Fair point.
Yet I assert that the GOP, since Freemont in 1856, was always the Progressive Party, up to the present; despite it’s contrary claims.
It aligned itself w/the Northern Mercantile Class
pre-Civil War and by the end of the century was in the pocket of the Industrial Baron Class.
As well, all of the enabling Congressional Legislation and judicial rulings supporting Progressivism, were enacted during the period of Republican ascendancy, from Lincoln to Hoover.
I don’t disagree.
I have said on this forum frequently that the Republican Leadership and the Old Guard Republicans are not conservative in any shape or form.
When people talk about RINOs meaning that some Liberal Republican they don’t know what they are talking about.
It is also why Reagan was so hated by the Republican leadership. He brought conservatives and Libertarians in to the party, people the Leadership dispised. He also reached out to the Religious Right at a time when the leadership was trying to soften toward things like abortion.
The Republican Party from the days of Lincoln was a big government party.