Charles Milles Manson is an American criminal who led what became known as the Manson Family, a quasi-commune that arose in California in the late 1960s. Photo: Public domain.

Question: What do Ron Paul and Charles Manson have in common?

Answer: Both warned their followers of an impending “race war.”

But Ron Paul warned of other things, too, apparently.

From Reuters:

A direct-mail solicitation for Ron Paul’s political and investment newsletters two decades ago warned of a “coming race war in our big cities” and of a “federal-homosexual cover-up” to play down the impact of AIDS.

The eight-page letter, which appears to carry Paul’s signature at the end, also warns that the U.S. government’s redesign of currency to include different colors – a move aimed at thwarting counterfeiters – actually was part of a plot to allow the government to track Americans using the “new money.”

The letter urges readers to subscribe to Paul’s newsletters so that he could “tell you how you can save yourself and your family” from an overbearing government.

That sounds a bit too “Charles Manson-y” for me.

 Like many white convicts, Manson was a racist. However, at some point in 1968, fear of black revolution began to pervade his delusions. Manson’s own ultimate domination of the black race became a primary element of the apocalypse he would orchestrate. It would be Helter Skelter. It was also the name his followers used for the murder spree.

(((Shudder)))

Manson and Paul are also roughly the same age, by the way. Manson was born in November, 1934, and Paul was born in August, 1935. America sure was different in the Forties and Fifties, before the Civil Rights Act. I’m glad I’m young enough not to have any idea about what segregation was like.

Memeorandum thread on this topic.

UPDATE: Stacy McCain compares Ron Paul to Joseph.

UPDATE: Linked by Don Surber in his Daily Scoreboard…/ Stacy McCain / Zilla of the Resistance / Eye of Polyphemus /