An AP article today about Rep. Ron Paul tying a fund-raising drive for his presidential campaign to Guy Fawkes Day (aka Nov. 5) makes me want to shake my head at people’s obliviousness to history.
I’m not accusing Paul of wanting to emulate Fakwes, who was part of a plot to blow up the Houses of Parliament with James I inside. I accept his spokesperson’s comment that Paul “wants to demolish things like the Department of Education, but we can do that very peacefully.”
Even so, it bugs me to see anyone hold Fawkes up as a symbol of anti-government, revolutionary goals, as the film V for Vendetta did (some of Paul’s supporters used clips of the film on YouTube as a fundraising promotion). Guido Fawkes wasn’t against government, just against the one England had at the time. He worked for a conspiracy led by various Catholic nobles, such as Robin Catesby (Fawkes, though he’s the only name most people now remember, was only a low-ranking field agent) that plotted to kill King James, kidnap his son and use control of the boy to replace the Church of England with a Catholic monarchy. That makes him closer to religious terrorists such as al-Qaida or Olympic bomber Eric Rudolph than to libertarianism.
Like I said, I don’t think that reflects on Paul’s views, but it still makes me wince.
For more information about the Gunpowder Plot, Antonia Fraser’s “Faith and Treason” makes excellent reading.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 7th, 2007 at 10:11 am and is filed under Politics, Terrorism. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.