Ron Paul and other right-wingers are manipulating ignorant voters in essentially the same way.
On the one side, there are the Bachmanns and the Santorums who manipulate conservative Christian voters with appeals on "right to life" and '"no right to gay life" issues. On the other, there is Ron Paul, who sucks young voters in with his stance on drug use and military spending -- but who also appeals to religious conservatives on the abortion issue (which is entirely inconsistent with his other positions.)
But all of these politicians are using these other issues in the service of their real bottom line, which is an extreme version of traditional right wing Republican economic values: taking away support from poor people -- especially poor people of color -- and redistributing society's income toward the top 1%; and denying the right of our elected representatives to enact laws protecting the environment that we all share.
What Ron Paul and these other right-wingers have in common is far more than what separates them. A United States following the path advocated by any of them isn't a country any of us would recognize.
= new reply since forum marked as read
That's what conservative think tanks are for. To figure out how to get the 99 percent to swallow a turd between 2 pieces of moldy bread year after year.