Republican Party (United States)

This article is about the modern United States Republican Party. For the older Republican Party, which is now known as the Democratic-Republican Party, see Democratic-Republican Party (United States).
The Republican Party, often called the GOP (for Grand Old Party, although one early citation described it as the Gallant Old Party) [1], is one of the two major political parties in the United States. The current President of the United States, George W. Bush, is a member of the party – and its de facto leader – and it currently has majorities in the Senate and the House, as well as in governorships. In the modern political era, the GOP is the more conservative of the two major parties.

Organized in Ripon, Wisconsin on February 28, 1854, as a party opposed to the expansion of slavery into new territories, it is not to be confused with the Democratic-Republican party of Thomas Jefferson or the National Republican Party of Henry Clay. The first convention of the U.S. Republican Party was held on July 6, 1854, in Jackson, Michigan. Many of its initial policies were inspired by the defunct Whig Party. Many of its early members came from the Free Soil Party and American Party. Since its inception, its chief opposition has been the Democratic Party.

The Republican 2004 political platform A Safer World and a More Hopeful America expresses commitment to:

Winning the War on Terror

Ushering in an Ownership Era

Building an Innovative Economy to Compete in the World

Strengthening Our Communities and

Protecting Our Families.

Major policies that the party has supported recently include tax cuts, changes to Social Security, and the 2003 invasion of Iraq, as well as allowing federal court jurisdiction in the case of Terri Schiavo; obviously, these positions all drew limited amounts of controversy within the party as well. The party holds socially conservative stances on such issues as gay rights and abortion

The official symbol of the Republican Party is the elephant. Although the elephant had occasionally been associated with the party earlier, a political cartoon by Thomas Nast, published in Harper's Weekly on November 7, 1874, is considered the first important use of the symbol [1]. In the early 20th century, the traditional symbol of the Republican Party in Midwestern states such as Indiana and Ohio was the eagle, as opposed to the Democratic rooster. This symbol still appears on Indiana ballots.

Organization

For more information on how American political parties are organized, see Politics of the United States.

The Republican National Committee (RNC) of the United States is responsible for developing and promoting the Republican political platform, as well as for coordinating fundraising and election strategy. There are similar committees in every U.S. state and most U.S. counties (though in some states, party organization lower than state-level is arranged by legislative districts). It is the counterpart of the Democratic National Committee. The chairman of the RNC, since January of 2005, is Ken Mehlman.

The Republican Party also has fundraising and strategy committees for House races (National Republican Congressional Committee), Senate races (National Republican Senatorial Committee), and gubernatorial races (Republican Governors Association).

History

John C. Fr�mont ran as the first Republican nominee for President in 1856, using the political slogan: "Free soil, free labor, free speech, free men, Fr�mont." Although Fr�mont's bid was unsuccessful, the party grew especially rapidly in Northeastern and Midwestern states, where slavery had long been prohibited, culminating in a sweep of victories in the Northern states. The ensuing election of Abraham Lincoln in 1860 ended the domination of the fragile coalition of pro-slavery southern Democrats and conciliatory northern Democrats which had existed since the days of Andrew Jackson. Instead, a new era of Republican dominance based in the industrial north ensued.

With the end of the Civil War came the upheavals of Reconstruction under Democratic President Andrew Johnson (who had bitter disputes with the Republicans in Congress, who eventually impeached him) and Ulysses S. Grant, a Republican. For a brief period, Republicans assumed control of Southern politics (due especially to the former slaves receiving the vote while it was denied to many whites who had participated in the Confederacy), forcing drastic reforms and frequently giving former slaves positions in government. Reconstruction came to an end with the election of Rutherford B. Hayes through the Compromise of 1877.

Though states' rights was a cause of both Northern and Southern states before the War, control of the federal government led the Republican Party to support an active role for the federal government. The patriotic unity that developed in the North because of the war led to a string of military men as President, and an era of international expansion and domestic protectionism. As the rural Northern postbellum economy mushroomed with industry and immigration, support for commerce and industry became a hallmark of Republican policy. From the Reconstruction era up to the turn of the century, the Republicans benefited from the Democrats' association with the Confederacy and dominated national politics – albeit with strong competition from the Democrats, especially during the 1880s. With the two-term presidency of Ulysses S. Grant, the party became known for its strong advocacy of commerce, industry, and veterans' rights.

During the 1880s and 1890s, the Republicans struggled against the Democrats' efforts, winning several close elections and losing two to Grover Cleveland (in 1884 and 1892). The election of William McKinley in 1896 is widely seen as a resurgence of Republican dominance and is sometimes cited as a realigning election. He relied heavily on industry for his support and cemented the Republicans as the party of business; his campaign manager, Ohio's Marcus Hanna, developed a detailed plan for getting contributions from the business world, and McKinley outspent his rival William Jennings Bryan by a large margin. This emphasis on business was in part mitigated by Theodore Roosevelt, McKinley's successor after assassination, who engaged in trust-busting.

Roosevelt did not seek another term in 1908, instead endorsing Secretary of War William Howard Taft as his successor, but the widening division between progressive and conservative forces in the party resulted in a third-party candidacy for Roosevelt on the Progressive, or "Bull Moose" ticket in the election of 1912. He finished ahead of Taft, but the split in the Republican vote resulted in a decisive victory for Democrat Woodrow Wilson, temporarily interrupting the Republican era.

The party controlled the presidency throughout the 1920s, running on a platform of isolationism and "laissez-faire" economics, although economic isolationism (tariffs, etc.) and laissez-faire economics are mutually exclusive. (Many believe that true laissez-faire economic policy ended with the 1896 Democratic Candidacy of William Jennings Bryan) Warren G. Harding, Calvin Coolidge and Herbert Hoover were resoundingly elected in 1920, 1924, and 1928 respectively, but the Great Depression cost Hoover the presidency with the landslide election of Franklin Delano Roosevelt in 1932. Roosevelt's New Deal coalition controlled American politics for the next three decades, excepting the two-term presidency of World War II General Dwight Eisenhower.

The post-war emergence of the United States as one of two superpowers and rapid social change caused the Republican Party to divide into a conservative faction (dominant in the West and Southeast) and a liberal faction (dominant in New England) – combined with a residual base of inherited progressive Midwestern Republicanism active throughout the century. A Republican like U.S. Sen Robert Taft of Ohio represented the Midwestern wing of the party that continued to oppose New Deal reforms and continued to champion isolationism. Thomas Dewey represented the Northeastern wing of the party that was closer to Democratic liberalism and internationalism. In the end, the isolationists were marginalized by those who supported a strong U.S. role in opposing the Soviet Union throughout the world, as embodied by President Eisenhower. However, this development did not represent the end of the story. The seeds of conservative dominance in the Republican party were planted in the nomination of conservative Barry Goldwater over liberal Nelson Rockefeller as the Republican candidate for the 1964 presidential election.

One element of the New Deal coalition was the "Solid South", a term describing the Southern states' reliable support for Democratic presidential candidates. Goldwater's electoral success in the South, and Nixon's successful Southern strategy four years later, represented a significant political change, as Southern white protestants began moving into the party, largely in reaction to national Democratic Party's support for the Civil Rights Movement. The remaining pockets of liberal Republicanism in the northeast began to die out as the region turned solidly Democratic. In The Emerging Republican Majority, Kevin Phillips, then a Nixon strategist, argued (based on the 1968 election results) that support from Southern whites and growth in the Sun Belt, among other factors, was driving an enduring Republican electoral realignment.

Any enduring Republican majority, however, was put on hold when the Watergate Scandal forced Nixon to resign under threat of impeachment. Gerald Ford succeeded Nixon under the 25th Amendment and struggled to forge a political identity separate from his predecessor. The taint of Watergate and the nation's economic difficulties contributed to the election of Democrat Jimmy Carter in 1976, a Washington outsider.

The trends Phillips described, however, could be seen in the 1980 and 1984 elections of Ronald Reagan - the latter being a landslide in which Reagan won nearly 59% of the popular vote and carried 49 of the 50 states - as well as the Newt Gingrich-led "Republican Revolution" of 1994 and its Contract With America. The latter was the first time in 40 years that the Republicans secured control of both houses of U.S. Congress, which, with the exception of the Senate during 2001-2002, has been retained through the present time.

That year, the GOP campaigned on a platform of major reforms of government with measures, such as a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution and welfare reform. These measures and others formed the famous Contract with America, which were subsequently considered by the Congress, although not all items passed. Democratic President Bill Clinton opposed many of the social agenda initiatives, with welfare reform and a balanced federal budget notable exceptions. The Republican-controlled House of Representatives also failed to muster the two-thirds majority required to pass one of the most popular proposals – a Constitutional amendment to impose term limits on members of Congress. In 1995, a budget battle with Clinton led to the brief shutdown of the federal government, an event which contributed to Clinton's victory in the 1996 election.

With the victory of George W. Bush in the closely contested 2000 election, the Republican party gained control of the presidency and both houses of Congress for the first time since 1952. When Vermont Republican Senator James Jeffords switched parties, Republicans temporarily lost control of the Senate until 2002. In the wake of the September 11 terrorist attacks on the United States, however, Bush's popularity rose as he pursued a "War on Terrorism" that included the invasion of Afghanistan and the USA Patriot Act.

The Republican Party fared well in the 2002 midterm elections, solidifying its hold on the House and regaining control of the Senate, in the run-up to the war in Iraq. This marked just the third time since the Civil War that the party in control of the White House gained seats in both houses of Congress in a midterm election (others were 1902 and 1934). On November 2, 2004, Bush was re-elected to a second term. Bush received 51% of the popular vote, becoming the first presidential candidate to win a majority of the popular vote since 1988. Republicans gained additional seats in both houses of Congress, leaving Democrats again in the minority.

Thus, by 2006, Republicans will have controlled the White House for 26 of the previous 38 years, and the Congress since 1994 (with the brief interruption in the Senate). Conservative commentators speculate, and Republicans hope, that this may constitute a permanent realignment. Karl Rove, President Bush's chief political advisor, has been reported to be a keen student of the presidential election of 1896, in which Mark Hanna helped William McKinley construct a Republican majority that lasted for the next 36 years.

Some left-leaning commentators, such as Ruy Teixeira and John Judis (in The Emerging Democratic Majority, 2002), see such prospects as unlikely, given that Republican voters are overwhelmingly white and often rural, two groups shrinking in relative demographic terms, while Democrats tend to win healthy majorities among Hispanics, African Americans, and city dwellers. Their conservative counterparts, however, point to Bush's relative success among Hispanic voters, winning 35% of their vote in 2000 and 44% in 2004. (Among African American voters, Bush - like all recent Republican presidential candidates - lost overwhelmingly both times, though he did manage to increase his support from 9% in 2000 to 11% in 2004.) They also point to Republican strength in quickly growing exurbs and in the booming metropolitan areas of the South.

Factions of the Republican Party

It should be noted defining the views of any "faction" of any political party is difficult at best, and that any attempt to apply labels within a single political party is no more effective than the application of broad labels to political parties as a whole. Keeping that in mind, there are several ideological groups recognized by some in the modern-day GOP, including the religious right, paleoconservatives, neoconservatives, moderates, fiscal conservatives, and libertarians.

For more information on the factions in the Republican Party, see Factions in the Republican Party (United States).