Rockefeller Republican - History

History

Thomas E. Dewey, governor of New York from 1942 to 1954 and the Republican presidential nominee in 1944 and 1948, was the leader of the moderate wing of the Republican Party in the 1940s and early 1950s, battling conservative Republicans from the Midwest led by Senator Robert Taft of Ohio, known as "Mr. Republican." With the help of Dewey, General Dwight D. Eisenhower defeated Taft for the 1952 presidential nomination and became the leader of the moderates. Eisenhower coined the phrase "Modern Republicanism" to describe his moderate vision of Republicanism.

After Eisenhower, Rockefeller emerged as the leader of the moderate wing of the Republican party, running for President in 1960, 1964 and 1968. Rockefeller Republicans suffered a crushing defeat in 1964 when conservatives captured control of the Republican party and nominated Senator Barry Goldwater of Arizona for President.

Other prominent figures in the GOP's Rockefeller wing included Pennsylvania Governor Raymond P. Shafer, Illinois Senator Charles H. Percy, Oregon Senator Mark Hatfield, Arkansas Governor Winthrop Rockefeller, Nelson's younger brother (who was somewhat of an aberration in a conservative, heavily Democratic Southern state), and, according to some, President Richard Nixon.

After Rockefeller left the national stage in 1976, this faction of the party was more often called "moderate Republicans" or Nixonians, in contrast to the conservatives who rallied to Ronald Reagan.

Historically, Rockefeller Republicans were moderate or liberal on domestic and social policies. They typically favored New Deal programs and a social safety net; they sought to run these programs more efficiently than the Democrats. Rockefeller Republicans also saw themselves as champions of "good government", contrasting themselves to the often corrupt machine politics of the Democratic Party (particularly in large cities). They were strong supporters of big business and Wall Street; many Republicans of the Eisenhower-Rockefeller vein were major figures in business, such as auto executive George W. Romney and investment banker C. Douglas Dillon. In fiscal policy they favored balanced budgets, and were not averse to raising taxes in order to achieve them; Connecticut Senator Prescott Bush once called for Congress to "raise the required revenues by approving whatever levels of taxation may be necessary". In state politics, they were strong supporters of state colleges and universities, low tuition, and large research budgets. They favored infrastructure improvements, such as highway projects. In foreign policy, they tended to be Hamiltonian, espousing internationalist and realist policies, supporting the United Nations and promoting American business interests abroad.

Barry Goldwater crusaded against the Rockefeller Republicans, beating Rockefeller narrowly in the California primary of 1964. That set the stage for a conservative resurgence, based in the South and West in opposition to the Northeast Rockefeller wing. However, in 1968 the moderate contingent captured control of the GOP again and nominated Richard Nixon. He was easily reelected in 1972 and after he resigned, moderate-to-conservative Republican Gerald Ford replaced him as President. Four years after nearly toppling the incumbent Ford in the 1976 presidential primaries, Ronald Reagan won the party's presidential nomination at the 1980 convention, and served two terms in the White House. By 1988, the Republicans had chosen Prescott Bush's son, George H. W. Bush as its presidential candidate on a conservative platform. Bush's national convention pledge to stave off new taxation were he elected president ("Read my lips: no new taxes!") marked the candidate's full conversion to the conservative movement and, perhaps, the political death knell for Rockefeller Republicanism as a prevailing force within Party politics.

Yet the Rockefeller Republican label is sometimes applied to such modern-day politicians as Senators Olympia Snowe, Susan Collins of Maine and Governor Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island. The departure of U.S. Senator Jim Jeffords from the Republican party in 2001 dramatized the still-existing tension between the liberals of the party and what is today its generally more influential socially conservative wing. The term could also be applied to former U.S. Representative Connie Morella of Maryland, who lost re-election in 2002 to Democrat Chris Van Hollen. In the 2006 elections after many moderate Republicans were defeated, including then-Senator Lincoln Chafee, Nancy Johnson and Rob Simmons of Connecticut, Charlie Bass of New Hampshire and Jim Leach of Iowa, the prominence of Rockefeller Republicans dwindled even further. The 2009 departure of Pennsylvania Senator Arlen Specter from the Republican Party further reduced their numbers. However, in 2010 Bass won his old seat and Chafee won the Rhode Island gubernatorial election, albeit as an Independent.

Ethnic changes in the Northeast may have led to the demise of the Rockefeller Republican. Many Republican leaders associated with this title were WASPs like Charles Mathias of Maryland or white Roman Catholics such as George Murphy of California. New York Republican U.S. Senator Jacob Javits, was Jewish. As time went on, the local Republican parties tended to nominate Catholic candidates who appealed to middle class, social values-laden concerns, such as George Pataki, Al D'Amato, Rick Lazio, Tom Ridge, Bobby Jindal, Paul Ryan, and others, who in many cases represented the Party's diversity more on the basis of religion and were often otherwise like their Protestant conservative counterparts.