It’s not as central to the GOP platform as it used to be, though. Really ever since the “War on Terror,” their messaging has mostly been around whatever the enemy du jour is. Small gov’t was a paleocon thing and McCain, maybe Rand Paul, are pretty much the last of them.
Bob Dole was the first and last Republican I ever voted for. I still think he was kind of a fun guy, although it’s good that his candidacy failed.
It goes further back than 50 years for sure. Was small-government rhetoric embraced by the whole party that far back though? Seems to me it wasn't embraced by the whole party until after Barry Goldwater and Ronald Reagan. I think it really got going after the New Deal as Republicans started framing their opposition to helping the working class in terms of small government and states rights.
