Republican Party (United States)

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Republican Party
Chairman Ronna Romney McDaniel (MI)[1]
President Donald Trump (NY)[2]
Vice President Mike Pence (IN)[3]
Speaker of the House Paul Ryan (WI)[1]
House leader Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (CA)[1]
Senate leader Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (KY)[1]
Founded March 20, 1854 (1854-03-20)
Preceded by Whig Party
Free Soil Party
Headquarters 310 First Street SE
Washington, D.C. 20003
Student wing College Republicans
Youth wing Young Republicans
Teen Age Republicans
Women's wing National Federation of Republican Women
Overseas wing Republicans Abroad
Membership  (2012) 30.7 million[4]
Ideology Conservatism[5]
Economic liberalism[6]
Fiscal conservatism[7]
Social conservatism[8]
International affiliation International Democrat Union
European affiliation Alliance of European Conservatives and Reformists[9] (regional partner)
Regional affiliation Asia Pacific Democrat Union[10]
Website
www.gop.com

The United States Republican Party is one of the two biggest political parties in the United States of America. The other large party is the Democratic Party. The United States also has many other small parties known as third parties.

The Republicans are often called "the right" or "conservatives". The Republican Party itself is also known as the GOP, which stands for "Grand Old Party." The symbol of the Republican party is the elephant. This symbol was first used in 1874 in a political cartoon (pictured), by Thomas Nast.[11]

The Republican National Committee is the main organization for the Republican Party in all 50 states. Ronna Romney McDaniel is the current RNC Chairperson. The Republican Party is not the same political party as the Democratic-Republican Party. The Republican Party is based in Washington, D.C. A mostly Republican state is sometimes called a "red state".

History[change | change source]

1874 cartoon in Harpers Weekly, first use of the elephant as symbol for the Republican party.

The Republican Party was founded in Ripon, Wisconsin in 1854.[12] It was created by the support of Francis Preston Blair. Its formation was based around opposition to the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854, which would allow each territory to allow slavery if they wanted to. It was founded by previous members of the Free Soil Party and the Whig Party. They wanted to stop the expansion of slavery because they believed that it was against the ideals of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence. Some founders wanted to abolish slavery everywhere in the United States. The first Republican candidate for president was John C. Frémont in 1856.

Ronald Reagan is thought to be a "conservative icon" and hero.

As the Whig Party collapsed, the Republicans became the second major party (the Democratic Party being the first). In 1860 Abraham Lincoln, the first Republican president, was elected. For the rest of the second half of the 19th century, the country had mostly Republican presidents. From 1860 until 1912 the Republicans lost the presidential election just twice (non-consecutively to Democrat Grover Cleveland in 1884 and 1892).

Republicans believed in protectionism (the belief that raising taxes on trades with foreign nations would protect the U.S. economy) during the second half of the 19th century and during the early half of the 20th century.

After World War I, the 1920s had three Republican presidents: Warren Harding, Calvin Coolidge, and Herbert Hoover. It was called the Republican Decade for that reason. Harding and Coolidge made a plan for the economy which lowered taxes, cut government spending, and regulated the economy less.

Near the end of the decade, the stock market crashed and the Great Depression was beginning. During the Great Depression, Republicans lost popularity and Democrats came into power and remained in power until 1953, when Dwight Eisenhower began his first of two consecutive terms as president. (He was re-elected in 1956.) Richard Nixon lost the election in 1960, but was elected president on the Republican ticket in 1968 and again in 1972.

Ronald Reagan, an actor and conservative political activist, was elected as president in 1980. He became the first Republican president who was a former member of the Democratic Party. This began a conservative era which would last until 1992. He served two terms and his successor George H.W. Bush served one term. Reagan renewed many ideas which had been left behind in the past, such as limited government in the economy and strengthening the military.

Bill Clinton (a Democrat) was elected president in 1992, and re-elected in 1996. However, a new Congress was elected in 1994, and Republicans gained control of both the House of Representatives and the Senate. They voted against many of Clinton's ideas and proposed ideas of their own such as a line item veto and a balanced budget amendment.

The Republicans lost control of Congress during 2006. Democrat Barack Obama was elected in 2008 and re-elected in 2012. The Republican Party has also gone against candidates of other political parties, such as the Libertarian Party and Green Party. House Speaker and U.S. congressman John Boehner was elected in the new Congress in 2010 and re-elected in 2012. In 2014, Republicans gained control of the senate and the house. Boehner resigned in early October 2015 and was eventually succeeded by Paul Ryan of Wisconsin on October 29.

On November 9, 2016, Donald Trump was elected president, defeating Democrat Hillary Clinton in the Electoral College. Trump was the first Republican to take office as president since January 20, 2001 when George W. Bush was inaugurated.

Current Republican beliefs[change | change source]

Currently, the Republican Party is identified as conservative and right-wing.

Not all Republicans believe in all of the same things, but generally these are the things many Republicans support:

  • The 2nd Amendment (oppose gun control)
  • The death penalty for certain cases
  • The U.S. having a strong military
  • The wars in Afghanistan and Iraq
  • A school voucher system (the government giving money to parents who send their kids to private school, in areas with a failing school system)
  • Oppose illegal immigration, but support legal immigrants
  • Capitalism, laissez-faire or supply-side economics
  • Less government control of the economy
  • Less government spending
  • Lower taxes for everyone
  • Oppose government run health care
  • The 9th and 10th Amendments (the federal government should have less power over the states)
  • Abortion should be illegal in all or most cases
  • Oppose same-sex marriage, but in some cases not civil unions

U.S. presidents[change | change source]

President Abraham Lincoln

Republican presidents during the 1800s:

President
Ronald Reagan

Republican presidents during the 1900s:

President Donald Trump

Republican Presidents during the 2000s

Other famous Republicans[change | change source]

Senator
Barry Goldwater
President Pro Tempore
Orrin Hatch
Governor
Mitt Romney
Senator
John McCain

References[change | change source]

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 "National Leadership". Republican National Committee. https://www.gop.com/leaders/national/. Retrieved 25 January 2017.
  2. ↑ Ian Schwartz (7 November 2016). "Krauthammer: Donald Trump Will Be De Facto Leader Of GOP Whether He Wins Or Loses, And He Can Win". RealClearPolitics.com. http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2016/11/07/krauthammer_donald_trump_will_be_de_facto_leader_of_gop_whether_he_wins_or_loses_and_he_can_win.html. Retrieved 10 November 2016.
  3. ↑ "Republican Party". Ballotpedia. https://ballotpedia.org/Republican_Party. Retrieved 10 November 2016.
  4. ↑ Samuel Kernell, Gary C. Jacobson, and Thad Kousser. "Background of Political Parties in the United States". ProCon.org. http://2012election.procon.org/view.resource.php?resourceID=004483. Retrieved November 9, 2012.
  5. ↑ Paul Gottfried, Conservatism in America: Making Sense of the American Right, p. 9, "Postwar conservatives set about creating their own synthesis of free-market capitalism, Christian morality, and the global struggle against Communism." (2009); Gottfried, Theologies and moral concern (1995) p. 12
  6. ↑ Laissez-faire capitalism and economic liberalism. Jstor.com. Retrieved on 2014-08-12.
  7. ↑ Quinn, Justin. "Fiscal Conservatism". about news. http://usconservatives.about.com/od/typesofconservatives/a/FiscalCons.htm.
  8. ↑ No Country for Old Social Conservatives?. Nair. Thecrimson.com. Retrieved on 2014-08-17.
  9. ↑ AECR membership
  10. ↑ Asia Pacific Democrat Union membership
  11. ↑ Cartoon of the Day: "The Third-Term Panic". Retrieved on 2008-09-01.
  12. ↑ "Republican Party founded". History.com. http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/republican-party-founded. Retrieved September 21, 2014.

Other websites[change | change source]

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