For the last several years, Ron Paul has regularly won the straw polls at conservative events like CPAC and the Values Voter Summit but Religious Right organizers and activists have always been quick to dismiss these wins as flukes and assert that Paul does not actually represent the views of the movement.

Now that Paul’s presidential campaign appears to be picking up steam, Religious Right activists are no longer simply dismissing Paul but are actively attacking him, with people like Bryan Fischer saying Paul is a renegade who should not be allowed to participate in GOP debates and Matt Barber writing columns about how “Ron Paul is dangerous.”

But it is a sign that the Religious Right is really getting worried about Paul and his campaign when they start spinning elaborate conspiracy theories about how Paul and his supporters are really Democrats who are out to take over the Republican Party, as Gordon Klingenschmitt did while appearing on City On A Hill Radio yesterday:

[wpaudio url=”https://prayinjesusname.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/Gordon_20Klingenschmitt_20Ron_20Paul_20RINO_2012-29-11.mp3″ text=”Klingenschmitt on Ron Paul – ‘He’s a RINO'” dl=”0″]

“Ron Paul is to the left of President Obama on social issues: he wants to legalize marijuana, he wants to support homosexualizing the military and repeal DOMA, the Defense of Marriage Act, he is all about homosexual marriage. This is a man who claims to be a Republican but he’s a RINO, he’s a Republican In Name Only, because Ron Paul is openly a libertarian. He’s not part of the Republican Party, he’s wrong on all the issues that we care about as the church. So, because he’s so far left of even President Obama, he’s gathering support from Democrats.

In Iowa, the only reason Ron Paul is polling so high is because he’s getting crossover votes from the left-wing.  And there are people who are trying to sabotage the Republican primary, they want to elect a Democrat, at least in his social conservative policies, Ron Paul is a Democrat, or is a libertarian.  He’s anti-church, anti-Christian, anti-Israel, pro-homosexual, pro-marijuana, everything that we don’t believe in, the Democrats do believe in; everything that Ron Paul believes in, the Democrats do believe in.

I think that’s why they’re lining up and they’re trying to make it appear as if in the Republican caucuses in Iowa and in the different places around the country, that Ron Paul actually has some Republican support.  I think he doesn’t. Ron Paul does not have any Republican support. Everyone who is a Ron Paul supporter is not a Republican, they are either a Democrat or a libertarian trying to take over the Republican Party.”

This article originally appeared on Rightwing Watch – view here.