In the US, I mean. An astute reader commented here yesterday:
He (Trump) is a moderate Republican in the traditional Northeast mold with a strong populist streak.
The majority of self-identified Republicans are not conservatives; they are moderates. Until the Reagan Revolution, the Republican Party could be described as center/left. Its mainstream leadership still is. There is no New Deal of Great Society program they oppose.
Until the realignment of the 1970's, the Republican Party was arguably to the left of the Democrat Party. It had its own progressives, like T. Roosevelt, Hoover, Wallace, Rockefeller, Lindsay, and, arguably, even Nixon and both Bushes.
Until the realignment, both parties were broad tent parties, coalitions of convenience of state parties, and included both conservatives and progressives, who fought for control. They had no real ideologies, and couldn't because of the very nature of the coalitions, which were intent on getting power.
The Democrats were arguably a broader party since they included both communists and racist segregationists. The Democrats are now a socialist party with a dominant communist wing. The Republican Party nowadays is broader and shifted to the right of the Democrats.
PS. I think it is clear that the neocons are not conservatives either. The older generation are mainly Jewish socialists, who shifted to the Republican Party because of perceived anti-Semitism in the Democrat Party, mainly due to lack of support for Israel. What was once perceived or inferred is now blatant: the Democrat Party is openly anti-Semitic (and anti-American).
A pure Conservative, as I see it, would run on issues like this: Handcuffing the Administrate State, privatizing Social Security, eliminating the federal Department of Education and HUD, abolishing government unions, and lots of other things along those lines. Well that's just my opinion. (Related, Trump as a transitional figure).
Today's Survey question: Could a pure Conservative, somehow defined, with a cheerful and winning personality win a national election today?
I say, regretfully, No.
