I thought this Venn diagram was very useful in trying to come to grips with why some of the things Ron Paul says sound like good ideas to one group while sounding batshit crazy to another. It’s somewhat difficult to comprehend that he can have positions that overlap with three mostly-disparate views of politics when there’s almost no overlaps between the groups themselves. But this diagram really highlights that quite well.
This diagram comes from this Mother Jones article that was posted right after the Iowa caucus results were announced. When you place this in the context of Iowa, his decent third-place finish there makes almost no sense whatsoever, but completely explains how he ran so strong in New Hampshire, where holding polar opposite positions simultaneously is part of the program. Ultimately, it also makes a couple of other things clear, namely, exactly why he has no chance of making any traction toward the Republican nomination, and just how far apart the left is from both the Republicans AND the Democrats, who share that right-hand oval.
The other infographics in the Mother Jones article are also worth looking at; they try to explain the various flavors of libertarians and their demographics (white, male, nerd, you know the type).
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