I won't disagree that guns and butter was a big part of it, note that I did include paying for vietnam in addition to Great Society programs. But you have to also realize that at the time, the French made demands for gold in return for the large dollar deposits they had. Nixon knew we did not have reserves that would substantiate a $35 oz price, so he decontrolled it.
Nixon did many things that were "Liberal" for a variety of less than liberal reasons: like Affirmative Action, which was simply a retaliation against Philadelphia Unions that got out of control and now dominates our society....to its detriment.
My main point remains: the Republican party is not a "conservative" party in history. It started out as a radical party, and later adopted an outlook mainly popular with large banks. It morphed into the "conservative" party in the 50's in opposition to the essentially Socialist Democratic party ( a Communist institution by then ). But it retains a history of social liberals: Earl Warren, Richard Nixon, the Rockefellers, the Bush's, etc.
The Republican party is not yet the American Conservative party. It is still the Internationalist party of the New York bankers, but because the Democrats abandoned the White working and middle classes, the Republicans got them by a weak adoption of middle class values.
Only when they truly become the party of those voters will it be a "conservative" party. Until then, they are almost - but not completely - as guilty of the liberal sins that are pointed out here.
And remember that much of this is not organic - it is the deliberate work of the Frankfurt School propagandists and its adherents. To not recognize that and even to simply let it go is to be malfeasant, and on that score, they have a weak record, if not complicity. When, and if, they realize that it is a cultural war, and they join the fight wholeheartedly, then they will have changed to something definitive.
Great post.