Those old time commie Republicans

Take a look at the commie beliefs of the Republicans of 1956. Of course, the pseudo-conservatives of that era actually did consider those Republicans to be communists or communist dupes ... which is why the JBS was considered to be political extremists.

Now they're part of mainstream conservatism.

This comment from Dispatches gets it about right

There is something bizarre about listening to constant [Republican]* complaints that the Democrats are constantly moving ever further into the far left and comparing that to the reality that if Goldwater was still alive he would probably be classified as a liberal democrat.

*The commenter employed a common pejorative instead of "Republican" which I edited out since I don't approve of such usage.