[[Stringsinger:

...
If you were around during the time of Martin Luther King, the pundits and Dems were saying exactly the same thing about him as they are saying about Cindy today.]]

Let's not confuse "liberal," "socially conscious," "progressive," etc., with "Democrat" or "Republican."   A huge segment of the Democratic party before 1970 were the 'Dixiecrats'. (Wasn't Strom Thurmond a Dem. back then?)   The Republican party had such leaders as Everett Dirksen, Nelson Rockefeller, John Lindsay, etc. -- even Richard Nixon -- who were far more progressive, at least on some issues, than even a Democrat like Bill Clinton.