volunteering to kill people. Yes, that is exactly it. That is why people enlist. The only reason.
Really, get your head out of the sand. Both are better for putting out fires.
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Diane
Feb. 6th, 2013 at 2:51 pm
One more thing, fireman. I am really sorry for what your son went through. It speaks as another example of what reiterates my first comment on this blog. The soldiers aren’t taken care of the way they should—physically or mentally/emotionally. It doesn’t help when the VA sets the system up to work against them, as opposed to for them.
Still, a whole world can’t be condemned based on personal experience. War has too many shades of gray.
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Just A Dumb Fireman
Feb. 6th, 2013 at 3:23 pm
What do you think the military is for, if not killing people? Job training out of the goodness of the Pentagon’s heart?
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Shiva(Moderator)
Feb. 6th, 2013 at 3:25 pm
Our military is used for one thing today. It is to threaten the rest of the world and tell them if they shake a finger at Israel then we will attack them
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Just A Dumb Fireman
Feb. 6th, 2013 at 5:33 pm
THAT is the absolute truth. (Also to plunder the natural resources of other countries, but that sort of goes along with your first point).
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Just A Dumb Fireman
Feb. 6th, 2013 at 9:17 pm
What he went through was that he felt ashamed of being used as a pawn in an unjust invasion intended to keep the bucks rolling in for Halliburton and KBR. And he was in Civil Affairs, not in combat. He wanted to help rebuild what we destroyed. No amount of “help” from the same forces that duped him was going to do him any good. Now he knows what I didn’t dare tell him when he signed up: Not one war in the last 7 decades has been about national defense. They were all about economic greed.
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Bob Vondruska
Feb. 6th, 2013 at 3:24 pm
Anyone that knows anything about Ron Paul knows that this whole flap over Dr. Paul’s tweet about the death of Chris Kyle is only a polical sideshow orchestrated by the neocons that still hate him even after his retirement from Congress. These people obviously do not know that Ron Paul is a veteran himself, nor do they know how deeply Dr. Paul cares about the affairs of our nation’s veterans, most notably making sure that our veterans receive the medals they earned, and proper treatment for those returning from war with PTSD.
So when I read these posts from people that say that Ron Paul was “insensitive” or “out of line” with his comments, I think to myself, “these people are either very ignorant or have an agenda!” Dr. Paul was only stating the obvious that a rifle range and a loaded firearm was not exactly a good idea or a good place for a person with PTSD. It’s pretty simple folks! Chris Kyle was an honorable veteran that made the mistake of putting his life in the hands of an unstable person. It was an unfortunate tragedy but Ron Paul did not say anything disrespectful, nor was that ever his intention. People need to think about what they are saying before they ignorantly condemn the “good guys” like Ron Paul.
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Shiva(Moderator)
Feb. 6th, 2013 at 3:55 pm
And I think that’s exactly what the article is saying. Ron Paul just gave the GOP a headache with his comments. I would agree with you that that was Ron Paul’s intention, to state that a mistake was made and trusting someone with an illness and a weapon. A recipe for something going bad
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