How did the Republican party transform from the part of freedom, Abe Lincoln, and Barry Goldwater?

[Ralphy]

to the party of authoritarianism, christofascism, and illiteracy in only 3 decades?

[bkc99xx]

The same way that the Dem's converted themselves to a party of losers, victims, and whiners.

[coke]

The best way to get yourself a reputation as a dangerous citizen is to go about repeating the very phrases which our founding fathers used in the struggle for independence.

[Truth Erector]

Wait - when were they the party of freedom?

[sagacious_ness]

My theory is that it's because the makeup and core constituency of the parties shifted due to Roe v. Wade. That one issue brought the religious coalitions to the political forefront and ultimately caused a shift in party constituency and platforms. There was an overlap between the old Southern Democrats and the Bible Belt, and the combination of the two put Carter(D) in office. Carter didn't buckle to their 'morality based' (pro-life) agenda so they switched parties and Reagan® happily took up their cause, sacrificing fiscal conservatism to mollify his new base.

At the time, Republicans were the fiscally conservative party for the rich. They weren't as overtly racist as the old Southern Dems, they just didn't like poor people regardless of skin color. They still don't. The old Southern Democrats, with their 'racist baggage' in tow, joined up with the disenchanted Bible Belt for the trek to the Republican Party. The Republicans, in the move from fiscal conservatism towards social conservatism, morphed into the 'free-market tax cut and spend' crowd. The remaining Democrats, a fairly disorganized crowd, couldn't agree on much more than a "we're not them" platform. They still like to spend, just on different things. By default, they morphed from 'tax and spend' into the 'tax and try to balance the budget' crowd.

[rich k]

Actually Barry Goldwater, and later Richard Nixon, with their Southern Strategy in opposition to Lyndon Johnson's Civil Rights legislation was what started the change. It was a cynical but highly successful attempt to translate racism and bigotry into votes. Until quite recently it worked which is why they are still trying it, if they ever decide that it's not got going to start working again they will just as cynically turn to something else and claim, with totally straight faces, that the new position is what they've always believed and that Lincoln believed what they do then just as they claim he believed what they do now.