Rockefeller Republicans | |
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| Leader | Nelson Rockefeller |
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| Political position | Center tocenter-right[6] |
TheRockefeller Republicans were members of theUnited StatesRepublican Party (GOP) in the mid–20th century who heldmoderate toliberal views on domestic issues, similar to those ofNelson Rockefeller, thegovernor of New York from 1959 to 1973 andVice President of the U.S. from 1974 to 1977. Rockefeller Republicans were most common in theNortheast and the industrialMidwestern states (with their larger moderate-to-liberal constituencies), while they were rare in theSouth and theWest.[7]
The term refers to "[a] member of the Republican Party holding views likened to those of Nelson Rockefeller; a moderate or liberal Republican".[8] Geoffrey Kabaservice states that they were part of a separate political ideology, aligning on certain issues and policies with liberals, while on others withconservatives and on many with neither.[nb 1] Luke Phillips has also stated that the Rockefeller Republicans represent the continuation of theWhig tradition of American politics.[5]
Rockefeller Republicanism has been described as the last phase of the "Eastern Establishment" of the GOP that had been led by New York governorThomas E. Dewey. The group's powerful role in the GOP came under heavy attack during the1964 primary campaign between Rockefeller andBarry Goldwater. At a point before the California primary, political operativeStuart Spencer called on Rockefeller to "summon that fabled nexus of money, influence, and condescension known as the Eastern Establishment". Rockefeller replied, "You are looking at it, buddy; I am all that is left".[10]
Michael Lind contends that the ascendancy of the more conservativefusionist wing of the Republican Party,[11] beginning in the 1960s with Goldwater and culminating in theReagan Revolution in 1980, prevented the establishment of aDisraelianone-nation conservatism in the United States.[12][13] The phrase "Rockefeller Republican" has come to be used in a pejorative sense bymodern conservatives, who use it to deride those in the Republican Party that are perceived to have views which are too liberal, especially on major social issues.[14] The term was adopted mostly because of Nelson Rockefeller's vocal support of civil rights and lavish spending policies.[14] Historian Justin P. Coffey has contended that Rockefeller's liberalism is a myth,[15] with former Vice PresidentSpiro Agnew also stating: "A lot of people considered Rockefeller very liberal and very dovish on foreign policy, but he was not. He was harder than Nixon, and a lot more hawkish about the mission of America in the world."[15]
Rockefeller Republicans have largely ceased to exist with the label mostly used as an epithet.[16] On a national level, the last significant candidate for president from the liberal wing of the party wasJohn B. Anderson, who ran as an independent in 1980 and garnered 6.6% of the popular vote. The only incumbent senators that are considered to be of this sect are SenatorsSusan Collins of Maine andLisa Murkowski of Alaska. Despite their national decline,moderate Republican officeholders continue to win local elections, particularly in the Northeast, into the 21st century; examples include governorsBill Weld andCharlie Baker of Massachusetts,Phil Scott of Vermont, andLarry Hogan of Maryland.
In domestic policy, Rockefeller Republicans were typically center to center-right economically;[6] however, they vehemently rejectedconservatives likeBarry Goldwater and theirlaissez faire economic policies while holding beliefs in social policies that were oftenculturally liberal. They typically favored asocial safety net and a continuation ofNew Deal programs but sought to run these programs more efficiently than theDemocrats.[3] Although Rockefeller Republicans opposedsocialism andgovernment ownership, and were strong supporters ofbig business andWall Street, they supported some regulation of business; rather than increasing regulation of business, they advocated for developing a mutually beneficial relationship between public interests and private enterprise, drawing comparisons and similarities to the Frenchdirigisme or the Japanesedevelopmental state.[3] They espoused government and private investments in environmentalism, healthcare, and higher education as necessities for a better society and economic growth in the tradition of Rockefeller.[17] They were strong supporters of state colleges, trade schools, and universities with low tuition and large research budgets, and also favored investments in infrastructure such as highway projects.[5]
Many supported the idea of anational health insurance program,[18] with Nelson Rockefeller himself describing healthcare as "a basic human right".[19] President Eisenhower, during his first term, tried to reform healthcare and implement expanded health insurance coverage.[18][20] In the 1970s, Richard Nixon also tried to enact universal health insurance[21] with the Comprehensive Health Insurance Plan (CHIP) Act;[22] Republican New York SenatorJacob K. Javits concurrently sponsored a bill providing "Medicare for All".[23] In 1971, eight Republicans in Congress co-sponsored a bill called the "Health Security Act", which would have led to the creation of a national health insurance system covering every individual in the country.[24]
Reflecting Nelson Rockefeller's tradition of technocratic problem solving, most Rockefeller Republicans were known to have a pragmatic and interdisciplinary approach to problem solving and governance while advocating for a broad consensus rather than a consolidation of support. Also welcoming an increased public role for engineers, doctors, scientists, economists, and businesspeople over politicians in crafting policies and programs. As a result, many Rockefeller Republicans were major figures in business, such as auto executiveGeorge W. Romney and investment bankerC. Douglas Dillon. In fiscal policy, they favored balanced budgets and were not averse to raising taxes in order to achieve them. Connecticut SenatorPrescott Bush once called for Congress to "raise the required revenues by approving whatever levels of taxation may be necessary". Rockefeller Republicans differed on spending, with Nelson Rockefeller himself described as a big spender and Thomas Dewey noted for being more fiscally prudent.[25]
A critical element was their support for labor unions,[26] thebuilding trades especially appreciating the heavy spending on infrastructure. In turn, the unions gave these politicians enough support to overcome theanti-union rural element in the Republican Party. As the unions weakened after the 1970s, so too did the need for Republicans to cooperate with them.[27] This transformation played into the hands of the moreconservative Republicans, who did not want to collaborate with labor unions in the first place and now no longer needed to do so to carry statewide elections.[28]
In foreign policy, they tended to beHamiltonian, espousinginternationalist[17] andrealist policies, supporting the United Nations and promoting American business interests abroad. Most wanted to use American power in cooperation with allies tofight against the spread of Communism and help American business expand abroad.
The two major political parties throughout American history had been coalitions of interest groups rather than ideological vehicles.[29] As recently as the 1960s, the Republican Party had contained large numbers of moderate and even liberal representatives. Geoffrey Kabaservice states that the form of conservatism which is now equated to the Republican party did not even exist until the 1950s, and remained a minority faction for many years afterward.[29] In 1854, several disparate groups coalesced together to form the Republican party. Apart fromabolitionists and Northern industrialists and financiers, many were former members of theWhig Party.[30] The Whigs had advocated an economic program known as theAmerican System which called for an activist government especially in the construction of national infrastructure or "internal improvements", and support for a national bank.[30] The Rockefeller Republican lineage can be traced back to this tradition of a more activist and reformist federal government.[5][31]
The impact of thegreat depression upended theparty coalitions and voting blocs leading to theNew Deal Coalition and subsequent electoral dominance of the Democratic Party. The success of the New Deal and Franklin Delano Roosevelt's popularity during World War II meant that the Republican Party suffered several major electoral defeats and had become the minority party in congress.Thomas E. Dewey, theGovernor of New York from 1943 to 1954 and the Republican presidential nominee in 1944 and 1948, believed that the Republican party could not survive if it repealed the policies implemented during the Depression to assure economic security for the average family.[4] As the leader of the moderate wing of the Republican Party in the 1940s and early 1950s, Dewey battled conservative Republicans from the Midwest led by SenatorRobert A. Taft of Ohio, known as "Mr. Republican." However, Taft did not oppose what he perceived as essential government intervention, including federal support for education and a minimum income for individuals and families.[4]
With the help of Dewey, GeneralDwight D. Eisenhower defeated Taft for the 1952 Republican primaries and became the presidential candidate of the Republican Party. Eisenhower coined the phrase "Modern Republicanism" to describe his moderate vision of Republicanism. After Eisenhower,Nelson Rockefeller, the Governor of New York, 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 SenatorBarry Goldwater of Arizona for president.
Other prominent figures in the GOP's Rockefeller wing included Connecticut SenatorPrescott Bush, Pennsylvania GovernorRaymond P. Shafer, Pennsylvania SenatorHugh Scott, Illinois SenatorCharles H. Percy, Oregon SenatorMark Hatfield, New York SenatorJacob Javits, Arkansas GovernorWinthrop Rockefeller, Nelson's younger brother (who was somewhat of an aberration in theconservative, heavily Democratic South),Edward Brooke of Massachusetts,[32]John Chafee of Rhode Island andLowell Weicker of Connecticut.[33] Some also consider PresidentRichard Nixon, who was influenced by this group, to be a bona fide member of the Rockefeller wing.[34]
Although Nixon ran against Rockefeller from the right in the 1968 primaries and was widely identified with thecultural right of the time, he adopted several Rockefeller Republican policies during his time as President, such as setting up theEnvironmental Protection Agency (despite also vetoing theClean Water Act, which was ultimately implemented through a Congressional override), tolerating the panoply of post-Great Society welfare programs (amid his administration's failed attempts to implement "creative and innovative social legislation"[35] by dismantling theOffice of Economic Opportunity and implementing theDaniel Patrick Moynihan-designedFamily Assistance Plan, which would have supplanted theAid to Families with Dependent Children program), imposingwage andprice controls and notably announcing his adherence toKeynesian economics in 1971.[36] The men had previously reached the so-calledTreaty of Fifth Avenue during the presidential primaries of 1960, whereby Nixon and Rockefeller agreed to support certain policies for inclusion in the 1960 Republican Party Platform.
Nelson Rockefeller was an influential voice within the Republican Party, but he never had the level of support of Goldwater or Nixon. However, even that level of influence began to decline with the election of Nixon to thepresidency in 1968.[37]
Their Democratic counterparts were theBlue Dog Democrats.[38] On a number of issues, the Rockefeller Republicans and the Blue Dog Democrats agreed more with each other than they did with more extreme members of their own party.[39]
It declined further, when Nixon'sSouthern strategy brought former Democratic voters in the Southern states over to the Republican side, and cemented those gains in1972 and beyond.[37] The termRockefeller Republican was never appreciated from the conservative wing of the party, and as the voices of the Reagan right grew in the 1970s and eventually captured thepresidency in 1980, it was looked down upon even more as a pejorative.[37]
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, the moderate contingent recaptured control of the party and nominated Richard Nixon in 1968. Easily reelected in 1972, Nixon was replaced as President upon his resignation by the moderately conservative RepublicanGerald Ford. After Vice President 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 toRonald Reagan. Four years after nearly toppling the incumbent Ford in the 1976 presidential primaries, conservativeRonald Reagan won the party's presidential nomination at the1980 Republican National Convention and served two terms in the White House.[citation needed]
During the 1980s, Barry Goldwater, a leading conservative, partly aligned with the liberal side of the GOP due to hislibertarian views on abortion andgay rights.[40]
By 1988, the Republicans had chosenPrescott Bush's sonGeorge H. W. Bush as its presidential candidate on a conservative to moderate platform. Bush'snational 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. But Bush did have some ideology similar to them, such as in environmental policy, immigration, and being internationalist.[41]
Ethnic changes[42] in the Northeast may have led to the demise of the Rockefeller Republican.[43] Many Republican leaders associated with this title wereWhite Anglo-Saxon Protestants likeCharles Mathias ofMaryland. Liberal New York Republican SenatorJacob Javits, who had anAmericans for Democratic Action rating above 90% and anAmerican Conservative Union rating below 10%, was Jewish. As time went on, the local Republican parties in the Northeast tended to nominateCatholic candidates who appealed to middle class social values-laden concerns, such asGeorge Pataki,Rudy Giuliani,Al D'Amato,Rick Lazio,Tom Ridge,Chris Christie 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 on policy.
With their power decreasing in the final decades of the 20th century, many moderate Republicans were replaced by conservative and moderate Democrats, such as those from theBlue Dog orNew Democrat coalitions.Michael Lind contends that by the mid-1990s the liberalism of PresidentBill Clinton and theNew Democrats were in many ways to the right ofEisenhower, Rockefeller, andJohn Lindsay, the Republican mayor of New York City in the late 1960s.[44] In 2009,CNN published an analysis describing how liberal and moderate Republicans had declined by the start of the 21st century.[33] In 1997, in an interview with Geoff Kabaservice,Elliot Richardson noted that people didn't understand that theClinton administration was to the right of theEisenhower andNixon administrations.[45] In 2010,Scott Brown was elected to the Senate to fill the seat once held by Democratic Senator Edward Kennedy. He was considered to be a moderate Republican in a similar mold asSusan Collins andOlympia Snowe of Maine.[46] However, by middle of the century's second decade, only SenatorSusan Collins of Maine remained as a moderately liberal Republican representing New England at the federal level.
In 2010, several moderate Republicans lost their primaries or were challenged by theTea Party movement. InAlaska, SenatorLisa Murkowski, the ranking member of theEnergy and Natural Resources Committee, lost her GOP primary to conservative Tea Party challengerJoe Miller.[47] The Tea Party's campaign organization "helped Miller portray the senator as too liberal for the state".[48] Despite her primary defeat, Murkowski was reelected after waging a successful write-in campaign.
Mike Castle, a moderate former Governor and Representative of Delaware, lost his primary to conservative "insurgent"Christine O'Donnell, who depicted Castle as being too liberal.[49] Anop-ed ofThe Washington Post made the assertion that Castle's loss marked the end of the party legacy of Nelson Rockefeller.[50]
SenatorJohn McCain survived a primary in2010, but his Tea Party opponentJ. D. Hayworth accused him of being insufficiently conservative.[51] A few years after, in 2014, theArizona Republican Party censured McCain "for a record they called too 'liberal'".[52]
In upstate New York, GOP-nominatedDede Scozzafava was opposed by mainstream conservatives within the Republican Party during her election bid for a congressional district: "National PACs upset with Scozzafava's support of the federal stimulus, EFCA, same-sex marriage and abortion rights poured on money and attacks".[53] She was pressured to drop out of the race, and when she did theRepublican National Committee endorsed Tea Party-backedDoug Hoffman.[54]
In 2014, socially liberal, fiscally conservative Republicans in the Rockefeller tradition were elected governor of Maryland (Larry Hogan) and Massachusetts (Charlie Baker). In 2016, New Hampshire (Chris Sununu) and Vermont (Phil Scott) also elected moderates.[55] According to an analysis byFiveThirtyEight and polling byMorning Consult, the quartet consistently rank among the most popular governors in the country.[56][57] In2018, Baker was re-elected by a 2:1 margin, receiving more votes thanElizabeth Warren, who was also running forre-election. TheNational Review wrote that year, "A kind of Rockefeller Republicanism seems to be rising once again in recent years" in New England and the Northeast.[55][better source needed]
Massachusetts GovernorCharlie Baker "is socially liberal ... . He is pro-choice and has long supported gay marriage". In Vermont, the voters electedPhil Scott as Governor. Describing himself, Governor Scott stated: "I am very much a fiscal conservative. But not unlike most Republicans in the Northeast, I'm probably more on the left of center from a social standpoint. ... I am a pro–choice Republican."[58] In 2017,The Washington Post described Larry Hogan, another Republican governor in a deep-blue state, as "a moderate Republican who is focused on jobs and the economy".[59]
The term "Rockefeller Republican" has become somewhat archaic since Nelson Rockefeller died in 1979.The Atlantic has referred to the election of Northeastern Republicans as being similar to "Rockefeller-style liberal Republicanism", even though the label is not necessarily used by the candidates themselves.[60] The Rockefeller Republican label has sometimes been applied to modern politicians, such asLincoln Chafee ofRhode Island, who served as a Republican in the Senate, was elected that state's governor as an independent, and later became a Democrat and briefly soughtthat party's 2016 presidential nomination.[61] Some more conservative members of the Republican Party use the label in a derisive manner, along with other labels such asRINOs, i.e. Republicans in Name Only,[62] or The Establishment.[63]
Christine Todd Whitman, a formergovernor of New Jersey, referred to herself as a Rockefeller Republican in a speech about Rockefeller atDartmouth College in 2008.[64]Lloyd Blankfein, Chairman and CEO ofGoldman Sachs, who is a registered Democrat, referred to himself as a "Rockefeller Republican" in a CNBC interview in April 2012.[65] The retired four-star generalsColin Powell andDavid Petraeus have both described themselves as "Rockefeller Republicans".[66][67][68]
In 2012, the GOP nominatedMitt Romney for president, a former governor who had described himself as moderate andprogressive in 2002. Running for governor of Massachusetts, he said of himself: "I'm not a partisan Republican. ... I'm someone who is moderate, and ... my views are progressive."[69] In his 1994 Senate campaign, Romney distanced himself from Ronald Reagan, noting that he was an independent during the Reagan presidency.[70] One of his 2012 primary opponents, Newt Gingrich, even referred to Romney as a "Rockefeller Republican" in order to draw a contrast between Romney's former self-description and his own.[71] However, in his own words during the2012 campaign Romney described himself as a "severelyconservative" Republican.[72]
At the 1988 Republican National Convention,Donald Trump was asked byLarry King onCNN: "You might be classified as an Eastern Republican, Rockefeller Republican. Fair?", to which Trump replied: "I guess you can say that".[73] During his2016 presidential campaign, Trump was described as both a modern-day Rockefeller Republican (by some conservative writers)[74][75][76] and as the heir to the Goldwaterite opposition to the Rockefeller Republicans.[77][78][79]
In 2019,Bill Weld announced that he would consider a challenge to President Trump for the Republican nomination.[80] Bill Weld has been described as a moderate Republican,[81][82] and has been likened to Rockefeller.[83] At the2020 Republican convention, Weld received just one of the 2,550 delegate votes, which represented 2.35% of Republican primary voters and caucus-goers.[84]
The list of so-called Rockefeller Republicans touched by a liberal sensibility—like Jacob Javits (New York), Richard S. Schweiker, Hugh Scott, and Arlen Specter (Pennsylvania), Clifford P. Case (New Jersey), Edward Brooke (Massachusetts), and Lowell Weicker Jr. (Connecticut)—favored by Jewsh voters is fairly long.
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