[Nattering Nabob]

As a teenager I considered myself a conservative...but I soon found out that I was the kind of conservative that had no voice in the Republican party...

I was a teenage fiscal conservative...a Rockefeller Republican...

Rockefeller Republican (often termed "moderate Republican") refers to a faction of the United States Republican Party who hold moderate to liberal views similar to those of Nelson Rockefeller. The term largely fell out of use by the end of the twentieth century, and has been replaced by the terms "moderate Republican" and "RINO" (Republican In Name Only). Modern Rockefeller Republicans are typically center-right, reject far-right policies, and are culturally liberal. Many espouse government and private investments in environmentalism, healthcare and higher education as necessities for the nation's growth, in the tradition of Nelson Rockefeller, Alexander Hamilton and Theodore Roosevelt. In general, Rockefeller Republicans oppose socialism and the redistribution of wealth while supporting some pragmatic regulation of business and federal social programs in matters pertaining to the public good. They represent a diversity of views on foreign policy, but historically most were considered "hawks" against communism and strong supporters of American business abroad. Richard Nixon -- a moderate, establishment Republican within the Party's contemporary ideological framework—founded the Environmental Protection Agency, cooled tensions with China and the Soviet Union, and in 1971 announced he was a Keynesian.[1] Rockefeller Republicans were very common in the New England, West Coast, and the Middle Atlantic States, where there historically existed larger liberal constituencies. Link

Understand that I am 50 years old and back then the south was still voting Democratic when my political views were formed, formed without all the social policy and the "welfare queens in Cadillacs" rhetoric that dominates today...

The Republican party of yesterday really did stand for fiscal responsibility, and back then fiscal responsibility was not simply a means to placate newly won southern voters who wanted to get back at those uppity blacks by cutting off any benefits they may be getting...

The Republican party of my childhood has been sacrificed on the alter of the Southern Strategy, the courting of "negrophobe whites" (the words of Nixon strategist Kevin Phillips) who were dissaffected by the social policies of the 1960's...

Rockefeller Republicans believed that fiscal and social responsibility were not mutually exclusive...and that govt was not bad...these positions only came along after the southers white voters left the Democratic party and found a gang of political prostitutes (Goldwater et al) who would welcome them into the Republican party...

Don't believe me? Recall that Richard Nixon enacted "wage and price controls", a presidential decree which temporarily froze the price of goods and also wage increases at a time when inflation threatened the nation...

Recall that Eisenhower said "We cannot afford to reduce taxes and reduce income until we have in sight a program of expenditure that shows that the factors of income and out go will be balanced."

The Republican party I knew as a teenager is Gone With The Wind...and I haven't called myself a Republican since...

[Goldberk]

Rockefeller Republicans believed that fiscal and social responsibility were not mutually exclusive.

Are there many major policy differences between "Rockerfeller Republicans" and Democrats like clinton or obama?

[Social_Critic]

Goldberk, I'm a former Republican as well. I think the Democrats would have a tendency to get involved in foreign wars and interventions much more than a true Republican would. Clinton got us into the messes in Somalia and Yugoslavia, and Obama escalated in Afghanistan to set the conditions for a bigger loss of life without winning the war anyway.

The Democrats also have a tendency to waste more money, but the new GOP has shown it's unable to control the budget, under Bush they really blew it and the new bunch seems to be more of a populist racist theocratic Israel-centric neocon bunch. They are worthless, so I'm pouring resources and cash to back the Democrats as the lesser of two weevils.

[Someone5]

Politics has moved on from that; wanting the books to balance isn't a left/right issue. You don't need to be a conservative to believe the government shouldn't operate on a deficit.

[The One.]

Politics has moved on from that; wanting the books to balance isn't a left/right issue. You don't need to be a conservative to believe the government shouldn't operate on a deficit.

If only more people on the left would see it as you do, Someone5

[Someone5]

If only more people on the left would see it as you do, Someone5

... the left often does believe that. Hence the push for higher taxes. The fiscally irresponsible in American politics today are usually on the right--they talk about wanting to reduce the deficit, but they aren't willing to do anything to balance the budget but cut social services that they know the people will never stand for cuts in. Increasing revenue is the only way to do that in a politically realistic way.

[Jeliza-Rose]

My dad sent me this jpeg a few weeks ago.
He used to be a "cloth coat republican" - but no longer.

Can you imagine the republicans today supporting unions?

[Paradigm]

Are there many major policy differences between "Rockerfeller Republicans" and Democrats like clinton or obama?

In some ways the Rockefeller Republicans were more liberal than such "Third Way" Democrats. Both of them are essentially pragmatic realpolitik approaches that will compromise for whatever is seen as the good of the country(by which I mean the good of the corporate economy). The Rockefeller Republicans of yesteryear have almost all become the Blue Dog or Third Way Democrats of today. The last person I heard refer to himself as a Rockefeller Republican was Colin Powell.

[Goldberk]

Both of them are essentially pragmatic realpolitik approaches that will compromise for whatever is seen as the good of the country(by which I mean the good of the corporate economy).

Has the rise of the evangelical movement and tea party types within the republican party pushed soem of these republicans into the democratic party?

[EastCoastAmerican]

My dad sent me this jpeg a few weeks ago.
He used to be a "cloth coat republican" - but no longer.

Can you imagine the republicans today supporting unions?

These Republicans sound awfully Communist if you ask me! Where's Joe McCarthy when you need him?

[Paradigm]

Has the rise of the evangelical movement and tea party types within the republican party pushed soem of these republicans into the democratic party?

Basically. The McCarthy/John Birch Society types have always been there, but for a long time the Republican party managed to keep them in check. The roots of the exodus probably go back to Reagan, but the party was still a pretty big tent under his presidency. Rockefeller Republicans were still a significant force in Congress during the Clinton years. Bob Dole was probably the last of them to be the party nominee for president(McCain may have counted as one of them at one point in his career, but certainly not by the time he got the nomination). The George W. Bush presidency was the final nail in the coffin for them. He didn't start the shift, but he oversaw an era of Republican party discipline that pretty much purged anyone who didn't fall into line.