When would Ike have switched Parties?

[TheReckoning]

Ike supported Goldwater for President in 1964. Based on how similar Reagan’s 1980 platform was to Goldwater's ‘64 platform, I think it’s safe to say he would’ve supported Reagan in both of his election campaigns, and probably HW, too, based on how similar they were.

Beyond here it gets murky though. I think he switches no earlier than the 90s though.

[𝕭𝖆𝖕𝖙𝖎𝖘𝖙𝖆 𝕸𝖎𝖓𝖔𝖑𝖆]

Why are you assuming that Eisenhower would be a Democrat today?

[TheReckoning]

Why are you assuming that Eisenhower would be a Democrat today?

I know it’s a total assumption, but it’s one pretty much all of Atlas makes, so I’m going with it for the purpose of this poll.

[TheElectoralBoobyPrize]

I think he would’ve turned on Dubya over the Iraq War.

[𝕭𝖆𝖕𝖙𝖎𝖘𝖙𝖆 𝕸𝖎𝖓𝖔𝖑𝖆]

Why are you assuming that Eisenhower would be a Democrat today?

I know it’s a total assumption, but it’s one pretty much all of Atlas makes, so I’m going with it for the purpose of this poll.

Pretty much all of Atlas what?? It's the first time I ever hear about it.

[RINO Tom]

Lol.  Never.  However, I do not think he would have supported Trump.

Eisenhower's reputation as some type of moderate (or even progressive!!) comes from his temperament, not his views.  In his own words and those of his former friend Harry Truman, Ike was a fairly standard conservative Republican.  He was just pragmatic, too.

[Unconditional Surrender Truman]

Ike might have become an Independent in the Trump era, but he wouldn't be a Democrat. The most progressive thing he ever did was put Earl Warren on the court, and that he famously regretted.

[Wikipedia delenda est]

I could see him being a Colin Powell like figure and endorsing Obama.

[Orser67]

Never, he would fit in fine with the Republican Party until the Trump era, and he would be similar to e.g. Mitt Romney today. Eisenhower was fairly conservative on a personal level and a lot of his moderation on policy was more about pragmatism (accepting the public had no interest in rolling back the New Deal and demanded some kind of action on civil rights) or defense concerns (e.g. the Interstate Highway System).

[If my soul was made of stone]

He'd be a Lincoln Project darling, but he'd never fully abandon the party, and would probably be perfectly fine with plenty of the Trump GOP's more understated stances.

[KaiserDave]

I think he'd be an independent by now, but not a Democrat.

[The Right Honourable Martin Brian Mulroney PC CC GOQ]

I think he would have voted for Hillary Clinton and Biden, but I don't think he would call himself a Democrat. He'd be a moderate within the GOP pre-Trump, but certainly not a Democrat.

[Chips]

I think he'd be an independent by now, but not a Democrat.

[Statilius the Epicurean]

2018, due to the SALT deduction cap.

[Flyersfan232]

I think he would’ve turned on Dubya over the Iraq War.

didnt stop ron paul from being a republican.

[Samof94]

I can imagine a man with his way of thinking, but born 20-30 years later spend their final years a lot like Goldwater.

[TransfemmeGoreVidal]

The revisionist history around Eisenhower is pretty astounding. The only reason he kept taxes high was because he was a deficit hawk which was the conservative orthodoxy at the time as opposed to supply side. Truthfully I don't think he had strong enough beliefs on anything other then foreign policy to actively switch parties and while I can see him being critical of both W and Trump I think he would still be a Republican today.

[Don Vito Corleone]

The revisionist history around Eisenhower is pretty astounding. The only reason he kept taxes high was because he was a deficit hawk which was the conservative orthodoxy at the time as opposed to supply side. Truthfully I don't think he had strong enough beliefs on anything other then foreign policy to actively switch parties and while I can see him being critical of both W and Trump I think he would still be a Republican today.

I would also like to point out that Eisenhower's famous message about the "Military-Industrial Complex" was referring to the slow-moving Kafkaesque nature of the bureaucracy in the Pentagon, not some message about war profiteering. I mean, just think about it, this is the same Eisenhower who had John Foster Dulles as his Secretary of State and the other Dulles as head of the CIA; it's fairly evident just from these two points alone (nevermind the actual actions his administration undertook) that he was not opposed to foreign intervention.

[The Mikado]

I actually don't think Eisenhower would've stopped being a Republican, however, he'd stop voting for Republicans at some point in the late 00s/early 10s.

I think it's a key distinction. I don't see Dwight Eisenhower becoming a Democrat, but I do think he'd stop actively supporting GOP candidates and just refuse to comment publicly on politics. (He actually gave quite a lot of cold shoulder in 1964 and did a lot of really embarrassing "damning with faint praise" to Goldwater that year)

[Benjamin Frank]

I agree with most of what has been written above, however Eisenhower apparently considered starting a 3rd party:

"Ike threatened to become an independent if the Old Guard fought Earl Warren’s appointment as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court."

https://www.dwighteisenhower.net/partisanship-and-ideology

Also, I believe I once heard that Eisenhower offered to run as a Democrat to their party leadership if it appeared likely that Douglas MacArthur would win the Republican nomination.

Most likely that Eisenhower would have tried to use his fame and status to start a centrist third party given the Republicans of today (and going back as far as 40 years.)

[RINO Tom]

The revisionist history around Eisenhower is pretty astounding. The only reason he kept taxes high was because he was a deficit hawk which was the conservative orthodoxy at the time as opposed to supply side. Truthfully I don't think he had strong enough beliefs on anything other then foreign policy to actively switch parties and while I can see him being critical of both W and Trump I think he would still be a Republican today.

I would also like to point out that Eisenhower's famous message about the "Military-Industrial Complex" was referring to the slow-moving Kafkaesque nature of the bureaucracy in the Pentagon, not some message about war profiteering. I mean, just think about it, this is the same Eisenhower who had John Foster Dulles as his Secretary of State and the other Dulles as head of the CIA; it's fairly evident just from these two points alone (nevermind the actual actions his administration undertook) that he was not opposed to foreign intervention.

Not to mention that the interstate thing is more evidence of Ike's preference for defense spending than it is a love for economically wasteful infrastructure spending for the sake of ~supporting infrastructure spending~.

I also think a key story that says A LOT is that Eisenhower's friendship with Truman was allegedly extremely affected when Truman figured out just how partisan and conservative Ike was ... I mean, Ike told him that he voted against his friend in favor of Dewey.  Eisenhower was private, dignified and measured, so his politics seem more of a "mystery" than they probably actually were if you were to ask him views on a number of subjects, IMO.

[I Will Not Be Wrong]

By the end of his life Eisenhower appeared to be more conservative than he was as president. Also, since he supported the Vietnam War, I doubt he'd be opposed to the Iraq Wars.

[TransfemmeGoreVidal]

Anecdotally it seems that a lot of liberals and socialists hated Ike when he was president and viewed him in a similar light to how they viewed W and Trump, as dumb and unqualified. In some ways I think the seeds of our current political alignment were planted in the Eisenhower era with a celebrity Republican president against the standard bearer of liberalism as an effete intellectual like Stevenson who had a more tepid relationship with organized labor then FDR and Truman had.

[dw93]

If he were to do so at all, it would've been in 2016, but I could see him growing disillusioned with the GOP as early as 1994.

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

Eisenhower also preferred Reagan over Nixon as well.