When we had Republicans we respected

[packman]

First president I voted for. My dad, a Democrat to the bone, took me up to the voting place and told me that Ike should get my vote.

[SharonClark]

1. When I was younger

GOP was pro-choice, pro-ERA, pro-Education and believed in 'good government'. That was before right-wing radio and the evangelicals.

[dalton99a]

2. Or at least who didn't betray their country and did something for regular Americans

Heck, the EPA was created by a crook who also proposed universal health care

[central scrutinizer]

3. Read the 1956 Republican platform

http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=25838

Except:

Protect by law, the assets of employee welfare and benefit plans so that workers who are the beneficiaries can be assured of their rightful benefits;

Assure equal pay for equal work regardless of Sex;

Clarify and strengthen the eight-hour laws for the benefit of workers who are subject to federal wage standards on Federal and Federally-assisted construction, and maintain and continue the vigorous administration of the Federal prevailing minimum wage law for public supply contracts;

Extend the protection of the Federal minimum wage laws to as many more workers as is possible and practicable;

Continue to fight for the elimination of discrimination in employment because of race, creed, color, national origin, ancestry or sex;

Provide assistance to improve the economic conditions of areas faced with persistent and substantial unemployment;

Revise and improve the Taft-Hartley Act so as to protect more effectively the rights of labor unions, management, the individual worker, and the public. The protection of the right of workers to organize into unions and to bargain collectively is the firm and permanent policy of the Eisenhower Administration. In 1954, 1955 and again in 1956, President Eisenhower recommended constructive amendments to this Act. The Democrats in Congress have consistently blocked these needed changes by parliamentary maneuvers. The Republican Party pledges itself to overhaul and improve the Taft-Hartley Act along the lines of these recommendations.

[yonder]

4. I've long maintained

That Eisenhower would be unelectable as a republican today. With Nixon, remember his 90 day wage and price control program? I just can't see anything like that happening today.

[DAMANgoldberg]

5. Eisenhower would be a Democrat now.

You are right, he would not be electable as a Republican now. His progeny supported Obama in 2008 and 2012.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Susan_Eisenhower#Endorsement_of_Barack_Obama