Uhhhhh...Ronald Reagan was on his way out of office in 1987. In 1988, Ron Paul was running against George H. Bush -- "Mr. New World Order" never having been president would not have harmed this country one iota.
You are right. I was confusing two topics and not paying attention to the year.
Ron Paul left the Republican party over mostly over frustration of Reagan and the republican party’s poor handling of deficit and debt.
But it wasn’t Reagan he was running against in 1988.
From Ron Paul letter leaving the Republican party:
Since 1981, however, I have gradually and steadily grown weary of the Republican Party’s efforts to reduce the size of the federal government. Since then Ronald Reagan and the Republican Party have given us skyrocketing deficits, and astoundingly a doubled national debt. How is it that the party of balanced budgets, with control of the White House and Senate, accumulated red ink greater than all previous administrations put together? Tip O’Neill, although part of the problem, cannot alone be blamed.
...
Under Reagan, the IRS has grown bigger, richer, more powerful, and more arrogant. In the words of the founders of our country, our government has “sent hither swarms” of tax gatherers “to harass our people and eat out their substance.” His officers jailed the innocent George Hansen, with the President refusing to pardon a great American whose only crime was to defend the Constitution. Reagan’s new tax “reform” gives even more power to the IRS. Far from making taxes fairer or simpler, it deceitfully raises more revenue for the government to waste.
...
I want to totally disassociate myself from the policies that have given us unprecedented deficits, massive monetary inflation, indiscriminate military spending, an irrational and unconstitutional foreign policy, zooming foreign aid, the exaltation of international banking, and the attack on our personal liberties and privacy.
...
If Ronald Reagan couldn’t or wouldn’t balance the budget, which Republican leader on the horizon can we possibly expect to do so? There is no credibility left for the Republican Party as a force to reduce the size of government. That is the message of the Reagan years.
http://www.thevolunteer.ca/2011/09/ron-pauls-resignation-letter-from-the-republican-party/