RP: I think I feel more like a Republican than they should. They’re not conservatives, they’re neoconservatives, and neoconservatives are big-government people. Why they get called conservatives or Republicans is beyond me. Some people feel loyal to the party, and people hate to break with this loyalty. But when I talk to people and they say, “You can be against the war and still be conservative?” I say, “Certainly.” The conservative position is to not start wars and to obey the Constitution. Ronald Reagan not too long ago ran against the Department of Education and the Department of Energy, and he did quite well, and there’s this whole idea that all of a sudden that I’m strange to the Republican Party? . . .

USN: Where should decisions about legalizing abortion lie?

RP:If you don’t protect life, you can’t protect liberty. And we now are at a stage where we allow the national government through the Supreme Court to permit the killing of an unborn baby anytime before birth. How do you protect somebody’s right to go out and drink alcohol and smoke marijuana if you can’t even protect life? As a physician, it’s a legal entity. I could be sued if I hurt a fetus. I’ve been strongly pro-life, but I don’t support nationalization of any of these problems. I voted against the marriage amendment. I want this to be held under our traditional form of republican government and let the states deal with it. . . .

USN: Do you need to court conservative evangelicals?

RP:I think so. I have to talk about the Christian just-war theory. We’re not supposed to start wars. I talk about civil liberties, and they say, “That lets people do bad things.” I say, “Yes, but these are the same liberties that allow you to pray in school, that allow you to have your home-schoolers, to have your own churches.”