Other legendary Moderates include Gov. Nelson Rockefeller of New York, Gov. Earl Warren of California, Gov. William Scranton of Pennsylvania, Gov. George Norris of Nebraska, U.S. Senator Margaret Chase Smith of Maine, U.S. Senator Bronson Cutting of New Mexico, and U.S. Attorney General Elliot Richardson. Moderates were the first internationalists. The nation, they contended, had a critical role to play in advancing democracy in the world. Conservatives by contrast were isolationist. In the 1940s and 1950s, U.S. Senator Howard Taft of Ohio, leader of the Conservative wing, was an isolationist.
Conservatives now call for a strong national defense.
Moderates were successful in underscoring government's basic usefulness and its social responsibility to help people. No Conservative, for example, supports the elimination of Medicare. Even on tax policy, Moderates were the recognized leaders for fiscally prudent government. In 1944 and 1948, Thomas E. Dewey and later Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1952 and 1956, tirelessly criticized the waste of Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal programs. They set the Moderate standard that while government must be compassionate, it must also be fiscally responsible.