The problem is that the Republican party now isn't the party of (the ex-Whig) Abraham Lincoln or Teddy Roosevelt. It's barely even the party of Ronald Reagan.
Talk is cheap. It's so cheap, hilariously, that when I went to read the Republican Party platform from their website the link was broken! It leads to their rules instead. This is a hilariously appropriate flub that befits the party's lack of real interest in principles. Maybe I could go back and look at the 2020 party platform except OOPS they didn't bother to update it because whereas the media was so mean to them, whatever whatever, Trump.
Republicans: the party of insane gerrymandering. Yes, Democrats do it too. Republicans do it "better". Yeah, let's stuff you in a district where your vote is almost guaranteed not to matter. Great for equal rights, eh?
Republicans: the party of anti-abortion laws. Nothing says individual freedom like "actually we're going to ignore all medical and scientific evidence, and tell women they have to bear children they didn't intend to conceive".
Republicans: the party of the Big Lie, because obviously ignoring the legitimately cast and accurately counted votes of tens of thousands of people is a great way to support classical liberal values, and not even remotely like, I dunno, Uganda or something. (No disrespect for Ugandans themselves, but the country's electoral system leaves something to be desired.)
Republicans: the party with the President who did more to make our allies not trust us than any other in recent history, because they were upset that "Our standing in world affairs has declined significantly--our enemies no longer fear us and our friends no longer trust us." Uh, wait, what, you mean Trump didn't read the 2016 platform (ahem) before dissing Nato, etc.?
The list goes on.
Actions speak louder than words.
The Republican party sometimes talks the talk (as long as they don't want to remove certain "offensive" books from schools right this second), but they don't walk the classical liberal walk (or follow their own platform) except when they find it politically expedient.