A lot of people in the GOP today are basically classical liberals with older social values. They push for limited government, free markets, and personal responsibility, but also tend to lean toward traditional social and moral norms.

That’s almost exactly what the Founding Fathers were. They built a system based on freedom and individual rights, but they lived in a world with rigid social hierarchies, strong religious expectations, and very different ideas about race, gender, and citizenship. In other words: economically liberal, socially old-school.

If you dropped the Founders straight into 2025, their social views would actually be farther right than even the most conservative voices in modern politics. Slavery, strict gender roles, and deep religious influence were all baked into their worldview. But their political philosophy: small government, states’ rights, personal liberty, still overlaps a lot with what Republicans argue for today.

And here’s another key connection: the Founders were deeply skeptical of pure democracy. They designed a republic, a system of checks, balances, and elected representatives, because they feared direct majority rule could lead to chaos or “mob rule.” Funny enough, that same argument shows up today whenever Republicans point out that “the U.S. is a republic, not a democracy.”

In the midst of all of this, Democrats today focus heavily on welfare programs, redistribution, and a strong federal government, things that would’ve been completely alien (and probably alarming) to guys like Jefferson or Madison. The Founders distrusted centralized power, whether it came from a king or a massive bureaucracy.

So if we’re being honest, the GOP probably reflects the Founders’ classical liberal roots more than the Democrats do. The difference is that the Founders’ social views would make even today’s conservatives look progressive by comparison.

Not saying that’s good or bad, I don't even like them, just being historically consistent.