I liked Ron Paul. I didn’t always agree with him, but he had principles that he stood by and fought for. He was one of the few people in DC fighting the Bush forever-war surveillance-state in the years after 9/11.

I lost all hope for the Republican party when I saw the crowd at the Republican primary debate in 08 (iirc) boo him for saying that the Golden Rule (do unto others as you would have others do unto you) should apply to international relations.

He was ultimately a Don Quixote figure. Nobody wants a libertarian state. The right wants authoritarianism, the Dems want crony capitalism, the progressives want socialism or social democracy. He was shouting into the wind about freedom and privacy, the public shrugged, and the two parties established a surveillance state and dragged us into a twenty year quagmire.