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Montana
06-15-2007, 03:20 AM
Hi there. After I watched the New Hampshire debate I got interested in Ron Paul as a candidate and started doing some research. I discovered that there was a newsletter that he supposedly authored that contained some racist text and that people were using it against him. Apparently Dr. Paul is now claiming that he actually wasn't the one who wrote it. I was inclined to believe him, considering the consistency of his voting record with his beliefs, but it still made me upset that either a candidate that I had thought so highly of could have written such things, or if not that he might be damaged by the reputation hit if it was something that he really didn't write.

So I decided to see if I could figure out whether he was telling the truth. First I found a website that does text analysis: (http://textalyser.net) Then I took some of his speeches and fed it to the analyser, as well as the racist text that he supposedly wrote. I thought those here might be interested in the results. These are the texts I used. They were just the first three speeches I found on his congressional website that were longer than the original document.

1:
HON. RON PAUL OF TEXAS
Before the U.S. House of Representatives
February 15, 2006
The End of Dollar Hegemony http://www.house.gov/paul/congrec/congrec2006/cr021506.htm

2.
HON. RON PAUL OF TEXAS
Before the U.S. House of Representatives
April 5, 2006
Iran: The Next Neocon Target
http://www.house.gov/paul/congrec/congrec2006/cr040506.htm

3.
HON. RON PAUL OF TEXAS
Before the U.S. House of Representatives
April 25, 2006
What the Price of Gold is Telling Us
http://www.house.gov/paul/congrec/congrec2006/cr042506.htm

This is the racist text (it's the leftmost column below):
http://www.nizkor.org/ftp.cgi/people/g/ftp.py?people/g/gannon.dan/1992/gannon.0793

This is a speech delivered by Senator Robert Byrd in 2003 (it is the rightmost column below, included for comparison):
http://www.commondreams.org/views03/0319-04.htm

? Paul Paul Paul Byrd
Total word count : 2075 2770 3442 2525 411
Complexity factor(Lexical Density):56.8% 44.2% 44.4% 47.6% 74.7%
Readability (Gunning-Fog Index) : 6.8 10.5 10.3 9.9 8.2
Average Syllables per Word : 1.62 1.78 1.78 1.73 1.68
Average sentence length (words) : 12.93 17.96 18.13 18.08 14.15
Readability (Alternative) beta: 57 37.9 38 42.1 50.7


I didn't include the stats that depended heavily on the length of the text. You can go run the documents through yourself if you want to see them. If you notice, in the three center columns from Dr. Paul's speeches, all of the numbers for each row are within 10% of one another, whereas most of the numbers for the racist text are substantially different. Obviously this type of analysis can't be 100% conclusive, and I'm certainly no expert on it, but it looks to me like it was written by a different hand.

billv
06-15-2007, 03:30 AM
Personally, it reads like a different person wrote it. I can read Ron Paul's speeches or writings and hear him say it. He has certain mannerisms that can be read into his speeches. I can't do that with the racist material. It really does not sound like him to me.[

coplinger
06-15-2007, 04:44 AM
Even if it wasn't written by him, it did go out in a newsletter with his name on it, didn't it? That kind of implies that it had his approval, even if he didn't write it. Are we sure that it was indeed written in the Ron Paul newsletter?

AgentSmith
06-15-2007, 05:04 AM
Even if it wasn't written by him, it did go out in a newsletter with his name on it, didn't it? That kind of implies that it had his approval, even if he didn't write it. Are we sure that it was indeed written in the Ron Paul newsletter?

Ron admitted it, and took responsibility for it.

beermotor
06-15-2007, 06:51 AM
... and never has repeated anything like that since. This article was from 92. I always point that out. Don't you think a Racist would have said the same crap at least at some point in the past 15 years?

Obviously it's a smear attempt, and a poor one at that. Just keep countering it wherever you see it on Google Blog Search. That's all we have to do.

coplinger
06-15-2007, 08:24 AM
I'm sure if you scratch the surface of any of these candidates, you'll find some degree of racism.

JaylieWoW
06-15-2007, 08:31 AM
Racism = Collectivism

He went into some discussion of this at the last debate.

If you want a really good read on Individualism vs. Collectivism try out Frank Chodorov's book entitled "One Crowd" which just happens to be available for free at Mises.org.

NewEnd
06-15-2007, 10:20 AM
Uhh... a little off topic, but that is an excellent website find... textalyzer

LeFou
06-15-2007, 11:56 AM
Does a comparison between a written text and a spoken one have any validity?

edit: or are house speeches usually written up beforehand?

angrydragon
06-15-2007, 01:24 PM
http://www.freemarketnews.com/WorldNews.asp?nid=41822


These sources say that editorial operation in question was a fairly large one, and profitable for its time - focused in large part on measures that one could take to generate a lifestyle independent of government influence and intervention.

The publication, or publications, comprised a business venture to which Ron Paul lent his name. Headquarters were “60 miles away” from Ron Paul’s personal Texas offices. At the time that the publications were being disseminated, primarily in the 1980s, Ron Paul was involved in numerous activities including Libertarian politics. He eventually ran for U.S. president as a Libertarian.

“This was a big operation,” says one source. “And Ron Paul was a busy man. He was doctor, a politician and free-market commentator. A publication had to go out at a certain time and Ron Paul often was not around to oversee the lay out, printing or mailing. Many times he did not participate in the composition, either.”

This source and others add that publications utilized guest writers and editors on a regular basis. Often these guest writers and editors would write a “Ron Paul” column, under which the derogatory comments might have been issued.

Says one source, “Ron Paul didn’t know about those comments, or know they were written under his name until much later when they were brought to his attention. There were several issues that went out with comments that he would not ordinarily make. He was angry when he saw them.”

Ron Paul has said that he did not write the comments in question, but, nonetheless, has taken "moral" responsibility for them.

Korey Kaczynski
06-15-2007, 01:26 PM
From his 1988 book, "Freedom Under Seige:"

"There are times when it seems like we get our system of values from television
productions. Professional wrestling is one of the few programs which started
on TV in the late 1940s and now claims more viewers than ever. There are no
rules, and it is associated with contrived (but unreal) violence: mockery of the
referee, racism, absence of sportsmanship, yelling, screaming, and hatred.
Reasonable rules of decency are totally ignored. The shows get worse every
year; belts, chains, and cages are now part of the acts. Twenty wrestlers are put
into a ring without a referee and a free-for-all erupts -- the more violent, the
more the crowd cheers the ridiculous charade."

angrydragon
06-15-2007, 01:26 PM
Plus I'm not sure if you can call those remarks really racists since the person was citing statistics. You can see they're really grasping at anything with those attempts to smear Ron.

Korey Kaczynski
06-15-2007, 01:28 PM
Does a comparison between a written text and a spoken one have any validity?

edit: or are house speeches usually written up beforehand?

House speeches usually are written beforehand.

But I would personally discount written text analyzed against spoken text; oral speech is far different than written speech.

ronpaulitician
06-15-2007, 01:58 PM
I don't believe Ron Paul wrote those words, and I don't believe he is racist, but it was inexcusable for Paul to listen to his advisers, and not denounce the comments when they were first brought up by the media.

That is a mark against him, no matter how you turn it, and I'm sure Dr. Paul regrets that decision.