The Three Leg Stool (GOP)

Ronald Reagan coined the term as a way to describe the Republican party as a three part coalition based on the social conservatives (consisting of the Christian right and paleo-conservatives), war hawks (consisting of interventionists and neoconservatives), and fiscal conservatives (consisting of right-libertarians and free-market capitalists), with overlap between the sides.

[4] During the election of 1980, Ronald Reagan described the party as a three-legged stool, most combining their different brands of conservatism in opposition to the Soviet Union and the spread of Communism during the Cold War.

This political philosophy is often branded as fusionism as both groups have overlapping interests as Libertarian philosopher Frank Meyer as both shared values and most importantly enemies.

[5] During the 2007 Iowa caucuses, Mitt Romney carried a physical three-legged stool, explaining the importance of each leg.

"[6] Senator Spencer Abraham has also criticized the stool, saying, "The Republican party has much greater divides now in terms of the feelings of its voters than it did when Reagan ran.