Yup, this was not a wise choice.
Nothing good will come from having nominated a Paul. If the party is going to nominate a libertarian leading candidate it had better be A) NOT a Paul, and B) an extremely good politician who can defend what is not a traditional American point of view. This is not a libertarian nation. Not even remotely close. A person with Rand’s views had better be able to handle himself and make a convincing case for his positions.
A guy like Rand will obviously infuriate the left, but he also runs the danger of pissing off the right with his libertarian foreign policy ideas. Conservatives do not want to elect Republicans who are allied with anti-war organizations. If that is what the GOP becomes it will very quickly apart.
If you look at the new Maine GOP Platform, you’ll see a lot of Ron Paul influences there. no “one world government” “end the fed” “austrian economics”. But the same platform has interventionisme in the middle east. You put 10 people in the room, 3 tea partiers who aren’t big Ron Paul supporters, 3 Ron Paul supporters, and 4 establishment / RINO types, and that’s likely the result you get. The Ron Paul people are able to provide a bunch of libertarian economic detail that the other tea party people agree with. The 4 establishment / RINOs would likely affiliate with the tea party on foreign policy and many social issues. “Legalize it” did not appear in the Maine GOP Platform.
People here who read the Maine GOP Platform, or read about it, were pretty happy with it.