Rob Paul is for smaller government, the way Goldwater was. The neoconservatives who’ve taken over the GOP - and their moutpice, Fox News - don’t like that, so he has to be marginalized by ridicule.
I’m certainly no neocon, although I do support the GWOT. And I am a big fan of smaller government.
Ron Paul may be a Goldwater conservative, but he is dead wrong on Iraq, ridicule not withstanding.