I don’t think they ever truly were. They’ve always supported the expansion of the military and police, having shit loads of foreign military bases, controlling women, controlling the LGBTQ+. The only way they could ever be considered to be wanting less government is in the form of their laissez-faire, pro-privitization economic policy, which just lets corporations do whatever the hell they like. So all it is, is trading one form of control to another. Instead of government controlling things, corporations control everything.

The GOP platform is, and always has been anti-freedom.