What is a liberal republican and what are is his/her political philosophies, is Liberal Republicanism a good thing?

CP

well, it would be a her/him type of thing, say all the people that have left a stain on the respective parties they belong to, it would be something like a pro-choice pro right to own as many weapons that you want. something of a collection of ideas could make up the person. i dont know how they would get votes. its a cary thought that counts

about the same as a conservative democrat?

There's liberal Republicans all over the place in New York, Massachusetts and other Northeastern states. They're not all that rare in Washington and Oregon either. Their political philosophy tends not to be all that different from liberal Democrats, except that they're typically a little more moderate.

Some examples of liberal Republicans:

Mayor John V. Lindsay (NYC)
Mayor Michael Bloomberg (NYC) (a former Democrat - he switched to run for Mayor)
former Sen. Jacob Javits (R-NY) (deceased)
Sen. James Jeffords (D-VT) (well, he was a Republican)
Gov. Mit Romney (Mass.) (I'm not sure about him yet)
Sen. Norm Coleman (R-MN) (Not sure about him yet either, no voting record yet)

But both liberal Republicans and conservative Democrats are increasingly rare as the parties trend toward ideological polarization.

So... if you're a liberal, what would be the purpose of joining the Republican Party?

CP

It wouldn't be a good idea anymore in most cases. But if you wanted to run for Mayor of New York or Governor of Massachusetts you might do it for political advantage. Liberal Republicans can win elections in those places, and in fact they're about the only kind of Republicans who can.
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