You raise a somewhat valid point. However, I don’t think that many who left were espousing liberal positions per se...the argument over Rudy was whether some of the liberal positions that he advocated were automatic disqualifiers tp enable him to get support from conservatives..
A lot of them had been in here pushing abortion, militant homosexualism and other liberal causes for years.
They got excited about Rudy because he was the first Republican presidential candidate that they actually agreed with on social issues.
I still remember one thread where a Ruudybot was telling us how wonderful NYC’s gun control laws were. And yet, they insisted that he’s a conservative. Those people were simply on the wrong website.