The risk for Ron is going to far in the other extreme toward irrational dogmatism. So far Ron seems to have done relatively OK on that score, though no doubt his critics would disagree.
I'm not sure one could accuse a libertarian of "irrational dogmatism". Libertarianism is a political philosophy. Nothing irrational about it, and while it has it's tenants, dogma is non-existent precisely because it can be interpreted in various ways (see libertarian arguments over abortion, for example, or intellectual property).
By contrast, "democrat" and "republican" are political parties and have no inherent political philosophies attached. They change from era to era....sometimes with the wind. It is assumed that republicans are war-hawks, socially & fiscally conservative, no fun to be around, just as it is assumed that democrats are peace-loving, socially & fiscally liberal, progressive & happy. But we all know that isn't really true.
Bush spent more money & grew the federal gov FAR more than Clinton...who, in turn, ramped up the war on drugs, established "don't ask, don't tell", and bombed the shit out of Kosovo in the same unilateral fashion as Bush entered Iraq. Lincoln, who ended slavery, was a republican. Vietnam, it has been noted, was a democrat war (with Nixon, a republican, pulling us out). It is a republican congress who allow our current democrat prez to spend us into oblivion...and then raise the debt ceiling so that it doesn't look so bad.
"They" can accuse Ron Paul of anything they like. But in the end, it is simply irrational to believe that spending FAR more than you have is acceptable policy; that printing more money is a way to maintain a stable currency & a stable economic environment; that meddling in the internal affairs of other countries is a good way to spread the idea of freedom & increase national security; that fences and armed guards are a rational way to address the actual issues of why people come to the US thru illegal channels; that we should spend trillions abroad "nation building" while the US falls apart physically (infrastructure), economically (the market and the monetary system), and culturally (for example, we've locked up generations of mostly young men in a senseless war on drugs - a war that costs more annually to fight than the industry annually generates); and more.
