Why would any progressive promote Ron Paul's worldview?

[_ed_]

57. I don't understand

Criticisms of Ron Paul all center around the fact that he has disgusting views on race, gender, and sexual orientation, and would try to dismantle many important gov't agencies. The argument supposedly goes that a liberal could never support Paul because of this.

But how can this same liberal support Obama, who has doubled down on the Bush tax cuts, escalated Afghanistan, claims the power to assassinate Americans (and has done so, including teens), etc.

If you're making a purity argument against Paul, wouldn't that same argument apply to Obama?

Just take gay rights, which are very important to me. Paul is clearly a bigot, but views gay rights through a libertarian lens. Obama is on the record saying that marriage is between a man and a woman "because god is in the mix."

If you care about gay rights and gay people, you shouldn't vote for either, right?

The whole point about Paul is that he's excellent on about 5 issues that he could actually have power over as President. On those same issues, Obama is just the same as the Republicans. That's the point: that Obama is so bad on war, civil liberties, drug policy, and gay rights that liberals are actually considering a libertarian crackpot.