On Wed, 4 Mar 2009, SA wrote:
> For the first quarter of the century the party was split between Western
> progressives, many of whom were proto-New Dealers, and mossback Eastern
> reactionaries. The party leadership was usually held by some compromise
> candidate who split the difference.
You're right; I went too far.
But the majority of the party members have been conservative since the Depression, since the party was then essentially everyone who opposed the New Deal, which defines reactionary. They were the majority during the 50s (hence their disaffection which bubbled over into the "new" conservative movements). And of course it only got worse after 1964, as the party gradually incorporated the South, which had been to the right of the Repugs on virtually all issues.
Michael