Viewing a single comment thread. View all comments

Styrofoam_Snake t1_j8wqoev wrote

The extent to which the old GOP was progressive is greatly exaggerated. Republicans were already the conservative party by the time that Roosevelt came along. Teddy himself was never meant to be the president, it's just that the conservative president William McKinley died.

​

But to answer your question. Yes, they did adhere to classical liberalism. American politics before 1900 was just different factions of liberalism competing against each other.

1