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From http://www.lib.rochester.edu/rbk/Harken.htm where you can also see original sources of MSsr. Dewey. He was a Northeast big government Republican. Using party platforms to suggest that the figurehead represents the platform is laughable considering the 2000 GOP platform includes the abolishing of the Department of Education at the same time their nominee, Bush, bragged of wanting to expand the DOE.

"Dewey waged a campaign which was a model of consensus liberalism. Endorsing most of the New Deal's social legislation, and supporting Roosevelt's foreign policy - including participation in post-war international organizations - Dewey centered his criticisms almost entirely on the management of the New Deal and of the wartime economy.7 Rather than mounting a fundamental critique of New Deal liberalism, Dewey played firmly within the confines of the game - as delineated by Roosevelt and other New Deal liberals. Indeed, Dewey's acceptance of consensus liberalism in the '44 campaign was mirrored by his contributions to it during the course of his governorship.

Dewey's governorship, which spanned three four-year terms (1943-1955), was an exercise in consensus liberalism. Dewey's administration doubled state aid to education, built the Thruway, raised salaries for state employees, enacted rent-control laws, and passed the first state law in the nation to ban racial discrimination in employment.8 The governor's consensus liberalism was endorsed by New York voters, who returned him to office in 1946 by the largest margin in the state's history.9 Moreover, Dewey coupled a domestic policy of consensus liberalism with a foreign policy scarcely different from that of his Democratic opponents. While Dewey criticized Democratic foreign policy in the 1948 campaign, the criticisms were almost always rhetorical slaps at supposed Communist influence, rather than deep ideological criticisms of the policy. Indeed, Dewey and Truman agreed on the importance of a strong national defense, and the correctness of the Truman Doctrine, the Marshall Plan, the Berlin Airlift, and the recognition of Israel.10"

So lemme get this straight. Dewey didn't attack the New Deal in the "right way" for you, therefore you'd vote for a bunch of Dixiecrats advocated LYNCHING laws? Hmmmm. Says something about your idea of "conservative".

The GOP vigorously attacked the New Deal throughout the 1930s and got no where. Democrats used to refer to Republicans as the "party of the rich" back then too, because anyone who wasn't on welfare or the government payroll used to hiss and boo FDR and call his bureaucracy as "alphabet soup". Wendell Wilkie, an Democrat-turned-Republican from Indiana (hardly the land of New England RINOs) vigorously bashed FDR over his anti-buisness policy (Wilkie owned an electric company) and pledged to privatize many New Deal programs, especially the Tennessee Valley Authority. He got no where among the supposed "states rights" south. The voted in lockstep for FDR and his big federal government. Dixiecrat Governors and their constituents were more than happy to support Franklin's reelection (as long as he continued to endorse segregation) Check out the 1940 election results in the deep south:

Georgia.....Roosevelt/Wallace (D) 265,194 84.81% votes
Alabama.....Roosevelt/Wallace (D) 250,726 85.22% votes
Mississippi......Roosevelt/Wallace (D) 95.70% votes
South Carolina....Roosevelt/Wallace (D) 95,470 95.63% votes

By the time of Dewey, the GOP got tired of losing year after year and yes, I suppose Dewey tried to act more complacent to attach swing voters. He continued to go after the New Deal, but obviously not in a manner "acceptable" to you. The party as a whole controlled congress in '48, and their record speaks for itself (they WOULDN'T pass Truman's big government agenda, hence he went after them as the "do nothing" 80th Congress. In fact, most the Midwestern Republicans in congress were to the right of the already conservative party platform)

I am well aware of party history, my family was conservative, and quite frankly, never supported FDR or any of his agenda (more than I can say for the Dixiecrats). It is you who is ignorant. GraniteStateConservative posted the Dixiecrat platform in it's entirety

You knock Dewey for not attacking the New Deal in the "right way", yet the supposed "conservative" Dixiecrats didn't offer ANY critism of the New Deal in their platform. As he noted, it "had NOTHING to do with lowering taxes or reducing government spending." (Most of the south was heavily blue-collar at that time and supported the idea of labor union goons and "taxing the rich", not to mention giveaway programs for the working poor) Half the platform is spent praising the virtues of segregation and lynching.

Conservative Republicans like Coolidge used to easily win the black vote. Then racists like you decided to rewrite history and promote garbage like that. The Strom Thurmond of 1948 was far more quasi-libertarian than any kind of traditional "conservative", and your screen name (Ann Rayd was a pro-abortion athetist) most likely attests to that.