Rand Paul and Berkeley: libertarian and leftwing hotbed find common cause
Ronald Reagan famously described the University of California at Berkeley as "a haven for communist sympathisers". Another rightwing politician – who styles himself as Reagan's intellectual successor – will stand at a lectern this week at the Bay Area campus to decry the excesses of government surveillance.
Rand Paul, 51-year-old senator and standard bearer of the right, can expect an enthusiastic reception from his young leftwing audience on Wednesday.
The rise of Paul and his libertarian brand of politics, one of the few intellectual movements with appeal across the spectrum, is turning old political assumptions on their head. Paul, the son of libertarian guru and former congressman Ron Paul, was the star of last week's Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) – an annual litmus test for the Republican base. For the second year running, Paul won the straw poll of likely Republican 2016 presidential contenders, trouncing fellow senators Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz as well as scandal-hit New Jersey governor Chris Christie.
For decades, libertarianism has hovered on the fringe of the Republican party, associated with Ayn Rand novels, anarchists and tax refuseniks. Now it is suddenly a political force to be reckoned with, disrupting the political establishment by sparking unusual alliances between Republicans and Democrats.
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/mar/15/rand-paul-berkeley-libertarian-leftwing-alliance
= new reply since forum marked as read
But lately he just seems to be your average right-wing crackpot 
And the Democratic Party would feel no pressure to support anything but weak center-right policies if he were the nominee.