A Rhode Island columnist has accused
Ron Paul of being a hypocrite on gay rights issues.
Bradley Silverman, a columnist for The
Brown Daily Herald, accused Paul of not being a true
libertarian, paying special attention to Paul's support of anti-gay
measures at the state level.
“Paul advocates for a small federal
government, but it would be wrong to conflate his position with that
of the libertarian,” Silverman wrote. “The truth is that he
would accept a government of broad and expansive powers, so long as
it is a state government.”
Paul has previously voted against a
federal amendment which would limit marriage to two people of the
opposite sex. Gay
marriage foes have criticized Paul's position on the issue.
“Nowhere is Paul's hypocrisy more
evident than in his sponsorship of the We the People Act, which would
prevent the Supreme Court and all federal courts from adjudicating
claims based on the right to privacy with regard to issues of 'sexual
practices, orientation or reproduction,' or on equal protection of
the law with regard to the right of homosexuals to marry.”
“So if Paul is not a libertarian, is
there a name for what he is?”
“With regard to gay rights, Paul is
concerned with the distribution of oppressive power across different
levels of government, not actually with eliminating such power
altogether. He is a federalist, not a libertarian. Or, if you
prefer, he is an anti-federalist, a term from the early days of the
republic for those who opposed the centralization of power in a
strong national government. Either way, these are more apt
descriptions of Paul. He's not a libertarian for the simple reason
that libertarians unconditionally advocate, well, liberty.”