Whatever happened to liberal Republicans?

[kentuck]

Who is the last one you can remember? I can remember Nelson Rockefeller, Jacob Javits, and even Richard Nixon had some liberal policies. But I cannot recall one Republican, after Ronald Reagan was elected, that would call themselves a "liberal". Where did they all go??


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[Libertas1776]

1. Gone the way of the dodo n/t

[DrDan]

18. plenty of "dodo"s left on the other side

[Tumbulu]

2. they became Democrats

I know of three that did.

[kentuck]

4. You win!

You named that tune in three notes. :-)

[LastNaturalist]

6. Yup!

[BP2]

12. LOL - right on!

I didn't even know there were three of them

[Jamastiene]

13. You beat me to it, except for Dede Scozzafava

There are more conservative Democrats than there are liberal Republicans.

But, I did find an article when I was looking for pro gay marriage politicians about this woman:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dede_Scozzafava

That's the only one I could find at all. She's pro gay marriage, pro choice and pro labor.

[Goldstein1984]

3. Just taking a look around and throwing out an idea...

Mad Cow Disease

[Joe the Liberal]

5. You mean the DLC? they're still around and more alive then ever before. n/t

[LastNaturalist]

7. And another one lives in an imaginary world!

[Joe the Liberal]

10. How so? n/t

[robdogbucky]

8. Raygun

shot the ones that did not take the oath

[donco]

9. JOHN C. DANFORTH Former Missouri Senator

other than the brain fart of pushing for Clarence Thomas he was pretty moderate. Consider this quote in 2005.

< Republicans have transformed our party into the political arm of conservative Christians. The elements of this transformation have included advocacy of a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage, opposition to stem cell research involving both frozen embryos and human cells in petri dishes, and the extraordinary effort to keep Terri Schiavo hooked up to a feeding tube.>

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=post&forum=389&topic_id=7312600&mesg_id=7312600

[Ken Burch]

11. Oregon and Washington had some of the last of the species

Governor Tom McCall and Senator Mark Hatfield(and, on a good day with a following wind, Bob Packwood)could all have been considered liberal Republicans(and, in fact, McCall was probably the most liberal governor in Oregon state history).

Dan Evans was a liberal Republican when he was governor of Washington(but not when he later served as U.S. senator).

In Alaska, Jay Hammond was relatively liberal when he was governor from 1974 to 1982.

[Cleita]

14. DLC?

I just wish they would go back to being pukes.

[harry_pothead]

17. One just did.

(Parker Griffith)

[Jim Sagle]

15. Whatever happened to Democratic Democrats?

:shrug:

[Ozymanithrax]

16. Moderate Republicans and Centrists moved to the Democratic Party...

This occurred because of a strong Republican belief in ideological purity, though it really kicked in during Clinton Administration and was pretty much done by Bush's first midterm.

In a way, the push for ideological purity by various groups have led to the Conservative fall.

[Betty Karlson]

20. Dede Scozzafava probably was a liberal republican.

Or moderately republican, at least. Look what happened to her: she ended up endorsing a democrat.

[cali]

19. The last two truly liberal repubs in Congress were LIncoln Chafee and Jim Jeffords

Neither is a republican anymore.

[saltpoint]

21. Extinct, or nearly so. Maybe there should be a postage stamp series...

Where have you gone, Chuck Percy? Where have you gone, John Chafee?

They were Republicans but they weren't Tom Coburn Republicans. Big difference.

[Le Taz Hot]

22. Whatever happened to liberal Democrats?

Boxer, Boxer of all people voted for this POS.