What is a "Liberal Republican"

[abluelady]

The pundit on MSNBC was talking about Republicans in three categories: Very Conservative, Moderate and Liberal. I can't imagine what a "liberal" Republican would believe in.

[skooooo]

1. Richard Nixon, imo...

...pushed some fairly liberal agendas. As much as he is hated, he did more for liberal causes than most of the Dem. presidents that came after him.

[madrchsod]

16. if nixon was`t a paranoid and a drunk

he`d been a decent president..."kinda" like bill clinton

[skooooo]

17. maybe better...

...than Clinton! Nixon started the EPA, affirmative action, and more stuff I'm to lazy to think of now...lol. I like CLinton, but he was pretty moderate, imo.

[Warren Stupidity]

21. noooooooo!

Sheesh I hate that theory. Nixon was a right wing batshit fucknut. He was president at the tail end of the liberal new deal era, and since then this country has swung way far to the batshit fucknut right. Consequently some of the programs Nixon supported appear relative moderate or liberal now, but I can assure you that this was just political expedience on his part at the time. Nixon was the worst president ever, until recent events removed him from that spot in history.

[skooooo]

23. still that stuff happened...

...under his watch. :shrug:

[TheUniverse]

43. Regardless of any "liberal" things Nixon accomplished, I will always remember him as...

the butcher of Cambodia.

[Dawggie]

2. Same as "Miltary Intelligence?"

[Cant trust em]

3. moderate republicans exist

liberal republicans do not, conservative democrats however are loud and proud.

[abluelady]

26. That was my thought. eom

[redqueen]

56. Very well said. (nt)

[ReformedChris]

67. Barry Goldwater, might have had many faults but he had MANY liberal/libertarian views...

He supported his daughters choice to have an abortion and was generally disgusted at the religious zealots taking over the republican party. He was a person that truly felt that government was the enemy. The fact that he never wavered in the face of all he was faced with in the 80's made me respect the man, even if I mostly disagreed with him.

[Cant trust em]

68. Oh Barry

What a breath of fresh air he'd be in the republican party right now. I wonder if he'd even be electable.

[BeatleBoot]

4. An Oxymoron

[abluelady]

27. I Think We Have a Winner. eom

[Skittles]

5. a repuke who doesn't support torture

:o

[Faygo Kid]

6. Someone who died long before now.

They don't exist anymore.

Gerald Ford, Howard Baker, and a few others were the last that could even be called "moderate."

[BeatleBoot]

7. "I don't know, but if you hum a few lines..."

:rofl:

I crack myself up.

I really do.


:rofl:

[DJ13]

8. Lincoln Chaffee

Look him up

[Blue_Tires]

10. yeah, i was about to mention his name...

[SharonAnn]

34. I was one, then I realized I wasn't a Republican and became a Democrat.

That's the first step.

These are the three phases:
1. Liberal Republican
2. Moderate Independent
3. Liberal/Moderate Democrat

[abluelady]

42. Thanks for that Response

I guess that was my question. Why not be a Dem if you're going to consider yourself a liberal Republican?

[rpannier]

48. And former Congressman Leach of Iowa probably too

Unfortunately, they both had to go because they were enablers to the bushites.

[Hippo_Tron]

79. Chafee definitely had to go for control of the Seante, Leach I might've actually not minded keeping

There are more seats in the House than the Senate so every individual seat matters a bit less in terms of getting a majority. Leach was a big supporter of banning PAC contributions and that's a huge issue for me.

[Postman]

9. Oxymorons used to try to depict republicans as being something thay are not - diverse

n/t

[BuyingThyme]

11. One who respects the dead?

[UTUSN]

12. A Fascist in tragic poses. n/t

[Cleita]

13. Liberal Republicans want sex , drugs and R&R,

like Arnold, they just don't want to pay for it and they don't want to admit that they might have to share.

[madrchsod]

15. wow you nailed it!

ya i`ve known a few of them since the 60`s

[abluelady]

29. And They Want to do "it" in the closet. eom

[rpannier]

47. Hugh Hefner is a Republican????

[Cleita]

64. No, Hugh Hefner does pay for it and he champions liberal

causes from what I can tell. I haven't read a Playboy in decades but I don't think he's a Republican. His sexism really isn't much different from the sexism we run into here in DU.

[madrchsod]

14. centrist democrats...

liberal republicans in my day would be centrist democrats of today..of course define centrist democrats!

[B2G]

18. There are plenty of them

Socially liberal and financialy conservative. It's not so hard to wrap your mind around. Just like there are conservative democrats.

Not everyone is liberal or conservative on every single issue.

[abluelady]

30. I Would Call Them Moderate as opposed to liberal. eom

[bobbolink]

19. Bill Clinton

[Hekate]

20. An extinct species hounded to death by Neocons and theocrats. It was sad to see them go. nt

[harun]

71. Yep, there was a genocide against them and they are extinct now

[Rockholm]

22. Massachusetts Republicans are quite liberal.

Especially compared to the rest of the country.

[Aristus]

25. Not the one currently running for President...

:eyes:

[Rockholm]

39. Because he is actually a republican from Utah.

He is campaigning not as Massachusetts republican. Look at our former governors who were (r)...Weld, Cellucci and Swift. At a minimum on the litmus scale..all pro-gay and pro-choice. There you have it.
Romney, when he ran for Senate attempted to run to the left of Kennedy.

[RedStateShame]

44. Wasn't William Weld what one may consider a liberal Republican?

I seem to remember he ruffled a few GOP feathers during his time.

[Rockholm]

77. Yes, he is.

He was actually at the wedding of two friends of mine. A GAY wedding. There were actually a number of well know republicans in house. Go figure.

[AlphaCentauri]

24. in Spain is a RW facist (nt)

[baldguy]

28. John McCain

Of course, the people who think that also think Benito Mussolini was too liberal.

[treestar]

31. A "pro-choice" Republican

One not hung up on the social/religious issues - just the economic ones.

[mitchum]

32. They don't wear their jackboots on Casual Fridays

[Dr Fate]

33. A DLC member?

?

[loser_user]

35. A republican in denial?

[NuttyFluffers]

36. you mean i'm not "The Last Unicorn"?

:+ :bounce:

yay, there's other "liberal republicans" out there! "we" even got "our" own category on the news! i wonder if i can already start pushing the idea that "liberal republicans" do not think socialism is all that bad... and then i'll work up to "taxes feel good!"
:evilgrin:

insurrection begins within -- like cancer! :7 yay, i'm not alone! MSNBC gives me legitimacy! i am no longer the cheese that stands alone! :bounce:

[spoony]

37. A mugger who leaves the singles in your wallet.

[Recursion]

38. Well, historically, Nixon and Rockefeller. Conceivably Bloomberg.

Though Nixon came to that wing of the party only after he lost to JFK in 1960. After he and Rockefeller left the scene the wing pretty much dried up, though some put Chafee, Specter, Snowe, the Guvernator, the old Romney, and a few others in a "new liberal republican" class. The only person who conceivably has continuity with the Nixon/Rockefeller line today is Bloomberg, and he has repudiated the GOP in name at least.

As Dennis Miller rightly said before he went batshit insane, "Once upon a time in this country we had two parties and separate from that two political ideologies."

[madinmaryland]

40. An oxy-moran?

:shrug:

[Echo In Light]

41. Akin to a "liberal" who backs rightward corporatists

[Selatius]

45. A "liberal" Repub is somebody like former Senator Lincoln Chafee.

His kind is a dying breed.

[abluelady]

49. What Does Senator Chafee Believe In?

Why does he "hold" on to the title Republican?

[Selatius]

57. I remember he said before he left that perhaps it was best that Dems won in 2006.

This, after he was ousted from his seat. He saw what the Repub leadership had done under Bush, and for him, he wasn't that blind to reality. He's likely one of those old-school Paleocons or Goldwater Republican holdovers as far as I know.

[rpannier]

46. Teddy Roosevelt he was the last liberal Republican to occupy the White House

Since then it's been one lunatic,crazy after another (Ike being somewhat of an exception).

[LWolf]

50. It would be instructive

to read the platform of a current Democratic candidate for POTUS. One of them fits the bill, despite the D next to his name.

[abluelady]

54. What is That Platform?

That is what I'm trying to get at.

[Donk Yore]

51. Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. from 1948

excerpts:

Left and Right, indeed, have become the characteristic political terms of our time. Without specific color or content, they define the polar ends of the political spectrum - a spectrum in which the word Center, fashionable a generation or two ago, is harder and harder to find. Yet the terms themselves have bred a new confusion. They were adequate to the political simplicities of the nineteenth century, when the Right meant those who wished to preserve the existing order and the Left meant those who wished to change it. But the twentieth century, here as elsewhere, introduced new ambiguities.

The Fascists, for example, were not conservative in any very meaningful sense. They did not wish to preserve the existing order, or even to turn back the clock to some more stable century. They purposefully planned to transform the existing order into a new and all-absorbing authoritarianism, based upon the energies and frustrations of modern industrialism. The Fascists, in a meaningful sense, were revolutionaries. Yet their totalitarian ideal hardly fitted into the pattern of the Left, which had been the traditional home of greater freedoms and more generous aspirations. So, after boggling and uncertainty, they were assigned positions on the far Right.

Such developments make it urgent that, in the interests of clear thinking, we abandon the word Left. A united Left is an illusion: the question of freedom vs. totalitarianism cannot be compromised. When we talk about the Left, we mean either the pro-Communist Left or the non-Communist Left; and, when this vital distinction becomes part of our thinking, we will enormously sharpen our understanding of foreign affairs. If we will understand further that the non-Communist Left and the non-Fascist Right share a common faith in free political society - a faith that the differences between them over economic issues can be best works out by discussion and debate under law - we might even stop talking of Left and Right as if nothing lay in between.

Yeats long ago had an apocalyptic vision:

Things fall apart; the
center cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed
upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is
Loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence
is drowned;
The best lack all conviction,
while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.


http://www.writing.upenn.edu/~afilreis/50s/schlesinger-notrightleft.html

[Strawman]

52. A socially enlightened rich greedy bastard

That's probably not completely fair. There are also some older good government Ike Republican types who have been left behind by the drift of their party, whom I respect, like our ex-Governor Bill Milliken. He's a rare bird these days and usually endorses Democratic candidates in gubenatorial and presidential elections.

A liberal Republican these days is basically a libertarian who cares more about tax cuts than social issues or civil liberties.

[yurbud]

61. like an M & M: liberal candy coating over chocolaty center of greed

as opposed to their current Jesus coating

[Tommy_Carcetti]

53. A right leaning moderate. Nt.

[LostinVA]

55. I know plenty of social liberals who inexplicably vote Republican

My step-FIL is one of these: pro-gay rights, pro-choice, anti-war, yet votes Republican.

[harun]

72. Ummmm why would they vote Repub?

[Javaman]

58. they are defined as libertarians. pot smoking repukes. nt

[sakabatou]

59. Or the converse, a Conservative Liberal

[yurbud]

60. Mark Hatfield in Oregon about 20 years ago...

[otohara]

62. Socially Liberal, Greedy, Wants Tax Cuts

that's what I've found. None of the republican's I know are in the least bit conservative, but they want those tax cust.

[Jack Rabbit]

63. Once upon a time . . .

The Rockefeller wing of the GOP was often called "liberal Republicans." In addition to New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller, it included Senator Jacob Javitz (R-NY) who authored the Javitz amendment cutting off funds for the Vietnam war, Senator Lowell Weicker of Connecticut and Michigan Governor George Romney (that's right, Mitt's old man). While emphasizing a business-friendly Republican policies, they still found money for social programs supported by many Democrats.

[leftofthedial]

65. a nazi professional torturer

who leaves a generous tip at a restaurant once in awhile if he gets drunk enough

[BoneDaddy]

66. I have found that people who call themselves "liberal"

republicans are basically progressive democrats who love money too much.

[Oak2004]

69. Depends on whether you're talking about genuine liberal republicans (extinct) or

what the current batch of ultra-right fascists call "liberal".

Liberal Republicans were, once upon a time ago (maybe 30-40 years ago) genuine liberals. They opposed the war, opposed the draft, supported social spending, etc.

I know, I was one. I became a Republican because many liberals in Cook County chose to become Republicans in protest against the Daley machine. If anything I've become more conservative over the years, yet I find myself these days to the left of the Democratic Party.

Starting with the Reagan years it became increasingly difficult to remain a liberal Republican. Liberal Republicans who held office found themselves facing well-funded primary challengers (and in the case of Lowell Weiker vs. Joe Lieberman, a successful conservative "Democratic" challenger) and increasingly liberals were driven out of party positions. By the 90's even the moderates were being forced out of office. Eventually, I realized, not only had I not been able to in good conscience vote for any Republicans on the ballot, there was no reasonable prospect that I ever again would see a liberal or moderate Republican on my ballot. I took that as a hint to get out ;)

The current batch of Republicans are, in reality, a mix of fascists and quasi-fascists and more traditional (but still way to the right) conservatives, with a smattering of moderates like Lincoln Chafee. It's those moderates and conservatives that get painted as "liberal" in the party. They are no such thing, not by any reasonable measure. Such claims are a part of the propaganda effort to drive this country way over the brink, by willfully distorting the political spectrum. The extremists know they can't possibly sell their agenda if it is correctly labeled, so they've put a great deal of energy into distorting our political language. And as we know, most pundits function as broken sewer pipes, spewing the propaganda they ingest at one end back out at the masses.


BTW, Nixon was never considered a liberal Republican among Republicans. He was considered a moderate to conservative Republican, and liberal Republicans despised him. If he had been a liberal, I wouldn't have worked for McGovern.

[Zorra]

70. A republican that weighs over 300 lbs?

[JerseygirlCT]

73. They used to exist, and still do in corners in the northeast

Socially liberal, fiscally conservative.

[Matariki]

74. Well, the Bush administration has been pretty Liberal

about helping themselves to the National Treasury...

[tsuki]

75. An urban legend. A myth. A falsehood. nt

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

76. A conservative Democrat in the other party.

[L. Coyote]

78. Okay, I give up. Wait! An oxymoran?