re: Do you think that the Republican Party has changed much in the previous 50+ years?

Are you kidding? In 1972 we still had Rockefeller Republicans. Nelson Rockefeller was Vice President.

Nixon was about as liberal a Republican as you will ever find. He created the EPA and OSHA. He expanded SS benefits. He worked with insurance companies to create our current Healthcare disaster, and it was the Democrats who stopped him from mandating employers provide health coverage for workers.

Nixon proposed a minimum tax on the wealthy, and a guaranteed minimum income for the poor, but neither proposal got very far.

Reagan was more liberal in some ways than today's Republican Party. He wanted to close tax loopholes so the wealthy would "pay their fair share", He raised taxes 3 separate times. He expanded the EIT credit and saved Social Security. He broke with hardliners and compromised with the Soviets on arms control.

In the 70s, the Republicans had liberals and the Democratic Party had Dixiecrats and other conservatives. Then cable news channels emerged. They were immune from the fairness doctrine, and before long we had people just watching the news that bolstered their own beliefs.