"Conservatives get the rhetoric; liberals get the…

U.S. President Richard Nixon (1913-1994, who served as president 1969-1974) was a Republican, but many of his policies were very liberal. Conservative Republicans weren’t happy with Nixon, but liberal Republicans were. Senate Minority Leader Hugh Scott (1900-1994), a liberal Republican from Pennsylvania, said in February 1970:

“The bulk of the president’s proposals have been progressive, bold, and innovative. We get the action and the conservatives get the rhetoric.”

“Conservatives get the rhetoric; liberals get the action” is a political saying that frustrates many conservatives, especially when Republicans are elected based, in part, on conservative support.

Wikipedia: Hugh Scott
Hugh Doggett Scott, Jr. (November 11, 1900 – July 21, 1994), was an American lawyer and politician. A member of the Republican Party, he represented Pennsylvania in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1941 to 1945, and from 1947 to 1959. He also represented the state in the U.S. Senate from 1959 to 1977. As a Senator, he served as Senate Minority Leader from 1969 to 1977. He was also chairman of the Republican National Committee from 1948 to 1949.

13 February 1970, Tipton (IN)

, “Inside Washington” by Henry Cathcart, pg. 6, col. 3:
WASHINGTON—Senate Minority Leader Hugh Scott, a liberal Republican running for re-election in Pennsylvania, is a disarmingly frank man. Asked recently if President Nixon’s “conservatism” has hurt him in his home state, Scott replied that the administration may be conservative in words and in some appointments, but not in action.

“The bulk of the president’s proposals have been progressive, bold, and innovative,” Scott said, “We get the action and the conservatives get the rhetoric.”

Google Books
National Review Bulletin
Volume 22
1970
Pg. 28:
“WE [THE LIBERALS] GET THE ACTION and the conservatives get the rhetoric,”

12 December 1971, Anchorage (AK) Daily News, “Leading conservative jumps on Nixon” by John Beckler (AP), pg. 13, col. 7:
(Conversation with Rep. John M. Ashbrook of Ohio.—ed.)
But conservatives feel that, except in the case of Supreme Court nominations, we tend to get just rhetoric while the liberals get the action.

9 January 1972, Greensboro (NC) Daily News, “The Ashbrook seminar” (editorial), pg. C4, col. 1:
The core of the complaint is that “(liberals) get the action and conservatives get the rhetoric.”

13 January 1972, Charleston (SC) Evening Post, “Political Notebook” by Kevin P. Phillips, pg. 12-A, col. 7:
Florida GOP Treasurer Ralph Singbush of Ocala says that the President has used Agnew “as a sop for us conservatives—we get the rhetoric and the liberals get the action.”

Google Books
Almost President:
The Men Who Lost the Race but Changed the Nation
By Scott Farris
Guilford, CT: Globe Pequot Press
2013
Pg. 147:
The Nixon administration was the last truly liberal administration of the twentieth century. The legacy is obscured by liberal antipathy toward Nixon because of his history of Red-baiting, his policies in Vietnam, the Watergate scandal, and Nixon’s conservative rhetoric. But the words were not matched by deeds. As liberal Republican congressman Hugh Scott, a Dewey ally, said of Nixon’s administration, “The conservatives get the rhetoric; we get the action.”

Twitter
Nelson Abdullah
‏@Oldironsides1
In case you didn’t notice. In Washington the conservatives are STILL getting the rhetoric and the liberals are STILL getting the action.
9:12 PM - 27 Jun 2015

The New American (Appleton, WI)
Thursday, 29 October 2015
John Boehner’s Final Betrayals
Written by Chip Wood
(...)
So once again, soon-to-be-ex-Speaker John Boehner proves the old adage, “Conservatives get the rhetoric, but liberals get the action.” Despite all of the promises that gave them majorities in the House and the Senate, the Republican leadership in Washington refuses to fight for less spending and smaller government.