Republican Is still the "Liberal" Party

We knew the Republican starter out to be the progressive and liberal party, but than start to switch during the new deal and the two party completely switch during Civil Rights movement.

So just wondering, was there anyway to keep the Republican blue?
 
It's kind of simplistic to say that the parties switched places. For example, Republicans have traditionally been pro-business while Dems have been for the working class (barring the occasional aberration like Cleveland).

As far as keeping the party more socially moderate, you'd likely have to do away with the southern strategy, because that's one of the reasons why the party is the way it is today.
 
We knew the Republican starter out to be the progressive and liberal party, but than start to switch during the new deal and the two party completely switch during Civil Rights movement.

So just wondering, was there anyway to keep the Republican blue?

You could have Nixon win in 1960 and seek to use his administration to push civil rights for black Americans ie bizarro Southern Strategy. Not as ambitious given the opposition from southern Democrats but just enough for African Americans to switch to voting Republican. The Republicans are economically liberal but NOT extremely so but emphasize civil liberties, making them socially laissez faire. Still, the Republicans will be associated as the party of business but as socially "woke" capitalists in contrasts to the Democrats being socially reactionary populists.
 

shiftygiant

Gone Fishin'
Ultimately you need to go back to 1912 and keep Roosevelt and the progressive wing from splitting the party- it was his split that allowed the conservative wing to take control of the Republicans, giving them carte blanch to shape the party how they saw fit. They were conservative prior to the New Deal, with the three Republicans Presidents prior to the New Deal, Harding, Coolidge, and Hoover, notably conservative (Hoover is debatable, having begun as a progressive and turned to conservatism).

So really you have to start there, not in the New Deal or Civil Rights era because by then the wheels were already in motion and the direction of the party was as clear as day, but instead for the Republicans to keep 'liberal', you really need the progressives to win out over the conservatives in that crucial period in the early 20th Century.
 
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