A serious version of the Musk tweet. Dems 20 years ago were more moderate. The Republicans were pretty conservative then. The center was slightly conservative. This is most obvious on homosexuality and gay marriage, but also on immigration.
I think the bigger story is how the GOP at the political office level has been captured by the more extreme ends of its party on things like LGBT issues and immigration in the last decade, despite a public shift on those topics.
This old Economist piece shows the Swedish V-Dem Institute's populism and illiberalism indices that were developed from a survey of 665 experts.
The populism index measures the extent to which a political party is against elites and favours majority rule over consensus. The illiberalism index measures the extent to which a political party will engage in personal attacks against its opponents, support free speech and fair elections, violate the rights of minorities, and encourage violence against political rivals.
Anyone not asleep over the last decade will be aware that populism and illiberalism are on the rise in various countries.
The 2018 GOP ranks high on both counts unfortunately, and I don't think things have improved in the last 4 years in this regard given January 6th.