When All You Have Are Symbols, Symbols Matter

Should the racist Paul newsletters be ignored in light of the fact that Paul, if elected, would end a racist drug war? Will Wilkinson observes:

One obvious difficulty with this line of reasoning is that Ron Paul will never be elected President of the United States, and has about as much chance of ending the drug war as I do. He is little more than a symbol for a set of ideas—ideas his complicity with racism has tainted in many people's minds, whose prospects he may have damaged. I want to end the war on drugs, therefore I'd rather people not associate that idea with Ron Paul.

I'm guilty of pro-Wilkinson bias, but that seems exactly right to me.

Read the whole thing (especially if you are going to comment in the bloodbath sure to follow).