Have you read the 1956 Democratic platform?

[BoneyardDem]

Almost all of the things they were fighting against then, with regards to Republicans, are eerily similar for today. Many of the things they stood for then, still stand today.

http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=29601

and it starts with a preamble:

In the brief space of three and one-haft years, the people of the United States have come to realize, with tragic consequences, that our National Government cannot be trusted to the hands of political amateurs, dominated by representatives of special privilege.

Four years ago they were beguiled, by empty promises and pledges, to elect as President a recent convert to Republicanism. Our people have now learned that the party of Lincoln has been made captive to big businessmen with small minds. They have found that they are now ruled by a Government which they did not elect, and to which they have not given their consent. Their awareness of this fact was demonstrated in 1954 when they returned control of the legislative machinery of the Federal Government to the 84th Democratic Congress.

So basic Republican tenets and reputation doesn't seem to have changed much in half a century.

Long read, but so many of it applicable today.