Justin Raimondo | |
|---|---|
 Justin Raimondo | |
| Born | Dennis Raimondo (1951-11-18)November 18, 1951 White Plains, New York, U.S. |
| Died | June 27, 2019(2019-06-27) (aged 67) Sebastopol, California, U.S. |
| Occupations | Journalist, author, writer |
| Spouse | Yoshinori Abe[1] |
Justin Raimondo (bornDennis Raimondo; November 18, 1951 – June 27, 2019)[2][3] was an American author and the editorial director ofAntiwar.com. He described himself as a "conservative-paleo-libertarian."[4][5]
Born inWhite Plains, New York, Raimondo moved with his family to Yorktown Heights, New York when he was very young. Raimondo described himself as a "bad kid"; to deter himself from this path he spent one year at aJesuit-run school in upstate New York.
Around this time he took an interest inAyn Rand's philosophy ofObjectivism.[6] Later he joinedYoung Americans for Freedom. In the 1970s, he became active in theLibertarian Party. He "joined the party in 1974, and was active inRoger MacBride's1976 presidential campaign, the LP's second White House bid."[7] He came to the defense of theWhite Night riots, which followed the manslaughter conviction ofDan White for the deaths of San Francisco supervisorHarvey Milk and MayorGeorge Moscone.[8]
In 1983, after a schism in the Libertarian Party, Raimondo left the party and attempted to organize a libertarian faction in theRepublican Party known as the Libertarian Republican Organizing Committee. After 1989, Raimondo again began working with Rothbard in theanti-war,paleoconservativeJohn Randolph Club, part of the Rockford Institute.
In 1980, Raimondo ran for public office for the first time. Running as a Libertarian candidate for the 16th district seat in theCalifornia State Assembly, Raimondo received 4,730 votes[2] or 7.7% of the vote.[9] In 1982, Raimondo ran for California's 5th district seat in theUnited States House of Representatives as a Libertarian, againstDemocratic incumbentPhillip Burton andRepublican challengerMilton Marks. He received 14.2% of the vote.[10]
In the1996 U.S. congressional elections, Raimondo ran as a Republican candidate in California's 8th district againstNancy Pelosi. While he championed conservative and libertarian causes in general, the main emphasis of his campaign was his opposition to the deployment of U.S. troops in theBalkans and, in particular, Pelosi's vote to that effect.[11] Raimondo received 25,739 votes[12] for 12.4 percent of the vote while Pelosi got 84.3 percent.[13]
During the1992,1996, and2000 presidential elections, Raimondo supported the campaigns ofPat Buchanan, both as a Republican and in theReform Party. As he was anout gay man,[14] his support of thesocial conservative Buchanan attracted considerable attention.[15] The idea he "wants to round us all up and send us to concentration camps is just a bunch of crap. It's a lie and a smear. He welcomes gay workers in his campaign. He does not think that homosexuality is all that great a thing. But I don't need his approval. Why does any gay person need anyone's benediction?"[16]
In 1994, Raimondo was the San Francisco coordinator for the "Save our State"Proposition 187, which would have barred taxpayer funding of non-emergency services toillegal aliens in California.[17] The measure was passed by California voters, but was later stayed by a federal court.[citation needed]
Raimondo andEric Garris launchedAntiwar.com in 1995.[18] In 1999, during theClinton administration's military intervention in theKosovo war, the site became a full-time effort, providing a platform for the pair's opposition to foreign intervention. Raimondo was a vocal critic of theinvasion of Iraq in 2003 and theongoing occupation.
In the2004 presidential election, he wrote approvingly of candidateRalph Nader in an article published inThe American Conservative. "Nader’s distrust of bigness, either corporate or governmental, his fear of centralized power, his sharp critique of the managerial-bureaucratic mentality, all recall the distinctively American tradition of individualist populism", he wrote.[19]
Raimondo wrote positively aboutRon Paul's 2008 presidential campaign, but expressed support forDennis Kucinich.[20] UnlikeRon Paul and his son,Rand, however, Raimondo supported abortion: "The libertarian position is unequivocal: the mother has the absolute right to abortion, period."[21] He was critical ofBarack Obama's Cabinet choices as President[22] along with the President himself. However, when Obama nominated former Nebraska U.S. SenatorChuck Hagel forU.S. Secretary of Defense to succeedLeon Panetta, Raimondo came out in support for Hagel.
In2016, he voted forDonald Trump on the basis of his foreign policy.[23]
Raimondo argued in a 2003 Antiwar.com column that Israel exerts a dominant force in the formulation of American foreign policy.[24] Raimondo also believed that the United States was led intoWorld War II through lies by PresidentFranklin D. Roosevelt and that the U.S. deliberately provoked a war with Japan through economic sanctions.[25] Raimondo's views were compared byChristopher Hitchens to those ofCharles Lindbergh,[26] whom Raimondo once described as an "American hero sprung from the heartland."[27] Raimondo also wrote that Israeli intelligence operating in the U.S. had advance knowledge of theSeptember 11, 2001 attacks.[28]
Raimondo believed that the government should refrain from adopting laws that would prohibit discrimination against homosexuals. "I think gays should have the right to discriminate against straight people if they want", he said in 2003.[14] He also opposed the legal recognition ofsame-sex marriage and instead favoredmarriage privatization.[29] Raimondo debated the issue of same-sex marriage with journalistJonathan Rauch, who supports it.[30] He also argued that after years of persecution by the state,LGBT rights activists sought to "use the battering ram of government power" to actively intervene on behalf of homosexuals.[31]
Though raised a Catholic, Raimondo described himself as "not a believer."[32] Raimondo further described his early interactions with theCatholic Church and a localJesuitseminary in Yorktown Heights as being influential in his development, despite rejecting the notion of God.[5] He described being "taken with their engagement with ideas" and discussions of philosophy, which he was lacking in traditional schools or from classmates at the time.[5]
Raimondo died of stage IV lung cancer on June 27, 2019, inSebastopol, California.[33] He was survived by his husband, Yoshinori Abe, and two sisters.[8]
Articles
In addition to his thrice-weekly column for Antiwar.com, Raimondo was a regular contributor toThe American Conservative andChronicles magazine. He formerly wrote twice-monthly columns forTaki's Top Drawer, but ceased in 2009.
Books
Book contributions
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