My favorite President is Theodore Roosevelt, who was born within a mile of my current apartment in New York City. Modern day Republicans like to say they are the party of Lincoln and Roosevelt, the modern half of Mount Rushmore, I would add. However, no modern day Republican can reasonably claim kinship to any of their heroes.
At the root of this argument, only modern day Republicans proudly display a flag that was waved in explicit, direct, and open conflict against the First President of their own party. Teddy Roosevelt passed the first campaign finance laws which were overturned despite nearly a century of precedent, by a Republican majority Supreme Court.
The top marginal tax rate in our nation's history at 91% was under President Eisenhower and coincided with the greatest economic growth over the last 70 years. The EPA, the Clean Air Act, and the Clean Water Act all came to be under President Nixon. Reagan raised taxes 11 times, nearly tripled the debt, and legalized the residence of thousands of people.
Not a single Republican voted for President Clinton's budget in 1993, claiming the tax hikes in the highest marginal rates would wreck the economy. Many Democrats voted for the tax cuts of George W. Bush and voted to authorize his war in Iraq. In the face of the worst economic crisis to hit the nation since the Great Depression, the President had to practically pull teeth to get his stimulus package passed even though he made a third of the stimulus tax cuts.
Moderate Republicans would not reflexively oppose any tax increase. Moderate Republicans would not vote to repeal Obamacare even once, not to mention the 40 + times they have. Moderate Republicans would circulate a discharge petition on the Senate's immigration reform bill. Moderate Republicans would have convinced Speaker Boehner not to shut down the government, and most recently, they would have supported the Democratic motion to replace the latest partisan chicanery with the clean CR.
I find it the height of hilarity that there is a reality show titled, "Finding Bigfoot." Journalists utter the phrase, "Moderate Republicans" without the slightest hint of irony.