He's talking about them since they grabbed the gig from Dems back in 1964 with the Civil Rights Act and capped in 1965 with Voting Rights Act which allowed Coloreds to be treated as real Americans, something conservatives where SURPRISE! even MORE opposed to then than they are today.
With possibly the exception of George HW Bush Sr (who Republicans derided as what?) Republicans have routinely sought to gop out of their way to control people's lives literally - and especially - all the way into the bedroom.
Segregation?
Miscegenation?
No homosexuality, let alone, marriage?
From obstructing the right to equal rights for Blacks, Latins, Native Americans, women, etc and duking it out with all those yecky Hippies to Punks and all the other disrupters of the conservative conformist ideals, Conservatives - formally Dems and now Repubs for a half century and counting - have stood as the bearers of maintaining constipated control over every aspect of people's lives under the guise of the demands a moral majority, and demonizing freedom and liberty for those on the fringes who dare be uppity.
Republicans typically EXPAND Federal gov't reach, and have stimulated our way out of recessions by hiring Federal workers by the tens of thousands, thusly expanding gov't in intent, function, as well as numbers.
This is where you tell me CNN MSM lies told me so, so I kindly refer you to Google it, since you're obviously too young to have lived through this as your eigth grade quip shows, and are thusly going by revisionist propaganda.
Image vs reality is a thang.