# Which Republicans of the past would be in the party today? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [March 15, 2010, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-republicans-of-the-past-would-be-in-the-party-today/532547 "2010-03-15T15:40:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Great\_Dave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/46a35a/32.png) [@Great\_Dave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Great_Dave)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2010, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-republicans-of-the-past-would-be-in-the-party-today/532547/1 "2010-03-15T15:40:50Z")
Teddy Roosevelt- Introduced many regulations on industry and took on corporate trusts. Set aside wilderness for protection. Probably not a current GOP. Dwight Eisenhower- High high tax rates, huge infrastructure spending, internationalist foreign policy. Maybe still GOP. Richard Nixon- Price controls, many new environmental regulations, diplomacy with Red China. Probably not a current Republican. Abraham Lincoln- fought a war to demonstrate power of federal government to supercede states’ rights. Probably not in the party today. ---
**Author:** ![DanBlather](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f4b2a3/32.png) [@DanBlather](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DanBlather)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2010, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-republicans-of-the-past-would-be-in-the-party-today/532547/2 "2010-03-15T15:53:13Z")
None of them. ETA: Nixon probably, because he came up with the idea of making the GOP the party of angry white men, but no one before him. Eisenhower is probably sinning (etaeta: that is too good a typo to fix) in his grave like a top in response to putting service people in harms way on a fool’s errand and the spending so much money on the military industrial complex. ---
**Author:** ![Dick\_Dastardly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c4cdca/32.png) [@Dick\_Dastardly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dick_Dastardly)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2010, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-republicans-of-the-past-would-be-in-the-party-today/532547/3 "2010-03-15T16:02:09Z")
Ronald Reagan. Raised taxes. Grew the federal government. Granted amnesty to millions of illegal immigrants. Ran away from Muslim terrorist attacks in the Middle East. Ordered the US Marines to turn tail and flee from the Islamic terrorists. Condemned Israel for bombing the Iraqi nuclear reactor. Two of his SC nominees voted to uphold Roe vs. Wade. Made a deal to ensure the future of Social Security. Negotiated to give away US military power with people he’d called the Evil Empire. ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2010, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-republicans-of-the-past-would-be-in-the-party-today/532547/4 "2010-03-15T16:03:19Z")
I dunno- maybe JFK would be a Republican today. After all, he ran on a platform of tax cuts and building up our military (which, he claimed, that old peacenik softie Ike had neglected). ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2010, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-republicans-of-the-past-would-be-in-the-party-today/532547/5 "2010-03-15T16:04:44Z")
Perhaps Harding, Coolidge and Hoover would fit into today’s GOP well enough. ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2010, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-republicans-of-the-past-would-be-in-the-party-today/532547/6 "2010-03-15T16:05:47Z")
Come to think of it, Al Gore, Ted Kennedy and Jesse Jackson were right-to-lifers in 1970. If they’d stepped into a time machine then and come out in 2010, how welcome would they be in the Democratic Party? ---
**Author:** ![Simplicio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c37758/32.png) [@Simplicio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simplicio)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2010, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-republicans-of-the-past-would-be-in-the-party-today/532547/7 "2010-03-15T17:12:44Z")
> [@astorian](#): > > Come to think of it, Al Gore, Ted Kennedy and Jesse Jackson were right-to-lifers in 1970. If they’d stepped into a time machine then and come out in 2010, how welcome would they be in the Democratic Party? The current Senate Majority leader is pro-life, so presumably they’d do all right. ---
**Author:** ![puddleglum](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puddleglum/32/137_2.png) [@puddleglum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puddleglum)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2010, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-republicans-of-the-past-would-be-in-the-party-today/532547/8 "2010-03-15T19:54:37Z")
TR-Economic liberal, social conservative, very pro-military- hard to see him comfortable in either party. Taft- Anti-trust, but free trade, pro-income tax, invaded a couple of Latin American countries, believed in originalism in judiciary- Moderate Republican Harding and Coolidge- Small government conservatives-Definetly Republicans Hoover- Pro-Tariff, free-spender, big believer in foreign aid- Democrat Eisenhower- Fiscal conservative, lifelong military member- Republican Nixon- Wage and Price controls, EPA, negotiated end to Vietnam War- Democrat Ford-Mentor of Rumsfeld and Cheney- Republican ---
**Author:** ![SteveG1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bb73d2/32.png) [@SteveG1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SteveG1)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2010, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-republicans-of-the-past-would-be-in-the-party-today/532547/9 "2010-03-15T20:01:06Z")
You may as well include Barry Goldwater as an “ex Republican”. He had “issues” with the Moral Majority types. > [@](#): > > “I am a conservative Republican, but I believe in democracy and the separation of church and state. The conservative movement is founded on the simple tenet that people have the right to live life as they please as long as they don’t hurt anyone else in the process.” > (in a 1994 Washington Post essay) > > “I don’t have any respect for the Religious Right.” > > “A woman has a right to an abortion.” > > "There is no position on which people are so immovable as their religious beliefs. There is no more powerful ally one can claim in a debate than Jesus Christ, or God, or Allah, or whatever one calls this supreme being. But like any powerful weapon, the use of God’s name on one’s behalf should be used sparingly. The religious factions that are growing throughout our land are not using their religious clout with wisdom. They are trying to force government leaders into following their position 100 percent. If you disagree with these religious groups on a particular moral issue, they complain, they threaten you with a loss of money or votes or both. I’m frankly sick and tired of the political preachers across this country telling me as a citizen that if I want to be a moral person, I must believe in ‘A,’ ‘B,’ ‘C,’ and ‘D.’ Just who do they think they are? And from where do they presume to claim the right to dictate their moral beliefs to me? And I am even more angry as a legislator who must endure the threats of every religious group who thinks it has some God-granted right to control my vote on every roll call in the Senate. I am warning them today: I will fight them every step of the way if they try to dictate their moral convictions to all Americans in the name of ‘conservatism.’ " (1909-1998) US Senator (R-Arizona) Source: Congressional Record, September 16, 1981 > > “Every good Christian should line up and kick Jerry Falwell’s ass.” Yes, I think Barry Goldwater would not be a Republican today.