Oddly enough, the NPR article seems to have it partially correct.
Personally, I supported Ron Paul enthusiastically in 2008 and less so in 2012. But by 2015, times have changed.
Constitutionalism is a lost cause today. We’ve endured almost seven miserable years of domination by a vile president and a Democratic Party who have undermined our constitution at every step to undermine our society along every front. Supposed conservatives have won election after election, but the few who have tried to work within and uphold the constitution have failed miserably from enemies both inside and outside of the party.
How can one side who plays by the rules defeat the other side who constantly cheats, especially when the referees and even some of the first team’s members are working on the side of the cheaters?
There is only one way to defeat such people: by sheer, brute force.
And Rand Paul’s message of libertarianism not only won’t cut it, it would seem to reinforce the social disasters of homosexual marriage and legalized drugs and even worse forms of degeneracy that are plaguing us today.
via Free Republic via NPR:
Four years ago, libertarians were an important force in the Republican presidential race. In the campaign for the 2012 nomination, Ron Paul was routinely drawing big crowds on college campuses.
He made a strong third-place showing in Iowa’s important first-in-the-nation caucuses. Even though he failed to win the 2012 nomination, his supporters continued to organize, drawing attention to their small-government beliefs and taking over control of much of the Republican Party of Iowa for a time.
Many observers thought so-called “liberty movement” candidates might have an edge in 2016. But for Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, the heir apparent to the liberty movement in Iowa, that hasn’t panned out.
[. . .]
In a campaign year that has seen so much outsider success, Strawn, the GOP strategist and former Iowa party chair, says it’s surprising the Paul brand hasn’t had more resonance. He calls Ron Paul, who was known for pushing back against the party establishment, the “original outsider.”
“I called it in 2012, as I would encounter some of these individuals around the state, that it was really the ‘rage against the machine vote,’ ” Strawn said. “They were just angry; didn’t want anything to do with the political class, the political establishment — they wanted to burn it down and figure out how to build it up later. Now you have some other candidates that are talking like that on the Republican side.”
Four years later, there are even more Republican voters who want to burn the system down. And unfortunately for Rand Paul, there are lots of bigger personalities with more fiery messages promising to do just that.
FINES ET INITIA Headlines 
rogerunited
/ 3 December 2015‘There is only one way to defeat such people: by sheer, brute force.’
The only reason anybody believes Trump might actually get his anti-immigration agenda through is because he presents as somebody willing to force his will on congress instead of talking about bipartisanship and ‘reaching across the aisle’, etc.
‘And unfortunately for Rand Paul, there are lots of bigger personalities with more fiery messages promising to do just that.’
Well, that, and caving on his core values, walking back any bold statement he has actually made and generally playing the political game.
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