This is from the 1988 GOP platform:
“These liberals call America’s prosperity an illusion.”
“That is the liberals’ way of replacing collective bargaining with congressional edicts about what’s good for employees.”
“Despite opposition from liberals in the Congress, we have at least slowed the expansion of federal
control.”
“Republicans believe . . . that the God-given rights of the family come before those of government. That
separates us from liberal Democrats.”
“In the 1960s and 1970s, the family bore the brunt of liberal attacks on everything the American people
cherished.”
“We will not allow liberal Democrats to imperil the other gains the elderly have made during the Reagan-Bush Administration.”
“Homelessness demonstrates the failure of liberalism.”
“Despite opposition from liberal Democrats, we’ve made a start.”
“It was fueled by the liberal attitudes of the 1960s and 1970s that tolerated drug usage.”
The 1992 platform:
“Yet, in 1992, when the self-governing individual has overcome the paternalistic state, liberals here at
home simply do not get it.”
“For more than three decades, the liberal philosophy has assaulted the family on every side.”
“That is why today’s liberal Democrats are hostile toward any institution government cannot control, like
private childcare or religious schools.”
“Over the last several decades, liberal Democrats have increasingly shifted economic burdens onto the
American family.”
“Indeed, the liberal Democrat tax-and-spend policies have forced millions of women into the workplace
just to make ends meet.”
“We also believe that powerful unions and liberal special interest groups should not be the driving force in education reform.”
“Decades of liberalism have left us with two economies.”
“That is why liberal Democrats have fought us every step of the way, refusing congressional action on
Enterprise Zones until Los Angeles burned—and then mocking the expectations of the poor by gutting that critical proposal.”
“This is the legacy of a liberalism that elevates criminals’ fights above victims’ rights, that justifies soft-on crime judges’ approving early-release prison programs, and that leaves law enforcement officers powerless to deter crime with the threat of certain punishment.”
“We note that those who seek to disarm citizens in their homes are the same liberals who tried to disarm
our Nation during the Cold War and are today seeking to cut our national defense below safe levels.”
“But liberal Democrats still control a rigged machine that keeps on spending the public’ s money.”
“We stand with farmers against attempts by liberal Democrats to repeal the laws of economics by dictating
price levels and restricting production.”
“We oppose any attempt to impose a carbon tax as proposed by liberal Democrats.”
“Liberal Democrats think people are the problem.”
“Although the average family of four now pays $1,000 a year for environmental controls, liberal Democrats want to tighten the squeeze.”
“Rather than admit their mistakes of the past, the same liberal Democrats who sought to disarm America
against the Soviet threat now compound their errors with a new campaign—half audacity, half mendacity—to leave the Nation unprotected in a still dangerous word.”
“However, we oppose liberal Democrat attempts to place women in combat positions just to make an
ideological point.”
You can Google the GOP platforms for these years and search the page for the word liberal. They pretty much substituted liberal for socialist.
We shouldn’t have to qualify liberal or liberalism but yes, Classical Liberalism. The real shame is that in this age of identity politics and its attack on western civilization, the thing that can save us is the the thing that has been tainted. If you say, “liberalism is the answer to identity politics,” people will look at you and ask, “but aren’t they the liberals?” I find it almost disgusting when I hear people refer to Antifa as liberals. But then again, who is saying it?