The GOP doesn't go through their liberal phase

[Gnomepilled]

in 2000 2008 and 2012 the Gop fielded three liberal candidates (conservative liberal not liberal liberal). This was because conservative political analysts at the time believed that appealing to conservative minorities (like Muslims, Mexicans, and jews) was the future. This contrasts with the modern conservative analyst that said that they needed to become a pseudo-socialist party during 2016 (however they have also fallen in favor).
The liberal-conservative political analyst will argue that these policies failed because of the war on terror or the drug war (which the conservative analyst will argue back that they started those policies in the first place).

Also these figures are all either dead, forgotten, or retired.

 

[Ran]

Are you talking liberal in the economic/classical sense (market economy/free trade) or something else? Which candidates do you mean?

Also, are you positing that in this ATL they'll be dead/retired or saying they are now?

 

[Gnomepilled]

Are you talking liberal in the economic/classical sense (market economy/free trade) or something else? Which candidates do you mean?

Also, are you positing that in this ATL they'll be dead/retired or saying they are now?

In a Republican Party, relatively liberal but not considered liberal by everyone else. Essentially the post Bush Era Republican Party. Candidates I'm referring to are Bush, John McCain and Mitt Romney.
By dead/retired I mean that these people are politically irrelevant in the modern day so it shouldn't be moved to chat.

 

[Dancing Fool]

This was because conservative political analysts at the time believed that appealing to conservative minorities (like Muslims, Mexicans, and jews) was the future.

Candidates I'm referring to are Bush . . .

I remember the 2000 election and President George W. Bush very well!

During the election Bush advocated for prescription drug benefits for seniors, and helped pass this somewhat belatedly in the Fall of 2003, with interesting aspects that the benefit had a “doughnut hole.” [it’s big shortcoming was that it didn’t let Medicare negotiate with big Pharma companies, which at times honestly may have amounted to dictating prices]

And Bush’s main campaign guy Karl Rove and I think others made the point, Hey, a lot of Hispanic persons are culturally conservative and we ought to make a point of appealing to them.

 

[Carl Schwamberger]

Ironic. The early Republican Party on the mid 19th Century was radically liberal. Advocating such hellfire nonsense as abolition of Slavery. How much they changed when they ejected TR as a strong Progressive or Liberal. Ike could qualify & Nixon. Conservative on some issues, but socially liberal at the least. Nixon came very close in getting a national health care bill passed. That alone would disqualify him as a Republican in the past couple decades. Again its ironic that none of these Presidents would have a measurable chance at the presidential nomination in todays Republican Party.

 

[Sarufiyyun]

I mean in 2000, if the GOP fielded a far-right candidate that wanted to privatize Social Security or end the Department of Education against Gore, we'd have a four to eight year Gore Presidency.

 

[Gnomepilled]

I mean in 2000, if the GOP fielded a far-right candidate that wanted to privatize Social Security or end the Department of Education against Gore, we'd have a four to eight year Gore Presidency.

Bush wanted to privatize Social Security he just advertised himself a liberal candidate. Also it's believed McCain and Romeny lost because they were more liberal than Obama. Remember Obama wanted to keep gay marriage and was pro war.

 

[alchemist223]

Liberal?? The only liberal Republicans I can think of are Wendell Wilkie, Thomas E. Dewey, Fiorello LaGuardia, and Jacob Javits, all of whom were long gone by 2000. (IIRC Nelson Rockefeller was more conservative than people remember him today).

 

[ethansmidway]

Remember Obama wanted to keep gay marriage and was pro war.

because john mccain was very anti war

 

[TheGuyWhoHeartsHistory]

because john mccain was very anti war

And apparently a top advocate for gay marriage.

 

[Gnomepilled]

Liberal?? The only liberal Republicans I can think of are Wendell Wilkie, Thomas E. Dewey, Fiorello LaGuardia, and Jacob Javits, all of whom were long gone by 2000. (IIRC Nelson Rockefeller was more conservative than people remember him today).

Once again liberal by conservative standards

 

[Carl Schwamberger]

Once again liberal by conservative standards

Yep. We are looking at this against a back drop of shifting values and perceptions. Ike was recruited by Democratic party leaders who wanted a stronger candidate than Truman against Taft & the other Republican favorites. They saw him as the sort of social liberal the nation needed.