The Only Constant

Ezra Klein claims Obama is a moderate Republican from the early 1990s. He's overstating the case, and ignoring some of Obama's more leftists beliefs and programs, but it's true, many concepts Democrats support today--cap-and-trade, individual mandate health care, higher taxes--were supported and even created by moderate Republicans a few decades ago.

Klein seems to be sayng modern Republicans oppose these policies today just because the Democrats support them.  This is bizarre. Parties regularly drift in their beliefs for a number of reasons, and though they may sometimes be foolish reasons, they're rarely that simple.
 
In fact, the Republican party has long had a battle between the moderate/liberal wing and the conservative wing.  Eisenhower and Nixon accepted big government and high tax rates.  It'd be very easy to paint Nixon as a wild-eyed liberal if you cherry pick his accomplishments.  At the same time, there was an insurgent movement within the GOP, not always easily held together, that opposed this sort of Republican.  They fought it out and with the rise of Reagan, and later the Republicans taking over Congress, the conservative side has been in the ascendant.

Democrats have not stayed the same, either, changing their focus on various issues. Today, for example, they rail against deregulation, blaming it for practically every economic problem, but it wasn't so long ago many Dems understood heavy regulation can hurt consumers.  Thus, Jimmy Carter and Ted Kennedy were strong supporters of airline deregulation.  The party also used to have more moderate/conservative Democrats.  Don't forget Reagan passed all his tax rate cuts with a Democrat Congress.

For that matter, if you want to find a president who believed in a muscular foreign policy to fight for American hegemony, and cutting taxes on the rich to improve the economy, JFK is your man. I look forward to Ezra Klein's next column explaining how George W. Bush got his policies from early 60s Democrats.