# Who were the last "truly liberal" and "truly conservative" Presidents? **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [May 14, 2016, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-were-the-last-truly-liberal-and-truly-conservative-presidents/754733 "2016-05-14T00:29:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2016, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-were-the-last-truly-liberal-and-truly-conservative-presidents/754733/1 "2016-05-14T00:29:15Z")
The last “truly liberal” President might have been Carter, but I’m not sure who the last “true conservative” POTUS was. Reagan is often hailed by the political right, but many of his policies were pretty moderate, even liberal by today’s Republican standards. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2016, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-were-the-last-truly-liberal-and-truly-conservative-presidents/754733/2 "2016-05-14T00:47:44Z")
I’d name Lyndon Johnson as the last truly liberal President. “Truly conservative” is difficult because I feel the term took a significant change of direction in the last generation. Conservatism used to be about fighting communist countries, having a balanced budget, and setting moral standards at the local level. Fighting communism has mostly become a dead issue. And you have conservatives calling for tax cuts and amendments to ban gay marriages. So somebody like Barry Goldwater would be denounced as a liberal in today’s political arena. ---
**Author:** ![WillFarnaby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/willfarnaby/32/514_2.png) [@WillFarnaby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WillFarnaby)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2016, 12:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-were-the-last-truly-liberal-and-truly-conservative-presidents/754733/3 "2016-05-14T00:51:57Z")
Coolidge was the last conservative and Cleveland was the last liberal. Both good presidents. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Ace](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/6bbea6/32.png) [@Johnny\_Ace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Ace)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2016, 1:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-were-the-last-truly-liberal-and-truly-conservative-presidents/754733/4 "2016-05-14T01:17:29Z")
For a conservative, Coolidge was certainly very liberal in terms of immigration and equality. While that could be attributable to a strict construction of the Preamble, he really went above and beyond in supporting it. ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2016, 1:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-were-the-last-truly-liberal-and-truly-conservative-presidents/754733/5 "2016-05-14T01:22:31Z")
I’m going to say none. A President has to cut deals all the time (look at what Obama had to do to get ACA passed), which tends to impurify both liberals and conservatives. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Ace](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/6bbea6/32.png) [@Johnny\_Ace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Ace)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2016, 1:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-were-the-last-truly-liberal-and-truly-conservative-presidents/754733/6 "2016-05-14T01:25:24Z")
Er sorry, the Declaration of Independence, not the Preamble. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2016, 2:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-were-the-last-truly-liberal-and-truly-conservative-presidents/754733/7 "2016-05-14T02:03:57Z")
> [@Johnny\_Ace](#): > > For a conservative, Coolidge was certainly very liberal in terms of immigration and equality. Is this a weird whoosh? Coolidge signed the [Immigration Act of 1924](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immigration_Act_of_1924). That essentially shut down immigration of “undesirables,” i.e. eastern and southern Europeans, Africans, Asians, and Arabs - really any group that wasn’t a Hitler-approved Aryan. It is one of the major horrors in U.S. history. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2016, 2:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-were-the-last-truly-liberal-and-truly-conservative-presidents/754733/8 "2016-05-14T02:26:19Z")
> [@WillFarnaby](#): > > Coolidge was the last conservative and Cleveland was the last liberal. N.B.: For purposes of this discussion, “liberal” != “libertarian.” ---
**Author:** ![asahi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asahi/32/8693_2.png) [@asahi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asahi)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2016, 2:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-were-the-last-truly-liberal-and-truly-conservative-presidents/754733/9 "2016-05-14T02:41:38Z")
If you’re talking about “liberal” by today’s standards, I’d say Obama’s pretty doggone liberal, which isn’t a problem with me. LBJ and FDR were economic progressives but foreign policy hawks. Barry O is an economic and a national security progressive. He was unfortunately not able to implement what he envisioned. Jimmy Carter was similar in this regard, though Barry was able to achieve his most important objectives within his first 20 months of office, which saved him. ---
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2016, 2:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-were-the-last-truly-liberal-and-truly-conservative-presidents/754733/10 "2016-05-14T02:44:27Z")
> [@asahi](#): > > If you’re talking about “liberal” by today’s standards, I’d say Obama’s pretty doggone liberal, which isn’t a problem with me. LBJ and FDR were economic progressives but foreign policy hawks. Barry O is an economic and a national security progressive. He was unfortunately not able to implement what he envisioned. Jimmy Carter was similar in this regard, though Barry was able to achieve his most important objectives within his first 20 months of office, which saved him. True liberal? Obama has been pretty hawkish, has overseen very large defense budgets, has said very hawkish things in regards to NATO, Just War Theory, has overseen plenty of drone strikes, sold large quantities of arms to US allies, was POTUS when Operations Odyssey Dawn, Operation Neptune Spear, Operation Inherent Resolve were enacted, etc. ---
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2016, 2:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-were-the-last-truly-liberal-and-truly-conservative-presidents/754733/11 "2016-05-14T02:45:55Z")
“FDR was a foreign policy hawk” So you think wanting to fight Nazis was a right-wing policy? ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2016, 2:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-were-the-last-truly-liberal-and-truly-conservative-presidents/754733/12 "2016-05-14T02:47:00Z")
> [@Johnny\_Ace](#): > > Er sorry, the Declaration of Independence, not the Preamble. The Declaration gave our reasons for quitting the British Empire. How exactly did Coolidge, or any other post-revolution President, go above and beyond in supporting that? I think all of our Presidents have been unanimous in not giving the country back to Britain. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2016, 2:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-were-the-last-truly-liberal-and-truly-conservative-presidents/754733/13 "2016-05-14T02:51:41Z")
> [@Ukulele\_Ike](#): > > “FDR was a foreign policy hawk” > > So you think wanting to fight Nazis was a right-wing policy? Perhaps Velocity was talking about Roosevelt’s Asian policy. Some people have argued that Nazi Germany was a serious threat to America while Japan was not. So they feel Roosevelt was wrong to spend so much resources on opposing Japan rather than essentially ignoring Japan and focusing on opposing Germany. If Hitler hadn’t cooperated by declaring war against the United States in 1941, we might have ended up getting diverted into a war against Japan while Germany overran Europe. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Ace](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/6bbea6/32.png) [@Johnny\_Ace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Ace)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2016, 2:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-were-the-last-truly-liberal-and-truly-conservative-presidents/754733/14 "2016-05-14T02:57:56Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > Is this a weird whoosh? Coolidge signed the [Immigration Act of 1924](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immigration_Act_of_1924). That essentially shut down immigration of “undesirables,” i.e. eastern and southern Europeans, Africans, Asians, and Arabs - really any group that wasn’t a Hitler-approved Aryan. It is one of the major horrors in U.S. history. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calvin\_Coolidge#Civil\_rights](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calvin_Coolidge#Civil_rights) ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Ace](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/6bbea6/32.png) [@Johnny\_Ace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Ace)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2016, 3:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-were-the-last-truly-liberal-and-truly-conservative-presidents/754733/15 "2016-05-14T03:00:52Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > The Declaration gave our reasons for quitting the British Empire. How exactly did Coolidge, or any other post-revolution President, go above and beyond in supporting that? I think all of our Presidents have been unanimous in not giving the country back to Britain. [QUOTE=The Declaration of Independence] We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. [/QUOTE] (See previous link ^) ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2016, 3:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-were-the-last-truly-liberal-and-truly-conservative-presidents/754733/16 "2016-05-14T03:12:24Z")
> [@Johnny\_Ace](#): > > [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calvin\_Coolidge#Civil\_rights](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calvin_Coolidge#Civil_rights) That section of the article doesn’t contain the word “immigration.” But this one does. > [@](#): > > Coolidge addressed Congress when it reconvened on December 6, 1923, giving a speech that supported many of Harding’s policies, including Harding’s formal budgeting process, the enforcement of immigration restrictions and arbitration of coal strikes ongoing in Pennsylvania.[93] … Coolidge signed the Immigration Act later that year [1924], which was aimed at restricting southern and eastern European immigration, but appended a signing statement expressing his unhappiness with the bill’s specific exclusion of Japanese immigrants.[96] ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2016, 3:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-were-the-last-truly-liberal-and-truly-conservative-presidents/754733/17 "2016-05-14T03:27:01Z")
I lived through the Carter and Reagan administrations. Carter was a true liberal, and Reagan was a true conservative. Some say Reagan might have merely been posturing, and his actions did not reflect his beliefs, but I don’t think it mattered. He was the one who brought right-wing Christian morality into the Republican party. If that somehow defines him out of conservatism for you, we have nothing to discuss. As far as I’m concerned, Reagan invented the conservatism that we have today. Reagan brought back “Looking out for number one.” After 15 years of Americans interested in social activism, Reagan brought back an American where people asked what their country could do for them. That is conservatism to me. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Ace](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/6bbea6/32.png) [@Johnny\_Ace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Ace)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2016, 3:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-were-the-last-truly-liberal-and-truly-conservative-presidents/754733/18 "2016-05-14T03:58:04Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > That section of the article doesn’t contain the word “immigration.” > > But this one does. Try ‘immigrants.’ ---
**Author:** ![Measure\_for\_Measure](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/measure_for_measure/32/557_2.png) [@Measure\_for\_Measure](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Measure_for_Measure)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2016, 6:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-were-the-last-truly-liberal-and-truly-conservative-presidents/754733/19 "2016-05-14T06:34:50Z")
George W Bush was the last truly conservative President. We know this because conservatives of the day had a hardon for the guy. His approval ratings among Republicans were sky-high, even after Katrina hit in late August 2005 - [85-86 percent](http://www.gallup.com/poll/116500/Presidential-Approval-Ratings-George-Bush.aspx). That’s insanely high, coming off of an example of clownish mismanagement. Lying us into the Iraq War, false claims about budget busting tax cuts, looking the other way while the financial industry packaged liar loans into securities and took them off the official books so as to escape FDIC notice - all of these are the sorts of policies that conservatives cheered on. George W Bush earns the mantle of true conservatism. Obama is our latest liberal President. A strong leader, he did what GWBush was afraid to: Obama restarted the hunt for Osama Bin Laden, captured him and killed him. Healthcare reform, which had defeated Presidents of both parties including Teddy Roosevelt, Richard Nixon and of course Bill Clinton, was delivered by Obama in the face of record obstructionism by the opposition. A fan of science, technology and human progress Obama led the way with smart regulation of our electrical and natural gas sectors, taking crucial steps to curb global warming, again in the face of opposition and know-nothingism by the opposing party. It’s a great time to be a conservative in America. Because they are surrounded by moral heroes. ---
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2016, 6:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-were-the-last-truly-liberal-and-truly-conservative-presidents/754733/20 "2016-05-14T06:47:14Z")
> [@Measure\_for\_Measure](#): > > George W Bush was the last truly conservative President. We know this because conservatives of the day had a hardon for the guy. His approval ratings among Republicans were sky-high, even after Katrina hit in late August 2005 - [85-86 percent](http://www.gallup.com/poll/116500/Presidential-Approval-Ratings-George-Bush.aspx). That’s insanely high, coming off of an example of clownish mismanagement. > > Lying us into the Iraq War, false claims about budget busting tax cuts, looking the other way while the financial industry packaged liar loans into securities and took them off the official books so as to escape FDIC notice - all of these are the sorts of policies that conservatives cheered on. George W Bush earns the mantle of true conservatism. > > Obama is our latest liberal President. A strong leader, he did what GWBush was afraid to: Obama restarted the hunt for Osama Bin Laden, captured him and killed him. Healthcare reform, which had defeated Presidents of both parties including Teddy Roosevelt, Richard Nixon and of course Bill Clinton, was delivered by Obama in the face of record obstructionism by the opposition. A fan of science, technology and human progress Obama led the way with smart regulation of our electrical and natural gas sectors, taking crucial steps to curb global warming, again in the face of opposition and know-nothingism by the opposing party. > > It’s a great time to be a conservative in America. Because they are surrounded by moral heroes. Serious responses please. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-were-the-last-truly-liberal-and-truly-conservative-presidents/754733.md?page=2)