Ron Paul Not a Real Republican, Says Conservative Activist

Rick Perry isn’t the only person getting aggressive with Ron Paul.

Prominent conservative Gary Bauer has also come out swinging against that iconoclastic Texas congressman, charging that Paul isn't a true Republican, at least not in the mold of GOP icon and standard-bearer Ronald Reagan.

Bauer, who once led the Family Research Council and made a run for president himself, told reporters: “I'm not a card-carrying member of the Ron Paul Fan Club. While I admire his devotion to the idea of limited government, his views on many issues are out of step with the Republican Party. So much so that Paul once left the GOP and ran for president on the Libertarian Party ticket.

Bauer is now affiliated with Our American Values and the Campaign for Working Families PAC.

“Yet his supporters routinely claim that he is the only true Reagan conservative in the race,” added Bauer. “In fact, Paul even has a new ad out touting his support for Ronald Reagan. Thanks to the Perry campaign, we have been reminded of how Ron Paul really felt about Ronald Reagan.”

Indeed, in 1987 Paul temporarily resigned from the Republican Party.

According to FactCheck.org, Paul repudiated Reagan and his policies that year, in preparation for a presidential campaign under the Libertarian Party banner in 1988.

In a resignation letter to the chairman of the Republican National Committee, Paul wrote that Reagan and the Republican Party have given us skyrocketing deficits, massive monetary inflation, indiscriminate military spending, irrational and unconstitutional foreign policy, zooming foreign aid, the exaltation of international banking and the attack on our personal liberties and privacies.

In a recent video, entitled Trust, Paul boasts that he was one of only four Congressmen who supported Reagan for president in 1976 against Republican incumbent Gerald Ford (who won the nomination, but lost to Democrat Jimmy Carter).

Paul used the video to attack Perry, who endorsed Al Gore in 1988 (when Perry was himself a Democrat).

Now, the video says, America must decide who to trust. Al Gore's Texas cheerleader or the one who stood with Reagan.

However, in September 1987, Paul told the Christian Science Monitor: ''A lot of people think we're doing great [economically], but it's all on borrowed money. Ronald Reagan has given us a deficit 10 times greater than what we had with the Democrats. It didn't take me more than a month after 1981 to realize there would be no changes.''

The following year, he told the Los Angeles Times: I want to totally disassociate myself from the Reagan Administration.

Bauer is outraged by Paul’s sudden re-embrace of Reagan now.

“As Ronald Reagan stared down the Soviet Union, rebuilt our military and fought a hostile Congress, Ron Paul ran for the exits,” said Bauer.

“What exactly was Paul referring to when he wrote about Reagan's ‘irrational and unconstitutional foreign policy’? Did he mean rescuing American medical students held by Cuban commandos in Grenada? Did Paul oppose Reagan's military strikes on Libya after Gadhafi was implicated in the deaths of U.S. soldiers? When it came to the Soviet Union, Reagan's strategy was simple: ‘We win, they lose.’ Was Paul, like Ted Kennedy, an advocate for coexistence with the Soviets? These aren't rhetorical questions.”

Bauer concluded: In condemning Ronald Reagan's 'indiscriminate military spending,' we can see now that his [Paul] teaming up with radical leftist and conservative-hater Barney Frank to slash the defense budget is nothing new. Paul has been trying to slash our defense spending for years. I haven't gone back to check the votes, but I assume that Ron Paul supported Jimmy Carter's efforts to gut our military. Favoring small government is one thing; but providing for the defense of its citizens is the primary obligation of government at every level. It's not clear to me that Paul understands that or the world we live in.”