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Line 1: − + − + − | party_articletitle = Republican Party (United States)+ − + − + − + − | chairman = [[Ronna Romney McDaniel]] + − + − + − + − | foundation = March 20, 1854+ − + − | fiscalpolicy = [[Free Market]] − | socialpolicy = [[Conservative]] − − − + + − + − The Republican Party was created in 1854 by anti-slavery activists and has always stood for equal rights and the dignity of the individual. It soon swept to control of all the northern states, and in 1860 elected [[Abraham Lincoln]] president. The South seceded, and the Union side of the [[American Civil War]] was directed by Lincoln and the new party, with help from "War Democrats." The GOP (as it was increasingly made up of veterans of the GAR or Grand Army of the Republic) dominated the elections of the [[Third Party System]] (1854–1896) as well as the [[Fourth Party System]] or Progressive Era (1896–1932). However, the Democrats built a liberal [[New Deal Coalition]] under President [[Franklin D. Roosevelt]], and dominated the [[Fifth Party System]] (1932–1968), with the GOP only electing [[Dwight D. Eisenhower]] in that era. The [[Sixth Party System]], since 1968, has been dominated by the GOP. + − Unable to suppress minority voting rights for another century, in the 1960s Democrats sought to make Blacks dependent for food and housing on the Democratic party again with the [[War on Poverty]], as Blacks had been in the pre-Civil War plantation system. Democrats were determined that the party that freed the slaves would not become beneficiaries of the Freedmen's vote so they extended a system of economic co-dependency between white liberal racists and African Americans that has existed for centuries.<ref>[http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/lyndon-johnson-civil-rights-racism/amp Lyndon Johnson was a civil rights hero. But also a racist], by Adam Serwer, MSNBC, 04/11/14</ref> Only now the system of co-dependency is purchased with federal money rather than the [[private sector]] plantation system of the pre-Civil War era.<ref>[http://www.blackandblondemedia.com/2010/03/19/the-dixiecrat-myth/ The Dixiecrat Myth]</ref>+ + + + − 20 of the 30 US Presidents since 1861 have been Republicans and since that same year, a Republican has won 24 of the last 38 presidential elections. The party's most recent candidate, [[New York]] businessman [[Donald Trump]], along with his running mate, [[Indiana]] Governor [[Mike Pence]], won the [[2016 presidential election]] against Democrat challenger [[Hillary Clinton]] and her running mate [[Tim Kaine]].+ + − It is important to vote for someone who's more conservative on the issues rather than for a Republican due to the fact some Republicans are less conservative than typical Republicans (see: [[RINO]]). + − [[image:The_off_year_nast_1877.jpg|right|thumb|1877 Thomas Nast drawing of the Republican elephant.]]+ + − == Symbol ==+ − − A political term referring to the party is "G.O.P.", which was originally an acronym of "Grand Old Party". The term was coined in 1875.+ − ==Ideology==+ − Historically, the fundamental philosophy and political ideals of the Republican Party are founded on the idea that societal health is rooted in personal responsibility and actions. The Republican Party holds the belief that all material things are earned, not owed. This is seen most often in the party's push for lower taxes. This is fought for in an attempt to treat all citizens equally despite income, race, gender, or religion. They also see taxes as a drag on the economy, and believe private spending is usually more efficient than public spending. − Republicans also show concerns about having big government in charge of such vital issues as food, shelter, or health care, as they believe the private sector and/or the individual are better suited to control their own lives. President [[Ronald Reagan]] who became a Republican in the early 1960s after being a [[New Deal]]er at one time, has been quoted as saying "Government is not the solution, it is the problem."+ − + + + + + + + + + + − + + − In recent years the party has called for much stronger accountability in the public schools, especially through the "No Child Left behind Act" of 2001 (which also increased [[federal funding]] for schools). The party is split on the issue of federally funding embryonic stem cell research that involves the cloning and killing of human embryos. Many in the party think it is unethical to force taxpayers who believe this type of research is morally wrong to finance it. Historically Republicans have had a strong belief in [[individualism]], limited government, and business entrepreneurship.+ + + − In recent years, the Republican party has downplayed its emphasis on small government. Under the administration of [[George W. Bush]], the federal government has been expanded to record levels, surpassing even the Great Depression era.<ref>http://www.dhs.gov/index.shtm</ref> Additionally, the Bush administration has acted to nationalize the country's banking institutions in an effort to stymie the decline of the U.S. economy<ref>https://www.economist.com/finance/displaystory.cfm?story_id=12078933</ref>+ − '''''In 2016, the Republican Party adopted the most pro-life party platform in its entire history, with strong language recognizing the right to life of unborn human beings and condemning [[Planned Parenthood]].<ref>Ertelt, Steven; Bilger, Micaiah (July 18, 2016). [https://www.lifenews.com/2016/07/18/republicans-adopt-most-pro-life-platform-ever-condemning-abortion-and-planned-parenthood/ Republicans Adopt Most Pro-Life Platform Ever Condemning Abortion and Planned Parenthood]. ''LifeNews.com''. Retrieved December 26, 2016.</ref>''''' Between 1995 and 2018, the GOP become significantly more pro-life on the issue.<ref>Williams, Thomas D. (October 20, 2018). [https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2018/10/20/pew-republicans-trend-pro-life-dems-align-abortion-industry/ Pew: Republicans Trend Increasingly Pro-Life as Democrats Align with Abortion Industry]. ''Breitbart News''. Retrieved October 20, 2018.</ref>+ + + + + + − Contrary to the claims of liberals and Democrats, the GOP better represent the poor in the U.S., while Democrats represent the wealthy.<ref>Starr, Penny (October 21, 2018). [https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2018/10/21/economic-profile-50-states-republicans-represent-poor-democrats-rich/ Economic Profile of 50 States Reveals Republicans Represent the Poor, Democrats the Rich]. ''Breitbart News''. Retrieved October 21, 2018.</ref>+ − + − + − The party began in 1854, at the start of the [[Third Party System]]. The '''GOP''' (or "Grand Old Party" as it was nicknamed after 1880 by veterans of the Grand Army of the Republic, the '''GAR''') dominated national politics as the victors of the [[American Civil War]], including most of the [[Fourth Party System]] until 1932. Then the [[Fifth Party System]] (or "New Deal Coalition") was dominant until the late 1960s. Since 1968 the GOP has won 8 of 13 presidential elections (losing in 1976, 1992, 1996, 2008 and 2012). Its great rival is the party of segregation, slavery and Jim Crow, the [[Democratic Party#History|Democrat Party]]. − ===Third Party System: 1854–1896===+ − The Republican party began as a spontaneous grassroots protest against the [[Kansas-Nebraska Act]] of 1854, which allowed slavery into western territories where it had been forbidden by earlier compromises. The creation of the new party, along with the death of the [[Whig Party]], realigned American politics. The central issues were new, as were the voter alignments, and the balance of power in Congress. The central issues became slavery, race, civil war and the reconstruction of the Union into a more powerful nation, with rules changed that gave the vote to Blacks and former slaves. − ====Issues: Slavery====+ − Republican activists denounced the Kansas-Nebraska act as proof of the power of the [[Slave Power]]—the powerful class of slaveholders who were conspiring to control the federal government and to spread slavery nationwide. The name "Republican" gained such favor in 1854 because "[[Republicanism, U.S.|republicanism]]" was the paramount political value the new party meant to uphold. The name also echoed the former Jeffersonian party of the [[First Party System]]. The party founders adopted the name "Republican" to indicate it was the carrier of "republican" beliefs about civic virtue, and opposition to aristocracy and corruption.<ref>Gould (2003) pp 14-15; republicanism is explored in depth by Foner (1970).</ref> − − Two small cities of the Yankee diaspora, Ripon, Wisconsin, and Jackson, Michigan, claim the birthplace honors.<ref>There is also a myth that the town of Exeter, New Hampshire was first by six months, but nothing came of the secret meeting there and scholars dismiss the claim.</ref> Ripon held the first county convention on March 20, 1854. Jackson held the first statewide convention where delegates on July 6, 1854, declared their new party opposed to the expansion of slavery into new territories and selected a statewide slate of candidates. The Midwest took the lead in forming state party tickets, while the eastern states lagged a year or so. There were no efforts to organize the party in the South, apart from a few areas adjacent to free states. The new party was sectional, based in the northeast and northern Midwest—areas with a strong Yankee presence. It had only scattered support in slave states before the Civil War.<ref>There was some strength in border cities such as St. Louis, Louisville, Wheeling, and Baltimore.</ref> − The first presidential nomination in 1856 when to an obscure western explorer [[John C. Fremont]], as the party crusaded against the Slave Power with the slogan, "Free Soil, Free Labor, Free men, Fremont and victory!" Democrats warned darkly that disunion and Civil War would result. The remnants of the Know Nothing movement prevented the new party from sweeping the North, and the Democrats elected [[James Buchanan]]. By 1858 the Know Nothings were gone and the Republicans swept the North. The 1860 election seemed a certain victory, for the party had majorities in states with a majority of the electoral votes. In the event, the opposition split three ways, and [[Abraham Lincoln]] coasted to an easy victory, carrying 18 states with 190 electoral votes, while the opposition carried 15 states (mostly in the South) with 123 electoral votes. Lincoln had 1.9 million popular votes.+ − ====Modernization====+ − Besides opposition to slavery, the new party put forward a modernizing vision—emphasizing higher education, banking, railroads, industry and cities, while promising free homesteads to farmers. It vigorously argued that free-market labor was superior to slavery and the very foundation of civic virtue and true American values - this is the "Free Soil, Free Labor, Free Men" ideology explored by historian Eric Foner.<ref>Foner, Eric. ''Free Soil, Free Labor, Free Men''. 1993.</ref> The Republicans absorbed the previous traditions of its members, most of whom had been [[Whig Party|Whigs]], and some of whom had been Democrats or members of third parties (especially the [[Free Soil Party]] and Know-Nothings (American Party). Many [[U.S. Democratic Party, history|Democrats]] who joined up were rewarded with governorships.<ref>They included [[Nathaniel P. Banks]] of Massachusetts, [[Kinsley Bingham]] of Michigan, [[William H. Bissell]] of Illinois, [[Salmon P. Chase]] of Ohio, [[Hannibal Hamlin]] of Maine, [[Samuel J. Kirkwood]] of Iowa, [[Ralph Metcalf]] of New Hampshire, [[Lot Morrill]] of Maine, and [[Alexander Randall]] of Wisconsin).</ref> or seats in the U.S. Senate.<ref>The senators included Bingham and Hamlin, as well as [[James R. Doolittle]] of Wisconsin, [[John P. Hale]] of New Hampshire, [[Preston King]] of New York, [[Lyman Trumbull]] of Illinois, and [[David Wilmot]] of Pennsylvania.</ref> Since its inception, its chief opposition has been the Democratic Party, but the amount of flow back and forth of prominent politicians between the two parties was quite high from 1854 to 1896. − ====Ethnocultural voting====+ − Historians have explored the ethnocultural foundations of the party, along the line that ethnic and religious groups set the moral standards for their members, who then carried those standards into politics. The churches also provided social networks that politicians used to sign up voters. The pietistic churches, heavily influenced by the revivals of the [[Second Great Awakening]], emphasized the duty of the Christian to purge sin from society. Sin took many forms—alcoholism, polygamy and slavery became special targets for the Republicans. The Yankees, who dominated New England, much of upstate New York, and much of the upper Midwest were the strongest supporters of the new party. This was especially true for the pietistic Congregationalists and Presbyterians among them and (during the war), the Methodists, along with Scandinavian Lutherans. The Quakers were a small tight-knit group that was heavily Republican. The liturgical churches (Roman Catholic, Episcopal, German Lutheran), by contrast, largely rejected the moralism of the GOP; most of their adherents voted Democratic.<ref>Kleppner (1979) has extensive detail on the voting behavior of groups.</ref> − + − [[John C. Frémont]] ran as the first Republican nominee for [[President of the United States|President]] in 1856, using the [[political slogan]]: "[[United States Free Soil Party#Positions|Free soil, free labor, free speech, free men]], Frémont." Although Frémont's bid was unsuccessful, the party showed a strong base. It dominated in New England, New York and the northern Midwest, and had a strong presence in the rest of the North. It had almost no support in the South, where it was roundly denounced in 1856-60 as a divisive force that threatened civil war. The 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 and agricultural north ensued. Republicans still often refer to their party as the "party of Lincoln" in honor of the first Republican President.+ − {{See also|Third Party System}} − ====Civil War: 1861–1865====+ − Lincoln proved brilliantly successful in uniting the factions of his party to fight for the Union.<ref>Goodwyn 2005</ref> However he usually fought the [[Radical Republicans]] who demanded harsher measures. Most Democrats at first were [[War Democrats]], and supportive until the fall of 1862. When Lincoln added the abolition of slavery as a war goal, many war Democrats became "peace Democrats." All the state Republican parties accepted the antislavery goal except Kentucky. In Congress, the party passed major legislation to promote rapid modernization, including a national banking system, high tariffs, an income tax, many excise taxes, paper money issued without backing ("greenbacks"), a huge national debt, homestead laws, and aid to education and agriculture. The Republicans denounced the peace-oriented Democrats as [[Copperheads]] and won enough [[War Democrats]] to maintain their majority in 1862; in 1864, they formed a coalition with many War Democrats as the "National Union Party" which reelected Lincoln easily, then folded back into the Republican party. During the war, upper-middle-class men in major cities formed [[Union League]]s, to promote and help finance the war effort.+ − ====Reconstruction: Blacks, Carpetbaggers and Scalawags====+ − [[File:Kkk-carpetbagger-cartoon.jpg|left|300px|thumb|A cartoon threatening that the KKK will lynch [[scalawag]]s (left) and [[carpetbagger]]s (right) on March 4, 1869, the day President Grant takes office. Tuscaloosa, Alabama, Independent Monitor, September 1, 1868. A full-scale scholarly history analyzes the cartoonː Guy W. Hubbs, Searching for Freedom after the Civil War: Klansman, Carpetbagger, Scalawag, and Freedman (2015).<ref>Hubbs, Guy W. (May 15, 2015). [https://books.google.com/books?id=KIVoCQAAQBAJ&source=gbs_navlinks_s "Searching for Freedom after the Civil War: Klansman, Carpetbagger, Scalawag, and Freedman"]. University Alabama Press.</ref>]] − In [[Reconstruction]], how to deal with the ex-Confederates and the freed slaves, or [[Freedmen]], were the major issues. By 1864, [[Radical Republicans]] controlled Congress and demanded more aggressive action against slavery, and more vengeance toward the Confederates. Lincoln held them off, but just barely. Republicans at first welcomed President [[Andrew Johnson]]; the Radicals thought he was one of them and would take a hard line in punishing the South. Johnson, however, broke with them and formed a loose alliance with moderate Republicans and Democrats. The showdown came in the Congressional elections of 1866, in which the Radicals won a sweeping victory and took full control of Reconstruction, passing key laws over the veto. Johnson was impeached by the House, but acquitted by the Senate. With the election of [[Ulysses S. Grant]] in 1868, the Radicals had control of Congress, the party and the Army, and attempted to build a solid Republican base in the South using the votes of [[Freedmen]], [[Scalawags]] and [[Carpetbaggers]], supported directly by U.S. Army detachments. Republicans all across the South formed local clubs called [[Union League]]s that effectively mobilized the voters, discussed issues, and when necessary fought off [[Ku Klux Klan]] attacks. Thousands died on both sides. − Grant supported radical reconstruction programs in the South, the 14th Amendment, and equal civil and voting rights for the freedmen. Most of all he was the hero of the war veterans, who marched to his tune. The party had become so large that factionalism was inevitable; it was hastened by Grant's tolerance of high levels of corruption typified by the [[Whiskey Ring]]. The "[[Liberal Republican]]s" split off in 1872 on the grounds that it was time to declare the war finished and bring the troops home. Many of the founders of the GOP joined the movement, as did many powerful newspaper editors. They nominated [[Horace Greeley]], who gained unofficial Democratic support, but was defeated in a landslide. The depression of 1873 energized the Democrats. They won control of the House and formed "[[Redeemers|Redeemer]]" coalitions which recaptured control of each southern state, in some cases using threats and violence. + − Reconstruction came to an end when the contested election of 1876 was awarded by a special [[Electoral Commission (United States)|electoral commission]] to Republican [[Rutherford B. Hayes]] who promised, through the unofficial [[Compromise of 1877]], to withdraw federal troops from control of the last three southern states. The region then became the [[Solid South]], giving overwhelming majorities of its electoral votes and Congressional seats to the Democrats until 1964. + − + − + − Social pressure eventually forced most [[Scalawags]] to join the conservative/Democratic Redeemer coalition. A minority persisted and formed the "tan" half of the "Black and Tan" Republican party, a minority in every southern state after 1877. (DeSantis 1998) − + − The "GOP" (as it was now nicknamed) split into factions in the late 1870s. The Stalwarts, followers of Senator Conkling, defended the [[spoils system]]. The Half-Breeds, who followed Senator [[James G. Blaine]] of Maine, pushed for [[Civil service system|civil service reform]]. Independents who opposed the spoils system altogether were called "[[Mugwumps]]". In 1884 they rejected [[James G. Blaine]] as corrupt and helped elect Democrat [[Grover Cleveland]]; most returned to the party by 1888. − As the Northern post-bellum economy boomed with heavy and light industry, railroads, mines, and fast-growing cities, as well as prosperous agriculture, the Republicans took credit and promoted policies to keep the fast growth going. They supported [[free enterprise]] generally, hard money (i.e. the [[gold standard]]), high [[tariff]]s, and high pensions for Union veterans. By 1890, however, the Republicans had agreed to reform with the [[Sherman Anti-Trust Act]] and the [[Interstate Commerce Commission]], in response to complaints of large enterprise [[monopoly]] control by small business owners and farmers. The high [[McKinley Tariff]] of 1890 hurt the party and the Democrats swept to a landslide in the off-year elections, even defeating McKinley himself.+ − + − From 1860 to 1912, the Republicans took advantage of the association of the Democrats with "Rum, Romanism, and Rebellion". Rum stood for the liquor interests and the tavern keepers, in contrast to the GOP, which had a strong dry element. "Romanism" meant Catholics, especially Irish Americans, who ran the Democrat Party in every big city, and whom the Republicans denounced for political corruption. "Rebellion" stood for the Confederates who tried to break the Union in 1861, and the [[Copperheads]] in the North who sympathized with them. + − Demographic trends aided the Democrats, as the German and Irish Catholic immigrants were Democrats, and outnumbered the English and Scandinavian Republicans. During the 1880s and 1890s, the Republicans struggled against the Democrats' efforts, winning several close elections and losing two to Grover Cleveland (in [[United States presidential election, 1884|1884]] and [[United States presidential election, 1892|1892]]). Religious lines were sharply drawn [Kleppner 1979]. Methodists, Congregationalists, Presbyterians, Scandinavian Lutherans and other pietists in the North were tightly linked to the GOP. In sharp contrast, liturgical groups, especially the Catholics, Episcopalians, and German Lutherans, looked to the Democratic party for protection from pietistic moralism, especially prohibition. Both parties cut across the class structure, with the Democrats more bottom-heavy.+ − Cultural issues, especially prohibition and foreign language schools became important because of the sharp religious divisions in the electorate. In the North, about 50% of the voters were pietistic Protestants (Methodists, Scandinavian Lutherans, Presbyterians, Congregationalists, Disciples of Christ) who believed the government should be used to reduce social sins, such as drinking. Liturgical churches (Roman Catholics, German Lutherans, Episcopalians) comprised over a quarter of the vote and wanted the government to stay out of the morality business. Prohibition debates and referenda heated up politics in most states over a period of decades, as national prohibition was finally passed in 1918 (and repealed in 1932), serving as a major issue between the wet Democrats and the dry GOP.<ref>See Kleppner (1979)</ref>+ − ===Fourth Party System: 1896–1932: The Progressive Era ===+ − The election of [[William McKinley]] in 1896 was a realigning election that changed the balance of power, and introduced new rules, new issues and new leaders. It did not, however, see the emergence of a new major party. The Republican sweep of the 1894 Congressional elections presaged the McKinley landslide of 1896, which was repeated in 1900, thus locking the GOP in full control of the national government and most northern state governments. The GOP made major gains as well in the border states. The [[Fourth Party System]] was dominated by Republican presidents, with the exception of the two terms of Democrat segregationist [[Woodrow Wilson]], 1912-1920. − ====McKinley and realignment====+ − McKinley promised that high tariffs would end the severe hardship caused by the [[Panic of 1893]], and that the GOP would guarantee [[pluralism]] in which all groups would benefit. He denounced [[William Jennings Bryan]], the Democratic nominee, as a dangerous radical whose plans for "Free Silver" at 16-1 (or [[Bimetallism]]) would bankrupt the economy. − McKinley relied heavily on industry and the middle classes for his support and cemented the Republicans as the party of [[liberty]]; his campaign manager, Ohio's [[Mark Hanna]], developed a detailed plan for getting contributions from the business world, and McKinley outspent his rival [[William Jennings Bryan]] by a large margin. McKinley was the first president to promote [[pluralism]], arguing that prosperity would be shared by all ethnic and religious groups.+ − ====Progressive Republicans====+ − At the dawn of the 20th century, the Republican Party was regulating monopolies and promoting civil service reform, with progressivism finding a home within the GOP. − [[Theodore Roosevelt]], who became president in 1901, had the most dynamic personality in the nation. Roosevelt had to contend with men like Senator [[Mark Hanna]], whom he outmaneuvered to gain control of the convention in 1904 that renominated him. More difficult to handle was conservative House Speaker [[Joseph Gurney Cannon]]. + − Roosevelt achieved modest legislative gains in terms of railroad legislation and pure food laws. He was more successful in Court, bringing antitrust suits that broke up the [[Northern Securities]] trust and [[Standard Oil]]. Roosevelt moved left in his last two years in office but was unable to pass major Square Deal proposals. + + − Roosevelt did succeed in naming his successor Secretary of War [[William Howard Taft]] who easily defeated Bryan again in 1908.+ + − ====Progressive insurgents vs. Conservatives====+ − The GOP was divided between insurgents and stand-patters (liberals and conservatives, to use 21st-century terms). [[Theodore Roosevelt]] was an enormously popular president (1901–1909), and he transferred the office to [[William Howard Taft]]. Taft, however, did not have TR's enormous popularity nor his ability to bring rival factions together. When Taft sided with the standpatters under Speaker [[Joe Cannon]] and Senate leader [[Nelson Aldrich]], the insurgents revolted. Led by [[George Norris]] the insurgents took control of the House away from Cannon and imposed a new system whereby committee chairmanships depended on seniority (years of membership on the committee), rather than party loyalty. − The tariff issue was pulling the GOP apart. Roosevelt tried to postpone the issue but Taft had to meet it head on in 1909 with the [[Payne-Aldrich Tariff Act]]. Eastern conservatives led by [[Nelson A. Aldrich]] wanted high tariffs on manufactured goods (especially woolens), while Midwesterners called for low tariffs. Aldrich tricked them by lowering the tariff on farm products, which outraged the farmers. In a stunning comeback, the Democrats won control of the House in 1910, as the GOP rift between insurgents and conservatives widened. + − Roosevelt sided with the insurgents and, after long indecision, decided to run against Taft for the 1912 nomination. Roosevelt had to steamroll over insurgent Senator [[Robert LaFollette]] of Wisconsin, turning an ally into an enemy. Taft outmaneuvered Roosevelt and controlled the convention. Roosevelt walked out and formed a third party, the "Progressive" or "Bull Moose" party. Very few officeholders supported him, and the new party collapsed by 1914. With the GOP vote divided in half, Democrat [[Woodrow Wilson]] easily won the 1912 election, and was narrowly reelected in 1916.+ − With the defeat of Theodore Roosevelt and the Progressive Bull Moose party, along with the election of Woodrow Wilson, the parties switched progressive leadership, and the Democrat Party has been the party of big government ever since.+ − ====State and local politics====+ − The Republicans welcomed the [[Progressive Era]] at the state and local level. The first important reform mayor was [[Hazen S. Pingree]] of Detroit (1890–97) who was elected governor of Michigan in 1896. In New York City the Republicans joined nonpartisan reformers to battle [[Tammany Hall]], and elected Seth Low (1902–03). Samuel "Golden Rule" Jones was first elected mayor of Toledo as a Republican in 1897, but was re-elected as an independent when his party refused to renominate him. In Iowa Senator Albert Cummins came up with the "Iowa Idea" that blamed the trust or monopoly problem on the high tariff, angering the eastern industrialists and factory workers. Many Republican civic leaders, following the example of Mark Hanna, were active in the [[National Civic Federation]], which promoted urban reforms and sought to avoid wasteful strikes. − ====Harding-Coolidge-Hoover, 1920–1932====+ − − [[Image:Coolidge close.jpg|thumb|100px|left|Calvin Coolidge]] − The breakaway efforts of Senator [[Robert LaFollette]] in 1924 failed to stop a landslide for Coolidge, and his movement fell apart. The [[Teapot Dome Scandal]] threatened to hurt the party but Harding died and Coolidge blamed everything on him, as the opposition splintered in 1924. The pro-business policies of the decade seemed to produce unprecedented prosperity—until the Wall Street Crash of 1929 heralded the [[Great Depression]]. Although the party did very well in large cities and among ethnic Catholics in presidential elections of 1920-24, it was unable to hold those gains in 1928. By 1932 the cities—for the first time ever—had become Democratic strongholds. − The African American vote held for Hoover in 1932, but started moving toward Roosevelt. By 1940 the majority of northern blacks were voting Democrat. Southern blacks who could vote (in border states) were split; disenfranchised blacks in the South probably preferred the Republicans. + − The [[Great Depression]] cost Hoover the presidency with the [[United States presidential election, 1932|1932 landslide election]] of [[Franklin D. Roosevelt]]. Roosevelt's [[New Deal coalition]] controlled American politics for most of the next three decades, excepting the two-term presidency of Republican [[Dwight Eisenhower]].+ − ===Fifth Party System: 1932–1980===+ − Minority parties tend to factionalize and after 1936 the GOP split into a conservative faction (dominant in the West and Southeast) and a liberal faction (dominant in the Northeast) – combined with a residual base of inherited progressive Republicanism active throughout the century. [[United States presidential election, 1936|In 1936]] Kansas governor [[Alf Landon]] and his young followers defeated the [[Herbert Hoover]] faction. Landon generally supported most New Deal programs, but carried only two states in the Roosevelt landslide. − Senator [[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]], governor of New York, represented the Northeastern wing of the party. Dewey did not reject the New Deal programs but demanded more efficiency, more support for economic growth, and less corruption. He was more willing than Taft to support Britain in 1939-40. After the war, the isolationists wing strenuously opposed the [[United Nations]], and was half-hearted in opposition to world Communism. Senator [[William F. Knowland]] of California, sobriquet ''Senator from Formosa'' (Taiwan).+ − [[Dwight Eisenhower]], an internationalist allied with the Dewey wing, challenged Taft in 1952 on foreign policy issues. The two men were not far apart on domestic issues. Eisenhower's victory broke a 20-year Democrat lock on the White House. Eisenhower did not try to roll back the New Deal, but he did expand the Social Security system and built the Interstate Highway system.+ − The conservatives in 1964 made a comeback under the leadership of [[Barry Goldwater]] who defeated [[Nelson Rockefeller]] as the Republican candidate in the [[United States presidential election, 1964|1964 presidential convention]]. Goldwater was strongly opposed to the New Deal and the United Nations, but he rejected isolationism and containment, calling for an aggressive anti-Communist foreign policy.+ − Any long-term movement toward the GOP was interrupted by the [[Watergate Scandal]], which forced Nixon to resign in 1974 under threat of impeachment. [[Gerald Ford]] succeeded Nixon and gave him a full pardon—thereby giving the Democrats a powerful issue they used to sweep the 1974 off-year elections. Ford never fully recovered, and in 1976 he barely defeated [[Ronald Reagan]] for the nomination. The taint of Watergate and the nation's economic difficulties contributed to the election of Democrat [[Jimmy Carter]] in [[United States presidential election, 1976|1976]], running as a Washington outsider.+ − ====Civil Rights====+ − [[File:Nixon-and-Martin-Luther-King.png|right|300px|thumb|Dr. Martin Luther King's meeting with Vice President Nixon marked national recognition of King as leader of the civil rights movement.<ref>https://amgreatness.com/2018/07/29/the-switch-that-never-happened-how-the-south-really-went-gop/</ref>]]+ − + − Vice President [[Richard Nixon]] invited Dr. [[Martin Luther King, Jr.]] to Washington, D.C., for a meeting on 13 June 1957. This meeting, described by [[Bayard Rustin]] as a “summit conference,” marked national recognition of King's role in the civil rights movement (Rustin, 13 June 1957). Seeking support for a voter registration initiative in the South, King appealed to Nixon to urge Republicans in Congress to pass the 1957 Civil Rights Act and to visit [[the South]] to express support for civil rights. Optimistic about Nixon's commitment to improving race relations in the United States, King told Nixon, “How deeply grateful all people of goodwill are to you for your assiduous labor and dauntless courage in seeking to make the civil rights bill a reality.” − − Republican Attorney General Herbert Brownell originally proposed the Civil Rights Act of 1957. The bill passed 285-126 in the House with Republicans providing the majority of votes 167–19 and Democrats 118–107.<ref>HR 6127. CIVIL RIGHTS ACT OF 1957. PASSED. YEA SUPPORTS PRESIDENT'S POSITION. https://www.govtrack.us/congress/votes/85-1957/h42</ref> It then passed 72-18 in the Senate, with Republicans again supplying the majority of votes, 43–0 and Democrats voting 29–18. [[John Kennedy]] voted against it.<ref>HR. 6127. CIVIL RIGHTS ACT OF 1957. PASSED. https://www.govtrack.us/congress/votes/85-1957/s75</ref> It was the first federal civil rights legislation passed by the United States Congress since the Republicans passed the Civil Rights Act of 1875. − − ====Strength of Parties 1977==== − How the Two Parties Stood after the 1976 Election: − − {| class=wikitable − ! Party − ! Republican − ! Democrat − ! Independent − |- − ! Party ID (Gallup) − | 22% − | 47% − | 31% − |- − ! House − | 143 − | 292 − | − |- − ! Senate − | 38 − | 62 − | − |- − ! % House popular vote nationally − | 42% − | 56% − | 2% − |- − | align=right | in the East − | 41% − | 57% − | 2% − |- − | align=right | in the South − | 37% − | 62% − | 2% − |- − | align=right | in the Midwest − | 47% − | 52% − | 1% − |- − | align=right | in the West − | 43% − | 55% − | 2% − |- − ! Governors − | 12 − | 37 − | 1 − |- − ! rowspan=2 | State Legislators − | 2,370 − | 5,128 − | 55 − |- − | 31% − | 68% − | 1% − |- − ! State legislature control − | 18 − | 80 − | 1 * − |- − | align=right | in the East − | 5 − | 13 − | 0 − |- − | align=right | in the South − | 0 − | 32 − | 0 − |- − | align=right | in the Midwest − | 5 − | 17 − | 1 * − |- − | align=right | in the West − | 8 − | 18 − | 0 − |- − ! States' one party control<br>of legislature and governorship − | 1 − | 29 − | 0 − |- − |} − <nowiki>*</nowiki>The unicameral Nebraska legislature, in fact controlled by the Republicans, is technically nonpartisan. − − Source: Everett Carll Ladd Jr. ''Where Have All the Voters Gone? The Fracturing of America's Political Parties'' (1978) p. 6 − ====Moderate Republicans of 1940–80====+ − [[Image:Nelson Rockefeller.jpg|thumb|100px|right|Nelson Rockefeller]] − The term ''Rockefeller Republican'' was used mainly during 1960–80 to designate a faction of the party holding "moderate" views similar to those of the late [[Nelson Rockefeller]], governor of New York from 1959 to 1974 and vice president under President [[Gerald Ford]] in 1974–77. Before Rockefeller, [[Tom Dewey]], governor of New York 1942–54 and GOP presidential nominee in 1944 and 1948 was the leader. Dwight Eisenhower reflected many of their views. An important leader in the 1950s was Connecticut Republican Senator [[Prescott Bush]], father and grandfather of presidents of [[George H. W. Bush]] and [[George W. Bush]]. After Rockefeller left the national stage in 1976, this faction of the party was more often called "moderate Republicans," in contrast to the conservatives who rallied to [[Ronald Reagan]]. − Historically, Rockefeller Republicans were moderate or liberal on domestic and social policies. They favored New Deal programs, including regulation and welfare. They were very strong supporters of civil rights. They were strongly supported by big business on Wall Street (New York City). In fiscal policy, they favored balanced budgets and relatively high tax levels to keep the budget balanced. They sought long-term economic growth through entrepreneurship, not tax cuts. In state politics, they were strong supporters of state colleges and universities, low tuition, and large research budgets. They favored infrastructure improvements, such as highway projects. In foreign policy, they were internationalists and anti-Communists. They felt the best way to counter Communism was sponsoring economic growth (through foreign aid), maintaining a strong military, and keeping close ties to [[NATO]]. Geographically their base was the Northeast, from Pennsylvania to Maine.+ − ====Suburbia====+ − The suburban electorate passed the city electorate in the 1950s, as Eisenhower showed unusual strength there. The history of suburban politics is encapsulated in Nassau County (New York), just east of New York City, where a moderate Republican party machine operated. Despite predictions that the New Deal spelled the demise of the political machine, Nassau provided fertile ground for a party organization that rivaled its big-city Democrat counterparts. The traditionally GOP county underwent a booming expansion during 1945–60, with an influx of new residents, many with previous Democrat Party affiliations. In established villages and new housing developments such as [[Levittown]], under the canny leadership of J. Russel Sprague, the party used patronage and community organizing techniques to build its base among ethnic voters, young people, and new homeowners. The party expanded beyond its white Protestant base, with Italian Americans becoming particularly prominent in party leadership. Sprague was both party leader and county executive. That post was created in 1936 under a new charter engineered by Sprague to update a municipal apparatus unable to meet the infrastructure and development needs of a county that by 1960 had 1.3 million residents. Democrats and reformers had promoted charter revision for decades, and some consolidation of government services did take place. As county "boss," Sprague ruled with an iron hand. Nassau's pluralities for such candidates as Governor Thomas E. Dewey and President Dwight D. Eisenhower and Sprague's fundraising prowess made him a force in national party politics. He advocated a moderate, middle-of-the-road position that recognized expectations created by the New Deal while criticizing what were claimed to be Democrat excesses. After leaving elective office and party leadership, Sprague became a major campaign issue when the Democrats, in a 1961 historic upset, won the county executive post by both lambasting Sprague, tainted by a racetrack-stock scandal, and criticizing the developer-friendly "Spragueland" regime that had governed Nassau for decades. Soon after Sprague died in 1969, the Nassau GOP regained its control of the county government and reestablished virtual one-party rule until the 1990s.<ref>Marjorie Freeman Harrison, "Machine Politics Suburban Style: J. Russel Sprague and the Nassau County (New York) Republican Party at Midcentury." PhD dissertation Columbia U. 2005. 388 pp. − DAI 2005 66(5): 1925-A. DA3174807</ref> − An even longer reign of power characterized GOP machine control of Delaware County, Pennsylvania, a rural and suburban area south of Philadelphia. William McClure controlled the GOP from 1875 until his death in 1907; his son John J. McClure, was in control from 1907 until his death in 1965. McLarnon (1998) has four main findings. First, political machines were not confined to big cities; the demographic and political peculiarities of suburban counties lent themselves to continued domination by political machines long after the heyday of the city machine had passed. Secondly, neither the New Deal, immigration restriction, nor the rise of organized labor destroyed all the old Republican machines. Delaware was one of several similar counties in southeastern Pennsylvania where the GOP continued to hold sway throughout the 20th century. Thirdly, not all blacks switched their electoral loyalties to the Democrat Party in 1936. The black population of Chester, Delaware County's industrial city, generally voted Republican for offices below the presidential level. Finally, the citizens of Delaware County supported and continues to support the Republican machine because the machine delivered and continues to deliver those things that the citizens want most. At the beginning of the century, the machine provided food, work, and police protection to Chester's European and black immigrants. During Prohibition, it supplied the county with liquor. Through the Depression, patronage and close alliances with local industrialists kept a significant portion of machine loyalists employed. In the 1950s and 1960s the machine kept taxes low, initiated a war on organized vice, successfully defeated all threats to home rule, and discouraged blacks from settling in historically white communities. The trash was collected, the snow plowed, the streets repaired. The buses ran on time, the playgrounds and parks were clean, and the schools acceptably average. These were the most important concerns of a majority of county's citizens. While the citizens and their concerns changed over time, two things seem to have remained constant: the McClures', and their successors' ability to read and react to the needs of the electorate; and the fact that rarely, if ever, has a desire for honest, democratic government been high on Delaware County voters' list of priorities.<ref>John Morrison McLarnon, "Ruling Suburbia: A Biography of the McClure Machine of Delaware County, Pennsylvania." PhD dissertation U. of Delaware 1998. 616 pp. DAI 1998 58(12): 4780-A. DA9819160</ref>+ − The first southern states to trend Republican were on the periphery: North Carolina, Virginia, Texas, Tennessee, and Florida. Democrat [[George Wallace]] lost these voters in his 1968 presidential bid. The voters who first migrated to the Republican party were [[suburban]], prosperous New South types. The more Republican the South has become, the less racist.<ref>https://www.nationalreview.com/2015/06/democratic-party-racist-history-mona-charen/</ref>+ − ====Rise of the right====+ − [[Image:BarryGoldwater.jpg|right|thumb|220px|Barry Goldwater]] − [[Barry Goldwater]] crusaded against the Rockefeller Republicans, beating Rockefeller narrowly in the California primary of 1964. That set the stage for a conservative resurgence, based in the South and West, in opposition to the Northeast. Brennan (1995) stresses that conservatives in the late 1950s and early 1960s had many internal problems to overcome before they could mount an effective challenge to the hegemony of the distrusted Eastern Establishment, typified by [[Nelson A. Rockefeller]]. The conservative movement had some newspapers and magazines (especially [[William F. Buckley]]'s ''National Review'') and one charismatic national leader, Arizona Senator Barry Goldwater. The movement gained momentum once they had established a unity out of diverse elements on the Right with a common commitment to a militant anti-Communism, and once they had succeeded in mobilizing a grassroots base inside a number of state and local organizations in the Sun Belt on behalf of a draft Goldwater campaign in 1960. Although Nixon was acceptable to the conservatives, they worried that he compromised with Rockefeller in 1960. His defeat in 1960 removed a major obstacle and also gave ammunition to those who wanted "a choice, not an echo" (to echo a Goldwater slogan). After 1960 liberals and moderates in the Republican party failed to appreciate the magnitude of the challenge they faced on the grass-roots level. Taking up [[media bias]], they too equated their conservative opponents in the party with the "lunatic fringe" and did not take them seriously until they found themselves deposed by a grassroots insurgency of the sort unknown in the party since 1912.<ref>Brennan (1995) p, 59</ref> Goldwater's landslide defeat opened the way to a liberal Democrat resurgence, but did little to help the liberal wing of the GOP. The failures of the [[Great Society]], especially a wave of major urban [[riot]]s and a surge in [[violent crime]], led to major gains in 1966, and to Nixon's election in the chaotic 1968 election. The Democrats became deeply divided on the Vietnam war (which did not divide the GOP), and on issues of race, when Alabamian [[George C. Wallace]] set up a third party that carried much of the deep South. − As Goldwater faded to a lesser role after 1964, a new conservative hero emerged: in the largest and most trendy state film star [[Ronald Reagan]] was elected governor of California in 1966 and reelected in 1970. + − With the rise of conservatism, the national Republican Party became more ideologically homogeneous. This change occurred as conservative politicians and voters joined the party and their liberal counterparts abandoned the GOP. Events in New York State during the 1960s and 1970s facilitated this transformation. Here, ideological conservatives formed a third party for the express purpose of changing a state GOP that both symbolized and contributed to the national GOP's liberal viewpoint. The [[Conservative Party, New York|Conservative Party]] relied on the state's unique election law to crash the New York GOP, either by forcing its way in or by imposing a lethal electoral price. The GOP-Conservative Party relationship began in 1962 at sword's point but achieved a high degree of harmony in 1980. Initially, New York Republicans, led by Governor [[Nelson Rockefeller]], successfully marginalized the new party. As the conservative movement matured, however, the balance of power began to shift. When Nixon was elected president in 1968, the Conservative Party gained an external ally who proved invaluable. The third party achieved partial acceptance in 1970 with the election of [[James Buckley]] to the Senate. For much of the ensuing decade, however, Conservatives struggled with success suffering a series of damaging setbacks. Only in the late 1970s, did the party recover when it embraced a more modest agenda. Finally, the 1980 election settled the overall contours of the relationship between the two parties. Conservatives formed their party to force the state GOP to the right, to drive liberal Republicans from office, and allow ideologically conservative national Republicans to succeed in the state. By 1980, it had achieved these goals changing the nature of politics in the state. This resolution affected politics beyond the state by diminishing the importance of ideological liberals in the national GOP, thus freeing a more ideologically consistent national Republican Party to promote the rise of conservatism.<ref>Timothy J. Sullivan, "Crashing the Party: The New York State Conservative and Republican Parties, 1962-1980." PhD dissertation U. of Maryland, College Park 2003. 458 pp. DAI 2004 64(11): 4181-A. DA3112508</ref>+ + + − ===Sixth Party System===+ − ====Realignment: Republican inroads in the Solid South==== − :''See also: [[The South#Politics]] − In the century after Reconstruction ended in 1877, the white South identified with the [[Democrat Party]]. The Democrats' lock on power was so strong, the region was called the "Solid South." The Republicans controlled certain parts of the Appalachian and Ozark mountains (where slavery was never strong during the Civil War due to the lack of large plots of fertile soil), but they sometimes did compete for statewide office in the border states. Before 1964, the southern Democrats saw their party as the defender of the southern way of life, which included a respect for states' rights and an appreciation for traditional southern values. They repeatedly warned against the aggressive designs of Northern liberals and Republicans, as well as the civil rights activists they denounced as "outside agitators." Thus there was a serious barrier to becoming a Republican. − However, since 1964, the Democrat lock on the South has been broken. The long-term cause was that the region was becoming more like the rest of the nation and could not long stand apart in terms of racial segregation. Modernization that brought factories, businesses, and cities, and millions of migrants from the North; far more people graduated from high school and college. Meanwhile, the cotton and tobacco basis of the traditional South faded away, as former farmers moved to town or commuted to factory jobs. While liberal academics allege that the shift of the South to the Republican Party began in the 1960s, the evidence that it really began in the 1920s and the 1950s is undeniable.<ref>Trande, Sean (April 30, 2013). [http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2013/04/30/southern_whites_shift_to_the_gop_predates_the_60s_118172.html Southern Whites' Shift to the GOP Predates the '60s]. ''Real Clear Politics''. Retrieved September 9, 2016.</ref>+ − [[File:Partycivilrights.jpeg|right|200px|thumb|]] − The immediate cause of the political transition involved civil rights. The [[civil rights movement]] caused enormous controversy among southern Democrats with many attacking it as a violation of states' rights. When segregation was outlawed by a Republican appointed Supreme Court Chief Justice and by the [[bi-partisan]] Civil Rights acts of 1964 and 1965, a die-hard element resisted integration, led by Democrat governors [[Orval Faubus]] of Arkansas, [[Lester Maddox]] of Georgia, and, especially [[George Wallace]] of Alabama. These governors appealed to a less-educated, blue-collar electorate that on economic grounds was dependent on the Democrat Party, but opposed segregation. After the passage of the Civil Rights Act, most Southerners accepted the integration of most institutions, except public schools. With the old barrier to becoming a Republican removed, traditional Southerners joined the new middle class and the Northern transplants in moving toward the Republican party. Integration thus liberated Southern politics, just as [[Martin Luther King]] had promised. Meanwhile, the newly enfranchized black voters were bought off with Johnson's [[War on Poverty]] and supported Democrat candidates at the 85-90% level. − The South's transition to a Republican stronghold took decades. First the states started voting Republican in presidential elections—the Democrats countered that with a Southern Strategy that could carry some states in the region, such as [[Jimmy Carter]] in 1976 and 1980, and [[Bill Clinton]] in 1992 and 1996; the strategy did not work with [[Al Gore]] in 2000, or [[John Edwards]] in 2004. Barack Obama held Florida, North Carolina and Virginia and a sweep of House and Senate seats.+ − Since the 1970s some states elected Republican senators. Republicans made some inroads into legislatures and governorships and gerrymandering protected the African American and Hispanic vote (as required by the Civil Rights laws), but split up the remaining white Democrats so that Republicans mostly would win. In 2006 the Supreme Court endorsed nearly all of the redistricting engineered by [[Tom DeLay]] that swung the Texas Congressional delegation to the GOP in 2004.+ + − In addition to its white middle-class base, Republicans attracted strong majorities from the evangelical Christian vote, which had been nonpolitical before 1980. The national Democrat Party's support for liberal social stances such as [[abortion]] drove many former Democrats into a Republican party that was embracing the conservative views on these issues. Conversely, liberal Republicans in the northeast began to join the Democrat Party. In 1969 in ''The Emerging Republican Majority'', [[Kevin Phillips]], argued that support from Southern whites and growth in the [[Sun Belt]], among other factors, was driving an enduring Republican electoral [[realigning election|realignment]]. Today, the South is again solid, but the reliable support is for Republican presidential candidates. Exit polls in 2004 showed that Bush led Kerry by 70-30% among whites, who comprised 71% of the Southern voters. Kerry had a 90-9% lead among the 18% of the voters who were black. One-third of the Southerners said they were white evangelicals; they voted for Bush by 80-20%.<ref>See [https://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2004/pages/results/states/US/P/00/epolls.3.html exit polls]</ref>+ − Despite the shift towards the Republican Party on the presidential level, the South remained solidly Democratic on the state level through the 1980s, 1990s, and even into the 2000s in several states.<ref>Trande, Sean (September 9, 2010). [http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2010/09/09/misunderstanding_the_southern_realignment_107084.html Misunderstanding the Southern Realignment]. ''Real Clear Politics''. Retrieved September 9, 2016.</ref> The Republican Party only became dominant in the state-level in the 2010 elections, when it captured several state legislatures, among many other victories.<ref name="Hamby">Hamby, Peter (December 9, 2014). [https://www.cnn.com/2014/12/03/politics/southern-democrats/ The plight of the Southern Democrat]. ''CNN''. Retrieved September 9, 2016.</ref> After the 2014 elections, the GOP controlled every state legislature in the South with the sole exception of the Kentucky State House, in which the Democrats maintained a slim majority.<ref name="Hamby"/> Additionally by 2015, the GOP was dominant in every level of government across the South.<ref name="Hamby"/><ref>Cohn, Nate (December 4, 2014). [https://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/05/upshot/demise-of-the-southern-democrat-is-now-nearly-compete.html?_r=0 Demise of the Southern Democrat Is Now Nearly Complete]. ''The New York Times''. Retrieved September 9, 2016.</ref> In 2016, the GOP took the Kentucky State House in a landslide, making every legislature in the South GOP-controlled.<ref>Loftus, Tom (November 9, 2016). [http://www.courier-journal.com/story/news/politics/elections/kentucky/2016/11/08/control-kentucky-house-up-grabs/93344114/ GOP takes Ky House in historic shift]. ''Courier-Journal''. Retrieved November 9, 2016.</ref><ref>Brammer, Jack & Blackford, Linda (November 8, 2016). [https://www.kentucky.com/news/politics-government/article113464563.html Republicans take the Kentucky House after 95 years of Democratic control]. ''Lexington Herald-Leader''. Retrieved November 9, 2016.</ref>+ − ====Reagan Era====+ − :''Main article: [[Reagan Era]]'' − In 1980, [[Ronald Reagan]] won the Republican nomination and easily beat Carter and a breakaway Republican with his strong communication skills and message of economic freedom and strength against the [[Soviet Union]]. Reagan produced a major realignment with his 1980 and 1984 landslides. In 1980 the Reagan coalition was possible because of Democrat losses in most social-economic groups. In 1984 Reagan won nearly 60% of the popular vote and carried every state except his Democrat opponent Walter Mondale's home state of [[Minnesota]] and the District of Columbia, creating a record 525 electoral vote total (of 538 possible). Even in Minnesota, Mondale won by a mere 3,761 votes,<ref>http://uselectionatlas.org/RESULTS/state.php?year=1984&fips=27&f=1&off=0&elect=0</ref> meaning Reagan came within less than 3,800 votes of winning in all fifty states. − [[Image:Reagan and Buckley.jpg|left|thumb|220px|Reagan opened his presidency proclaiming "Government is the problem".]] − Running on a "Peace Through Strength" platform to combat the Communist threat and massive tax cuts to revitalize the economy, Reagan's strong but genial persona proved too much for the ineffective and sour Carter in 1980. Reagan's election also gave Republicans control of the Senate for the first time in decades. Dubbed the "Reagan Revolution" he fundamentally altered several long standing debates in Washington, namely dealing with the Soviet threat and reviving the economy. His election saw the conservative wing of the party gain control. While reviled by liberal opponents in his day, his proponents contend his programs provided unprecedented economic growth, and spurred the collapse of the former Soviet Union. Currently regarded as one of the most popular and successful presidents in the modern era (1960–present), he inspired Conservatives to greater electoral victories by being re-elected in a landslide against Walter Mondale in 1984 but oversaw the loss of the Senate in 1986. − + − Reagan's Vice-President, [[George H.W. Bush]], a [[World War II]] war hero, was elected in 1988 but was defeated in 1992 as domestic issues took prominence after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 and end of the [[Cold War]]. Democrat challenger [[Bill Clinton]] strategically repositioned the Democrats to the right. [[Ross Perot]]'s candidacy was instrumental in Clinton's victory as he took Republican votes with his criticism of deficits and the free trade movement. Perot won 19% of the popular vote, and Clinton, still a largely unknown quantity in American politics with 41% of! the popular vote took office. Despite his loss, Bush left office in 1993 with a 56 percent job approval rating.+ − ====The Gingrich revolution====+ − :''Main articles: [[Republican Revolution (1994)]] and [[Contract with America]]'' − House Republican Minority Whip [[Newt Gingrich]]-led the [[Republican Revolution (1994)|"Republican Revolution" of 1994]] and its famous ''[[Contract with America]]''. It was the first time since the 1952 elections that the Republicans secured control of both houses of Congress, which, with the brief exception of the Senate during 2001-2002, lasted until the 2006 mid-term elections. Democrats had controlled both houses of Congress for the forty years preceding 1994, with the exception of the 1981-1987 Congresses (in which Republicans controlled the Senate). − − In the 1994 mid-term election, Republican congressional candidates ran on a platform of promising floor votes to force members of Congress to go on record on a series of popular reforms—something the Democrats had stifled for decades. These measures and others formed the Contract with America, which represented the first effort to have a party platform in a mid-term election. Seven of the ten Contract items actually became Law. The budget reforms, coupled with reduced defense spending after the Cold War, and the earlier Reagan Tax Cuts for Business Research and Development in the 1980s, led to a high tech consumer boom, rising incomes for all groups, and unprecedented, sustained economic growth in the late 1990s. Democratic President Bill Clinton opposed some of the social agenda initiatives but he co-opted the proposals for welfare reform and a balanced federal budget. The result was a major change in the welfare system, which conservatives hailed and liberals bemoaned. One Contract item, which required Democrats in a two-thirds majority to pass a Constitutional amendment to impose term limits on members of Congress, failed. − − In 1995, a budget battle with [[President Clinton]] led to the brief shutdown of the federal government, an event which contributed to Clinton's victory in the 1996 election. That year the Republicans nominated [[Bob Dole]], who was unable to transfer his success in Senate leadership to a viable presidential campaign. [[Ross Perot]] ran again (this time on [[Reform Party]] ticket), once again draining away a large percentage of Dole's support and ensuring Clinton another term after the majority of Americans voters voted against him. − − ====War on Terror==== − :Main article: [[War on Terror]]'' − With the election of George W. Bush (son of former president George H. W. Bush) in an extremely close 2000 election, the Republican party controlled both the presidency and both houses of Congress for the first time since 1952. However, after [[Vermont]] Senator Jim Jeffords left the Republican Party to become an independent aligned with the Democrats in June 2001, Republicans lost control of the Senate by a single seat. − − In the wake of the September 11, 2001, Islamic terrorist attacks on the United States, however, Bush pursued a "War on Terrorism" that included the liberation of Afghanistan from the radical Islamic Taliban regime and the [[Patriot act|USA PATRIOT act]]. By early 2002, the Taliban was removed from power in Afghanistan. On March 20, 2003, U.S. and allied nations initiated "Operation Iraqi Freedom" to liberate the Iraqi people from the brutal regime of [[Saddam Hussein]]. By May 1, 2003, the regime of Saddam was declared officially over. Once US and allied military forces entered Iraq, they discovered that various international terrorists had been given sanctuary and ran their terrorist operations from Iraq. Notable terrorists found included Muhammad Zaidan aka Abu Abbas and Sabri Khalil al-Banna aka Abu Nidal. − − 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 liberation of 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). − − Bush was renominated without opposition for the [[United States presidential election, 2004]] and titled his political platform "A Safer World and a More Hopeful America". It expressed Bush's commitment to winning the War on Terror, ushering in an Ownership Era, and building an innovative economy to compete in the world. − − On November 2, 2004, Bush was re-elected, while Republicans gained seats in both houses of Congress, leaving Democrats in disarray. Bush carried 31 of 50 states for 286 Electoral College votes. In that election, he also received more popular votes than any previous presidential candidate, 62.0 million votes. Democrat challenger, Senator [[John Kerry]], won 251 Electoral votes and 48% of the popular vote to Bush's 51%. It was the first time anyone won a popular majority since 1988. 2004 marked the seventh consecutive election in which the Democrat nominee failed to reach that threshold. − − ====The wilderness years 2009–2010==== − After smashing defeats in 2006 and 2008, the GOP lost control of Congress, the White House, and many states. They confronted the president, who still retained some popularity, but were able to chip away at support for his domestic policies, as the [[recession of 2008]] dragged on. In June 2009, public opinion was favorable toward Obama personally but increasingly dubious about his plans to overhaul health care, rescue the auto industry and close the prison at Guantánamo Bay. But with a positive job approval rating of 51%, Obama has the backing of most Democrats, even as Republicans turn negative, with only 23% supporting him. Support for Obama's foreign policies and terrorism policies remains high at 57-59%. Meanwhile, the GOP weaknesses were glaring: the June poll found that the Republican Party is viewed favorably by only 28% of Americans, the lowest rating ever in a New York Times/CBS News poll. In contrast, 57% said that they had a favorable view of the Democrat Party.<ref>Jeff Zeleny and Dalia Sussman, "Obama Poll Sees Doubt on Budget and Health Care [https://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/18/us/politics/18poll.html?th&emc=th ''New York Times'' June 17, 2009]</ref> However, it should be noted that this poll was conducted by the [[mainstream media]] and thus is a clear example of [[liberal bias]]. − − ====Rise of the Tea Party movement==== − [[Image:TeaPartyByFreedomFan.JPG|thumb|200px|right|Tea Party movement March on DC, 2009.]] − :{{main|Tea Party Movement}} − The Tea Party movement, which began around 2009 and supports small government, fiscal conservatism, American independence, and border security, made huge gains in the 2010 election, defeating establishment Republicans and RINOs. They continued to make gains in later elections, including the 2014 elections in [[Texas]] and the 2015 [[Kentucky]] elections, and some commentators, including liberals<ref>{{cite web | last1=Chait | first1=Jonathan | title=Donald Trump Hasn’t Killed the Tea Party. He Is the Tea Party | url=http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2016/05/donald-trump-is-the-tea-party.html | date=May 19, 2016 | publisher=''New York'' | accessdate=December 7, 2016}}</ref> and conservatives,<ref>{{cite web | last1=Martin | first1=Jenny Beth | title=How the Tea Party Helped Trump Win the Election | url=https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2016/11/12/how-tea-party-helped-trump-win-election.html | date=November 12, 2016 | publisher=[[Fox News]] | accessdate=December 7, 2016}}</ref><ref>{{cite web | last1=Martin | first1=Jenny Beth | title=The Tea Party Movement Is Alive and Well—And We Saw Trump Coming | url=https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2016/11/the-tea-party-movement-is-alive-and-well-and-we-saw-trump-coming-214469 | date=November 19, 2016 | publisher=[[Politico|Politico Magazine]] | accessdate=December 7, 2016}}</ref><ref>{{cite web | last1=Hayward | first1=John | title=Sarah Palin: Trump Movement Began with the GOP Establishment’s ‘Shocking Betrayals’ of Tea Party Voters | url=https://www.breitbart.com/radio/2016/11/25/sarah-palin-trump-movement-began-with-the-gop-establishments-shocking-betrayals-of-tea-party-voters/ | date=November 25, 2016 | publisher=[[Breitbart News]] | accessdate=December 7, 2016}}</ref> even believe it was responsible for Donald Trump's 2016 victory. − − Despite little action on the federal level, GOP-controlled governments at the state level did deliver to voters, such as through tax reductions.<ref>Persons, Sally (May 31, 2017). [https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2017/may/31/republican-governors-elected-in-2010-delivering-to/ Republican governors elected in 2010 delivering to their states what Congress hasn’t]. ''The Washington Times''. Retrieved May 31, 2017.</ref> − − ====Trump Era==== − :''For further information, see [[2016 U.S. presidential election#General election results]]'' − Republican businessman [[Donald Trump]] won the [[United States presidential election, 2016|2016 presidential election]] in a major and historic upset that took the [[establishment]], pollsters and analysts completely by surprise, even winning states such as [[Wisconsin]], [[Michigan]], and [[Pennsylvania]], which Republicans had not won for years.<ref>[https://www.foxnews.com/politics/2016/11/08/first-polls-close-in-2016-race-trump-projected-to-win-ind-ky-clinton-wins-vt.html Trump wins presidency, defeats Clinton in historic election upset]. ''Fox News''. November 8, 2016. Retrieved November 9, 2016.</ref><ref>Blake, Aaron (November 9, 2016). [https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2016/11/08/donald-trumps-path-to-victory-is-suddenly-looking-much-much-wider/ Donald Trump just blew up the electoral map]. ''The Washington Post''. Retrieved November 9, 2016.</ref> The Republican Party kept control of the House and Senate, outperforming expectations.<ref>Bresnahan, John (November 9, 2016). [https://www.politico.eu/article/republicans-on-cusp-of-keeping-the-senate/ Republicans hold the Senate in a stunner]. ''Politico''. Retrieved November 9, 2016.</ref><ref>Hughes, Siobhan (November 9, 2016). [https://www.wsj.com/articles/republicans-are-confident-about-retaining-control-of-the-house-1478634160 Democrats Gain Seats in House, But GOP Retains Majority]. ''The Wall Street Journal''. Retrieved November 9, 2016.</ref> − [[File:Donald Trump official presidential photo.jpg|left|thumb|200px|President Donald Trump]] − In addition, the Republican Party performed well—much better than expected—in state races, winning trifectas in [[Kentucky]], [[Iowa]], [[Missouri]], and [[New Hampshire]], and Democrats only had six trifectas and total control in five states, a record low.<ref>Greenblatt, Alan (November 9, 2016). [http://www.governing.com/topics/elections/gov-republicans-add-dominance-state-legislatures.html Republicans Add to Their Dominance of State Legislatures]. ''Governing''. Retrieved November 9, 2016.</ref><ref>Siegel, Josh (November 9, 2016). [http://dailysignal.com/2016/11/09/republicans-maintain-strong-control-of-state-capitols-what-that-means/ Republicans Maintain Strong Control of State Capitols. Here’s What That Means.] ''The Daily Signal''. Retrieved November 9, 2016.</ref> The GOP won 25 trifectas, the largest since 1952.<ref name="ReshapeLaws">Lieb, David A. (December 29, 2016). [https://www.pressreader.com/usa/chicago-tribune/20161229/281822873464433 GOP-Controlled States Aim to Reshape Laws]. ''Chicago Tribune'' (from the Associated Press). Retrieved December 30, 2016.</ref> After the election, the GOP controlled the highest amount of governorships since 1922,<ref>Lieb, David A. (November 9, 2016). [https://www.usnews.com/news/us/articles/2016-11-09/republicans-expand-control-of-governorships-legislatures Republicans governorships rise to highest mark since 1922]. ''U.S. News & World Report''. Retrieved November 9, 2016.</ref> and it controlled the most state legislative chambers in history.<ref>Bosman, Julie & Davey, Monica (November 11, 2016). [https://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/12/us/republicans-expand-control-in-a-deeply-divided-nation.html Republicans Expand Control in a Deeply Divided Nation]. ''The New York Times''. Retrieved November 14, 2016.</ref> After [[West Virginia]] Governor [[Jim Justice]] left the Democratic Party and joined the GOP, the GOP had 34 Republican governors, the most since 1922.<ref>Leahy, Michael Patrick (August 7, 2017). [https://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2017/08/07/34-states-have-republican-governors-most-since-1922/ 34 States Have Republican Governors, Most Since 1922]. ''Breitbart News''. Retrieved August 7, 2017.</ref> − − While the GOP increased its vote share across the entire nation, Trump made the largest gains in the rural [[Midwest]] and [[Rust Belt]], traditionally a Democrat blue collar stronghold.<ref>[https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/11/08/us/elections/how-trump-pushed-the-election-map-to-the-right.html How Trump Reshaped the Election Map]. ''The New York Times''. November 9, 2016. Retrieved November 12, 2016.</ref> − − Because of the large gains, the GOP had a massive opportunity to pass [[Conservative|common sense conservative]] legislation and repeal leftist social and economic quagmires.<ref name="ReshapeLaws"/> At the beginning of 2017, Congressional Republicans were also more united during Trump's presidency than in any other time in recent U.S. political history.<ref>Stucky, Phillip (April 2, 2017). [https://dailycaller.com/2017/04/02/trump-smashes-records-with-party-unity/ Trump Smashes Records With Party Unity]. ''The Daily Caller''. Retrieved April 2, 2017.</ref> However, despite these opportunities, the 115th U.S. Congress saw many missed opportunities to advance conservative policies and priorities.<ref>Sherfinski, David; Dinan, Stephen (January 3, 2019). [https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2019/jan/3/republicans-relinquish-congress-whimper-more-misse/ Republicans relinquish Congress with whimper: 'More missed opportunities than anything']. ''The Washington Times''. Retrieved January 13, 2019.<br>See also: − *Wolverton, Joe (January 13, 2019). [https://www.thenewamerican.com/economy/commentary/item/31175-gop-controlled-house-adds-nearly-8-trillion-to-national-debt GOP-controlled House Added Nearly $8 Trillion to National Debt]. ''The New American''. Retrieved January 13, 2019.</ref> − − In May 2017, the RNC raised a record $10.8 million,<ref>Kew, Ben (June 21, 2017). [https://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2017/06/21/rnc-raises-more-dems/ Dems Fundraising Lowest Since May 2003; RNC Raises Record $10.8 Million]. ''Breitbart News''. Retrieved June 21, 2017.</ref> while the DNC raised $4.29 million, the lowest raised in the month since 2003.<ref>Persons, Sally (June 21, 2017). [https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2017/jun/21/dnc-hits-another-fundraising-low/ DNC hits another fundraising low]. ''The Washington Times''. Retrieved June 21, 2017.</ref><ref>Bowden, John (June 21, 2017). [https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/338864-democrats-only-raised-43-million-in-may-worst-fundraising-since-2003 Democrats raised just $4.3M in May]. ''The Hill''. Retrieved June 22, 2017.</ref> The RNC broke another record in June 2017, raising $13.4 million,<ref>Kew, Ben (July 20, 2017). [https://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2017/07/20/rnc-breaks-another-fundraising-record-raises-record-13-4-million-in-june/ RNC Breaks Another Fundraising Record, Raises Record $13.4 Million in June]. ''Breitbart News''. Retrieved July 20, 2017.</ref><ref>Siegel, Josh (July 20, 2017). [https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/rnc-announces-it-raised-135-million-in-june-a-record-for-a-month-in-a-non-presidential-year/article/2629300 RNC announces it raised $13.5 million in June, a record for a month in a non-presidential year]. ''Washington Examiner''. Retrieved July 20, 2017.</ref> as well as July.<ref>Kew, Ben (August 21, 2017). [https://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2017/08/21/rnc-breaks-another-fundraising-record-as-democrats-struggle/ RNC Breaks Another Fundraising Record as Democrats Struggle]. ''Breitbart News''. Retrieved August 22, 2017.</ref> In 2017 overall, the RNC raised over $130 million, a large amount for an off-election year,<ref>Multiple references: − *Persons, Sally (December 27, 2017). [https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2017/dec/27/rnc-set-raise-over-100-million-2017-after-leadersh/ RNC set to raise $130M in 2017 after leadership makes fundraising a top priority]. ''The Washington Times''. Retrieved December 27, 2017. − *Moran, Sean (December 28, 2017). [https://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2017/12/28/rnc-set-raise-record-130-million-2017/ RNC Set to Raise Record $130 Million in 2017]. ''Breitbart News''. Retrieved December 28, 2017. − *Samuels, Brett (January 31, 2018). [https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/371650-rnc-announces-record-off-year-fundraising-haul-in-2017 RNC announces record off-year fundraising haul for 2017]. ''The Hill''. Retrieved January 31, 2018. − *Moran, Sean (February 1, 2018). [https://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2018/02/01/rnc-raises-record-off-year-132-5-million-2017/ RNC Raises Record Off-Year $132.5 Million in 2017]. ''Breitbart News''. Retrieved February 1, 2018.</ref> and the National Republican Congressional Committee also raised a record $85 million in 2017.<ref>Moran, Sean (January 15, 2018). [https://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2018/01/15/nrcc-raised-record-85-million-ahead-contentious-2018-midterm-elections/ NRCC Raised a Record $85 Million Ahead of Contentious 2018 Midterm Elections]. ''Breitbart News''. Retrieved January 15, 2018.</ref> − − A September 2018 Gallup poll found that the GOP's favorability rating reached the highest level since 2011.<ref>Multiple references: − *Norman, Jim (September 24, 2018). [https://news.gallup.com/poll/242906/republican-party-favorability-highest-seven-years.aspx Republican Party Favorability Highest in Seven Years]. ''Gallup''. Retrieved September 24, 2018. − *Boyle, Matthew (September 24, 2018). [https://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2018/09/24/gallup-with-donald-trump-at-helm-gop-rises-to-highest-approval-rating-in-nearly-a-decade/ Gallup: With Donald Trump at Helm, GOP Rises to Highest Approval Rating in Nearly a Decade]. ''Breitbart News''. Retrieved September 24, 2018. − *Adelmann, Bob (September 25, 2018). [https://www.thenewamerican.com/usnews/politics/item/30167-gop-s-favorability-rating-highest-in-seven-years GOP’s Favorability Rating Highest in Seven Years]. ''The New American''. Retrieved September 25, 2018. − *Keller, Megan (September 24, 2018). [https://thehill.com/homenews/house/408123-republican-partys-favorability-rating-comparable-with-democrats-gallup GOP's favorability hits highest mark in seven years: Gallup]. ''The Hill''. Retrieved September 24, 2018. − *Lim, Naomi (September 24, 2018). [https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/gops-favorability-rating-hits-highest-point-since-2011 GOP's favorability rating hits highest point since 2011]. ''Washington Examiner''. Retrieved September 24, 2018. − *Fordham, Evie (September 24, 2018). [https://dailycaller.com/2018/09/24/republican-party-favorability-gallup/ Poll: Republican Party Enjoys Highest Favorability Rating in Seven Years]. ''The Daily Caller''. Retrieved September 24, 2018.</ref> − − == Contemporary Party == − The contemporary Republican Party represents a wide array of interests such as the conservative evangelicals, economic libertarians, and anti-globalists. The party has had some internal conflict over attitudes about how governments should run and how large they should be, what the party stands for, and what the party's attitude towards [[neo-conservatism]] should be especially in regard to foreign policy. The party is also divided over immigration issues with some members (such as George W. Bush) favoring workers visas and permits and some other members favoring strict control of immigration and strong action against illegal immigration. Unlike the Democrat Party, the Republican Party routinely allows dissenting factions such as the [[Log Cabin Republicans]] to speak at National Conventions. − − In the past, the Republican voter coalitions have generally comprised businessmen, military veterans and evangelical Protestants. Some groups have realigned: blacks went from the GOP to the Democrats beginning in the 1930s, while some white Southerners became Republicans in the 1980s. Catholics switched from 80% Democratic in 1960 to 50-50 in recent years, primarily due to the embrace of [[abortion]] by the Democrats (though the Hispanic community still votes predominantly Democrat due to its support for illegal immigration and sanctuary cities). Extremely wealthy businessmen (such as [[Bill Gates]] and [[Warren Buffett]]) have switched to the Democrat party, though small businessmen generally remain in the Republican party. In recent years youth (influenced by [[Hollywood values]]) and better educated professionals (influenced by [[professor values]]) have moved to the Democrats, while blue collar workers have become more Republican, due mainly to Democrats support for globalist ideals at the expense of manufacturing job losses. − − ==Republican Presidents== − # [[Abraham Lincoln]] (1861–1865) − # [[Ulysses S. Grant]] (1869–1877) − # [[Rutherford B. Hayes]] (1877–1881) − # [[James Garfield]] (1881) − # [[Chester A. Arthur]] (1881–1885) − # [[Benjamin Harrison]] (1889–1893) − # [[William McKinley]] (1897–1901) − # [[Theodore Roosevelt]] (1901–1909) − # [[William Howard Taft]] (1909–1913) − # [[Warren G. Harding]] (1921–1923) − # [[Calvin Coolidge]] (1923–1929) − # [[Herbert Hoover]] (1929–1933) − # [[Dwight Eisenhower]] (1953–1961) − # [[Richard Nixon]] (1969–1974) − # [[Gerald Ford]] (1974–1977) − # [[Ronald Reagan]] (1981–1989) − # [[George H. W. Bush]] (1989–1993) − # [[George W. Bush]] (2001–2009) − # [[Donald Trump]] (2017–) − − ==Notable Republicans (Non-presidential)== − An incomplete list of notable Republican leaders and politicians who were not elected president: − − *[[Frederick Douglass]] (1818–1895): Abolitionist and suffragist from [[Maryland]] − *[[James G. Blaine]] (1830–1893): Senator from [[Maine]], presidential nominee − *[[Joseph Gurney Cannon]] (1836–1926): [[Speaker of the United States House of Representatives]] − *[[Charles Curtis]] (1860–1936): United States [[Vice President]], a Native American − *[[Charles G. Dawes]] (1865–1951): United States Vice President, [[Nobel Peace Prize]] winner − *[[Tom Dewey]] (1902–1971): Governor of [[New York]]; presidential nominee in 1944 and 1948 − *[[Everett Dirksen]] (1896–1969): Senate minority leader, instrumental in passing the [[Civil Rights Act]] − *[[John C. Frémont]] (1813–1890): First Republican candidate for president − *Mark Hanna (1837–1904): Senator from [[Ohio]], manager of 1896 campaign − *[[Jesse Helms]] (1921–2008): Senator from [[North Carolina]] − *George Frisbie Hoar (1826–1904): Senator from [[Massachusetts]] − *[[Charles Evans Hughes]]: Governor of New York; presidential nominee in 1916, United States Secretary of State, [[Chief Justice of the United States]] − *[[Martin Luther King, Jr.]] (1929–1968): [[Civil rights]] leader − *[[Jackie Robinson]] (1919-1972): first [[African American]] major league baseball player − *William Fife Knowland (1908–1974), Senator from [[California]], Senate Majority Leader from 1953-1955, Senate Minority Leader from 1955-1959 − *[[Henry Cabot Lodge]] (1850–1924): Senator from [[Massachusetts]], foreign policy spokesman − *[[Joseph McCarthy]] (1908–1957): Senator from [[Wisconsin]] and noted anti-communist − *Thomas Brackett Reed (1839–1902): Speaker of the United States House of Representatives − *[[Nelson Rockefeller]] (1908–1979): Vice President, Governor of New York, considered representative of the liberal wing of the party − *[[Thaddeus Stevens]] (1792–1868): Senator from [[Pennsylvania]], leader of Radicals in Civil War and Reconstruction − *[[Charles Sumner]] (1811–1874): Senator from Massachusetts, leader of Radicals in Civil War and Reconstruction − *[[Henry Stimson]]: Secretary of War for Taft and FDR, Secretary of State for Hoover − *[[Robert Taft]] (1889–1953): Senator from Ohio and presidential hopeful, leader of conservatives − *[[Strom Thurmond]] (1902–2003): the oldest serving senator in history (from [[South Carolina]]) − *Arthur H. Vandenberg (1884–1951): Senator from Michigan, leader of internationalism in 1940s − *[[Scott Walker]]: Governor of [[Wisconsin]], presidential candidate in 2016 − *[[Earl Warren]] (1891–1974): Vice presidential nominee, [[Governor of California]], and [[Chief Justice of the United States]] − *[[Barry Goldwater]] (1909–1998): Senator from [[Arizona]], presidential nominee in 1964 − *[[Antonin Scalia]] (1936–2016): Associate Justice of the Supreme Court (1986–2016) − *[[Clarence Thomas]]: Associate Justice of the Supreme Court (1991–present) − *[[John McCain]]: Senator from [[Arizona]], presidential nominee in 2008 − *[[Sarah Palin]]: Governor of [[Alaska]], vice-presidential nominee in 2008 − *[[Arnold Schwarzenegger]]: Governor of [[California]] − *[[Mitt Romney]]: Governor of [[Massachusetts]], presidential nominee in 2012 − *[[Mike Pence]]: Vice President (2017–present), Governor of [[Indiana]] (2013–2017) − + − + − + + + + + − + − ===Historical===+ − *''American National Biography'' (20 volumes, 1999) covers all politicians no longer alive; online at many academic libraries. − * Abramson, Paul R. et al. ''Change and Continuity in the 2004 and 2006 Elections'' (2007) [https://www.amazon.com/Change-Continuity-2004-2006-Elections/dp/0872894150/ref=sr_1_10?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1221785751&sr=8-10 excerpt and text search] − * Batchelor, John Calvin. ''"Ain't You Glad You Joined the Republicans?" A Short History of the GOP.'' 1996. 399 pp. well-written popular history, well illustrated − * Chace, James. ''1912: Wilson, Roosevelt, Taft, and Debs - The Election That Changed the Country.'' (2004). 323 pp. − * ''Congressional Quarterly's Guide to U.S. Elections'' (4th ed 2003) 1600pp, vast compilation of data, esp., since 1945 − * Foner, Eric. ''Free Soil, Free Labor, Free Men: The Ideology of the Republican Party Before the Civil War (1970), influential history of ideas and ideology; [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=90104191 online edition] − *Gienapp, William E. ''The Origins of the Republican Party, 1852-1856'' (1987), quantitative voting studies, by state − * Goldberg, Robert Alan. ''Barry Goldwater'' (1995), − *Gould, Lewis. ''Grand Old Party: A History of the Republicans'' (2003), the best scholarly overview. − * Hodgson, Godfrey. ''The World Turned Right Side Up: A History of the Conservative Ascendancy in America'' (1996). by British journalist − *Jensen, Richard. ''Grass Roots Politics: Parties, Issues, and Voters, 1854-1983'' (1983) [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=15326916 online edition] − *Jensen, Richard. ''The Winning of the Midwest: Social and Political Conflict, 1888-1896'' (1971) − *Kleppner, Paul, et al. ''The Evolution of American Electoral Systems'' (1983), applies party systems model − *Kleppner, Paul. ''The Third Electoral System 1853-1892: Parties, Voters, and Political Cultures'' (1979), analysis of voting behavior, with emphasis on region, ethnicity, religion and class. [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=24451028 online edition] − *Marcus, Robert. ''Grand Old Party: Political Structure in the Gilded Age, 1880-1896'' 1971. − *Morgan, H. Wayne. ''From Hayes to McKinley; National Party Politics, 1877-1896'' (1969) [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=94446383 online edition], good survey of era − *Mayer, George H. ''The Republican Party, 1854-1966.'' 2nd ed. (1967), narrative. − *Parmet, Herbert S. ''Eisenhower and the American Crusades'' (1972) [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=14967951 online edition] − * Patterson, James T. ''Mr. Republican: A Biography of Robert A. Taft'' (1972) − *Perlstein, Rick. ''Before the Storm: Barry Goldwater and the Unmaking of the American Consensus'' (2002) well written, broad account of 1964 − *Perlstein, Rick. ''Nixonland: The Rise of a President and the Fracturing of America'' (2008), 896pp; covers 1965 to 1972 − * Reinhard, David W. ''The Republican Right since 1945'' (1983) [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=91954887 online edition] − *Rutland, Robert Allen. ''The Republicans: From Lincoln to Bush'' (1996) popular narrative − *Shafer, Byron E. and Anthony J. Badger, eds. ''Contesting Democracy: Substance and Structure in American Political History, 1775-2000'' (2001), long essays by specialists on each time period: [https://www.amazon.com/Contesting-Democracy-Substance-Structure-Political/dp/0700611398/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1221785707&sr=8-1 excerpt and text search] − **includes: "'To One or Another of These Parties Every Man Belongs;": 1820–1865 by Joel H. Silbey; "Change and Continuity in the Party Period: 1835–1885" by Michael F. Holt; "The Transformation of American Politics: 1865–1910" by Peter H. Argersinger; "Democracy, Republicanism, and Efficiency: 1885–1930" by Richard Jensen; "The Limits of Federal Power and Social Policy: 1910–1955" by Anthony J. Badger; "The Rise of Rights and Rights Consciousness: 1930–1980" by James T. Patterson; and "Economic Growth, Issue Evolution, and Divided Government: 1955–2000" by Byron E. Shafer − *Schlesinger, Arthur Meier, Jr. ed. ''History of American Presidential Elections, 1789-2000'' (various multivolume editions, latest is 2001). For each election includes good scholarly history and selection of primary document. Essays on the most important election are reprinted in Schlesinger, ''The Coming to Power: Critical presidential elections in American history'' (1972) − * Smith, Richard Norton. An Uncommon Man: The Triumph of Herbert Hoover, (1987) full-length scholarly biography. − *Summers, Mark Wahlgren. ''Rum, Romanism & Rebellion: The Making of a President, 1884'' (2000) [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=104865169 online edition] − * Sundquist, James L. ''Dynamics of the Party System: Alignment and Realignment of Political Parties in the United States'' (1983) [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=29223022 online edition] − * Thelen, David. ''Robert M. La Follette and the Insurgent Spirit'' 1976. short interpretive biography − ===Since 1980=== − *Barone, Michael, and Grant Ujifusa, ''The Almanac of American Politics 2008: The Senators, the Representatives and the Governors: Their Records and Election Results, Their States and Districts'' (2007) covers all incumbent Congressmen and governors with amazing detail. New edition published every two years since 1975. − * Aistrup, Joseph A. ''The Southern Strategy Revisited: Republican Top-Down Advancement in the South'' (1996) − * Black, Earl and Black, Merle. ''The Rise of Southern Republicans.'' (2002). 442 pp. − * Cannon, Lou. ''President Reagan: The Role of a Lifetime'' (2000), [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=88989671 online edition] − * Critchlow, Donald T. ''The Conservative Ascendancy: How the GOP Right Made Political History'' (2007), by a leading conservative historian − * Edwards, Lee. ''The Conservative Revolution: The Movement That Remade America.'' (1999). 391 pp. by a conservative − *Ehrman, John, ''The Eighties: America in the Age of Reagan'' (2005) by a conservative historian − * Frank, Thomas. ''What's the Matter with Kansas? How Conservatives Won the Heart of America'' (2005), a liberal attack [https://www.amazon.com/Whats-Matter-Kansas-Conservatives-America/dp/B000FTWB3K/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1198072365&sr=1-1 excerpt and text search] − * Green, John Robert. ''The Presidency of George Bush.'' (2000). 1989-1993 − * Lamis, Alexander P. ed. ''Southern Politics in the 1990s'' (1999) − * Layman, Geoffrey. ''The Great Divide: Religious and Cultural Conflict in American Party Politics.'' (2001). 435pp. − * Levy, Peter B. ''Encyclopedia of the Reagan-Bush Years'' Greenwood Press, 1996 [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=77341841 online edition] − * Lublin, David. ''The Republican South: Democratization and Partisan Change.'' Princeton U. Press, 2004. 272 pp. [https://www.amazon.com/Republican-South-Democratization-Partisan-Change/dp/0691130477/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1198072384&sr=1-1 excerpt and text search] − * Patterson, James T. ''Restless Giant: The United States from Watergate to Bush vs. Gore.'' (2005), standard scholarly synthesis. − * Pemberton, William E. ''Exit with Honor: The Life and Presidency of Ronald Reagan'' (1998) favorable biography by historian; [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=49534236 online edition] − * Reeves, Richard. ''President Reagan: The Triumph of Imagination'' (2005) detailed analysis by conservative historian − * Rymph, Catherine. ''Republican Women: Feminism and Conservatism from Suffrage through the Rise of the New Right.'' U. of North Carolina Press, 2006. 338 pp. − * Sabato, Larry J. ed. ''The Sixth Year Itch: The Rise and Fall of the George W. Bush Presidency'' (2007), in-depth essays by scholars − *Sabato, Larry J. ''Divided States of America: The Slash and Burn Politics of the 2004 Presidential Election'' (2005). − * Sabato, Larry J. and Bruce Larson. ''The Party's Just Begun: Shaping Political Parties for America's Future'' (2001). − * Schaller, Michael and Rising, George. ''The Republican Ascendancy: American Politics, 1968-2001.'' Harlan Davidson, 2002. 210 pp. Short survey by liberal scholars − * Steely, Mel. ''The Gentleman from Georgia: The Biography of Newt Gingrich.'' Mercer U. Press, 2000. 431 pp. − * Taylor, Andrew J. ''Elephant's Edge: The Republicans as a Ruling Party.'' 2005. 336 pp. academic study of how GOP turned small advantages into power [https://www.amazon.com/Elephants-Edge-Republicans-Ruling-Party/dp/0275985369/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1198072452&sr=1-1 excerpt and text search] − * Wilentz, Sean. ''The Age of Reagan: A History, 1974-2008'' (2008) by a liberal historian. [https://www.amazon.com/Age-Reagan-History-1974-2008/dp/0060744804/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1221786281&sr=8-1 excerpt and text search] − *Wooldridge, Adrian and John Micklethwait. ''The Right Nation: Conservative Power in America'' sophisticated study by two British journalists (2004). [https://www.amazon.com/Right-Nation-Conservative-Power-America/dp/B000F71124/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1198072420&sr=1-2 excerpt and text search] − − ====Notes==== − <references/> − + − *[http://platform.gop.com/2008Platform.pdf 2008 Republican Platform (pdf download)]+ − + − *[http://www.house.gov/hensarling/rsc/doc/rsc_action_plan.pdf The RSC’s Action Plan for House Republicans], Republican Study Committee, May 20, 2008+ − *[http://www.house.gov/hensarling/rsc/doc/rsc_action_plan_(broad).pdf A Detailed Action Plan For House Republicans: Bold, Simple, and Different than the Democrats], Republican Study Committee, May 20, 2008+ − *[http://www.aim.org/wls/category/republicans/ What Liberals Say - Category: Republicans], [[Accuracy In Media]]+ − + − + − + − + − + − + − + − + − + −
Reverted edits by Northwestlovesdicks (talk) to last revision by Pokeria1
{{AmericanPoliticalParty
{{PoliticalParty
| party_name = Republican Party
| party_name = National Socialist German Workers' Party
| party_logo =[[Image:Flag of Nazi Germany.png|center|thumb|upright]]
| party_logo = [[Image:Cjjfdjfty.png|200px|"Republican Party Elephant" logo]]
| website = n/a
| website = [http://www.gop.com www.gop.com]
| leader = [[Anton Drexler]] (1920–21)<br>[[Adolf Hitler]] (1921–45)<br>Martin Bormann (1945)
| headquarters = 310 K Street SE<br> [[Washington, D.C.]]<br>20003
| parleader = [[Hermann Göring]] (1932–45)
| foundation = February 24, 1920
| housespeaker = [[Paul Ryan]]
| headquarters = Brown House, Munich, Germany
| houseleader = [[Kevin McCarthy]]
| ideology = [[National Socialism]]<br>[[Anti-Semitism]]<br>Pan-Germanism
| senateleader = [[Mitch McConnell]]
| position = ''Fiscal'': [[Socialism]]<br>''Social'': [[Leftism]], [[Racism]]
| international = n/a
| ideology = [[Conservative|Conservatism]]<br>[[Classical Liberalism]]<br>[[Neoconservatism]]<br>[[Liberal conservatism]]<br>[[Libertarianism]]<br>[[Right-wing populism]]
| colors = red, black, white and brown
| international = [[International Democrat Union]]<br/>[[Alliance of Conservatives and Reformists in Europe]] (regional partner)
| colors = [[Red states and blue states|Red]] (unofficial)
| footnotes =
| footnotes =
}}
}}
The '''Republican Party''' ('''R''') or informally the '''GOP''' (short for Grand Old Party), is one of the two major political parties in the [[United States]].
The '''Nazi Party''' ('''NSDAP''', formally the ''Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei'' or in English ''National Socialist German Workers' Party''<ref>"Nazi" comes from the first word in the party's name, '''Na'''tionalso'''zi'''alistische.
</ref>) was a [[totalitarian]] movement and [[political party]] in [[Germany]] from 1920–1945. After 1921, it was controlled by [[Adolf Hitler]]. In January 1933 the Nazis came to national power in Germany and took control of the government and most sectors of Germany's society and economy. The Nazi regime in Germany 1933–45 called itself the '''[[Third Reich]]'''.<ref>The German ''Drittes Reich'' means "Third Empire", after the [[Holy Roman Empire]] of 900–1806 and the [[German Empire]] of 1871–1918.</ref>
The Republican Party is the only major U.S. political party that is [[pro-life]]. The Republican Party is also pro-[[free enterprise]], pro-religious liberty, pro-[[Second Amendment]], and pro-[[traditional marriage]]. At its first national convention, in 1856, the Republican Party platform stated, "It is the duty of Congress to prohibit in the territories those twin relics of barbarism, polygamy and slavery."<ref>http://www.ushistory.org/gop/convention_1856.htm</ref>
The Nazis rearmed Germany, started [[World War II]] in Europe, conquered its neighboring countries, murdered between 5.5 and 6 million Jews and an additional five million non-Jewish victims in the [[Holocaust]] and was finally destroyed by the [[Allies]] (the [[United States]], [[Britain]] and the [[Soviet Union]], along with smaller countries) in 1945. Like Hitler, the Nazis have since become synonymous with evil in the modern world.
Despite being called National Socialist, its propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels indicated that the philosophy of the Nazi Party is composed of the German Left, specifically that they despite "bourgeoise nationalism." In addition, Hitler condemned the Soviet Union and Communism, and after rising to power, outlawed Germany's Communist Party and imprisoned and executed Communists, as he saw the Communists as a rival to the Nazis for control of the far-Left.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20080410211317/http://constitutionalistnc.tripod.com/hitler-leftist/ Hitler was a Leftist]</ref> Hitler advocated a form of fascism, and in fact, the National Fascist Party, an Italian political party, led by Hitler's future ally, Benito Mussolini, at the same time, had similar policies.
==Foundations==
[[File:Nazi German leaders.jpg|thumb|225px|From left to right: [[Adolf Hitler]], [[Hermann Goering]] [[Joseph Goebbels]], and [[Rudolf Hess]]. Photo taken around 1933–34.]]
[[File:Nuremberg Rally, 1938.jpg|thumb|225px|Nazi rally in [[Nuremberg]], 1938.]]
[[Adolf Hitler]] exploited the myth of the "Stab in the Back," the belief that the [[World War I]] had been lost because "disloyal" elements within Germany – [[Jews]] and [[Marxism|Marxists]] – had undermined the war effort. As [[William Shirer]] put it in ''The Rise and Fall of the [[Third Reich]]'',
<blockquote>
"To him, as to almost all Germans, it was 'monstrous' and undeserved. The German army had not been defeated in the field. It had been stabbed in the back by the traitors at home.
Thus emerged for [[Hitler]], as or so many Germans, a fanatical belief in the legend of the 'stab in the back' which, more than anything else, was to undermine the Weimar Republic and pave the way for Hitler’s ultimate triumph."
<ref name=rise>''The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich'', Book One, "The Rise of Adolf Hitler".</ref>
</blockquote>
The origin of the Nazi Party was a small group originally called the "Committee of Independent Workmen", founded by a toolmaker and locksmith named [[Anton Drexler]] in 1918. It had been set up in reaction to the [[Marxism]] of the free trade unions.<ref name=rise /> A year later in January 1919, Drexler's group merged with another group, the "Political Workers' Circle" to form a new party known as the "German Workers' Party" (''Deutsche Arbeiterpartei'' or DAP).<ref>Shoah Resource Center, http://www1.yadvashem.org/odot_pdf/Microsoft%20Word%20-%205946.pdf</ref><ref>Germanculture.com, http://www.germanculture.com.ua/library/weekly/aa012400b.htm</ref>
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.<ref>http://www.harpweek.com/09Cartoon/BrowseByDateCartoon.asp?Year=2003&Month=November&Date=7</ref> In the early 20th century, the traditional symbol of the Republican party in some Midwestern states was the eagle, as opposed to the Democratic cock (rooster). The eagle still appears on Indiana ballots.
Adolf Hitler joined the DAP in September 1919 and was put in charge of propaganda in early 1920. Hitler transformed this small group into what we now know as the Nazi Party through his great skill in politics and public speaking. In February 1920, the words "National Socialist" were added to the party name and it became the "National Socialist German Workers' Party" (''Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei'' or NSDAP).<ref>McNab, Chris (2009). ''The Third Reich''</ref> This is proof that the Nazis were [[liberal]], despite liberals' claims otherwise. The Storm Troopers (''Sturmabteilung'', [[Brownshirts|SA]]) in their distinctive brown uniforms, were organized first to keep order and kick out hecklers at Nazi meetings, then to break up the meetings of other parties and to protect Nazi Party meetings. The ''hakenkreuz'' (literally: "hooked cross"), or [[swastika]], was adopted as the party's symbol which was used in their blood red flag. In July 1921, Hitler became party chairman, and declared himself leader (''Führer'') of the party.<ref>McNab, (2009). ''The Third Reich''</ref>
*Here we have the core of Nazism: (i) a very strong dose of German anti-semitism (with a paranoid belief in a conspiracy between Jewish financiers who control the capitalist economy and steal from the Germans, Jewish liberal intellectuals who preach humanism and enfeeble the Germans, and Jewish communists who seek to enslave the Germans; (ii) a belief in the German nation and the "aryan" German race as an entity with a special, heroic destiny; (iii) war as the ultimate test of national strength and worth; and (iv) conquest—with extermination or removal of the resident population—to create more "living space" for the German people and larger fields for the German farmers. Add to this (a) the "leadership principle" (''Führerprinzip'') --a hatred of parliamentary institutions, and a belief that a good political order sees an inspired leader giving people vision and commands (rather than see parliamentarians haggle and compromise on behalf of interest groups)--(b) the use of terror to obtain obedience, and (c) the desire to make sure that all of society's organizations serve the national cause, and you have Nazism.<ref>http://econ161.berkeley.edu/TCEH/Slouch_Alternatives12.html</ref>
==Anti-Semitism==
The party tends to hold both [[conservative]] and [[Libertarianism|libertarian]] stances on social and economic issues respectively. Major policies that the party has recently supported include a conservative foreign policy, including [[War on Terror]], liberating of [[Afghanistan]] and [[Iraq]], and strong support for democracy, especially in the [[Middle East]]. Many party members and politicians have shown a distrust of the [[United Nations]] due to the organization's incompetent bureaucracy, anti-capitalist undertone, corruption on the [[Security Council]] and in UN humanitarian programs. Along with demanding radical reforms in the UN, many Republican politicians also opposes the Kyoto Protocol due the protocol's unfair application to certain countries (especially the United States) and the fact that it prevents economic growth and slows the reduction of poverty.
The Nazis were highly [[Anti-Semitism|anti-Semitic]] and blamed the Jews for many of the problems in Germany, such as the defeat in [[World War I]].
The Nazis passed the [[Nuremberg Laws]] in 1935 which stated that:
* Young German women could not work for Jews in the domestic services.
* Jews were no longer citizens of Germany (this meant that they had no protection from the police and so were susceptible to attack)
* Jewish doctors were not allowed to treat Germans/Aryans
* Jews could not marry Germans/Aryans
They made laws against Jews ("Rassengesetze", ''race laws'') which places successively tighter restrictions on the rights of Jews to own property, use public services, live in some areas, enter public spaces and eventually required Jews to wear a [[Star of David]] on their clothing.
The Jews were mistreated, persecuted, and killed by the Nazis.
The Nazi state also persecuted other political opponents, such as [[Jehovah's Witnesses]]. State-run hospitals secretly euthanized the very old, the sick, mentally ill and the disabled. Some [[homosexuality|homosexuals]]<ref>Hans Peter Bleuel, ''Sex and Society in Nazi Germany'', (Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott, 1973).</ref> came under increasing scrutiny and persecution in the later years of the regime, although other homosexuals were ardent supporters of Adolf Hitler and played an important role in his regime.<ref>[http://www.whale.to/b/reisman.html The Pink Swastika as Holocaust Revisionist History by Judith A. Reisman]</ref>
The Nazis exterminated at least 11 million civilians by rounding them up, transporting them to concentration camps and then murdering them there. About 6 million of these were Jews (see [[Holocaust]]).
The Republican Party generally supports free trade, especially [[NAFTA]] and [[CAFTA]]. It is responsible for a series of across-the-board tax cuts since 2001 that have bolstered the economy and reduced the punitive aspect of the income tax. It has sought business deregulation, reduction of environmental regulations that restrict fair use of land and property, and other policies that are pro-capitalism. It supports gun ownership rights, and enterprise zones (low taxes for investing in poverty areas). On social issues the majority of its national and state candidates usually favor the death penalty, call for stronger state-level control on access to [[abortion]], support a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage at the federal level and by the states, favor faith-based charitable initiatives, support school choice and homeschooling, social welfare benefit reform, and oppose reverse racism, such as racial quotas.
==Religion==
Hitler rejected Christianity as spoiled by Judaism, but did support a new pro-Nazi Protestant church that had some followers. The German Army had traditionally used the phrase "Gott mit uns" or "God with us", which was commonly used on their armor and helmets. By World War II it was still used on the army uniform belt-buckles. Hitler in the future, however, planned to minimize the influence of the Christian Protestant churches and Catholic churches, while promoting nationalism and pre-Christian German paganism. Adolf Hitler was raised Roman Catholic as a youth, but he began to despise the church and all of Christianity as too pacifist or a "religion for weaklings".
=== Alfred Rosenberg ===
Dr. Alfred Rosenberg, the party's official philosopher, announced the philosophic basis of the Nazi campaign. In his ''The Myth of the Twentieth Century'' he scorns the Old Testament, and while he takes Jesus more seriously, he concludes,<ref>Time (Sept 03, 1934)</ref>
:The religion of Jesus was undoubtedly the preaching of love . . . but the German religious movement, which wishes to develop into a people's church, must declare that it unconditionally subordinates the ideal of neighborly love to the ideal of national honor . . . The churches, handed over to it again, will, little by little, put the fiery spirit of the hero . . . in place of the crucifixion."
The outspoken [[pagan]] Rosenberg drew up a thirty-point program for the ''National Reich Church'', created in 1936, which contains the following statements,
*"The National Reich Church of Germany categorically claims the exclusive right and the exclusive power to control all churches within the borders of the Reich: it declares these to be national churches of the German Reich.
*"The National Church is determined to exterminate irrevocably...the strange and foreign Christian faiths imported into Germany in the ill-omened year 800...
*"The National Church has no scribes, pastors, chaplains or priests, but National Reich orators are to speak in them.
*"The National Church demands immediate cessation of the publishing and dissemination of the Bible in Germany...'"
*"On the altars there must be nothing but 'Mein Kampf' (to the German nation and therefore to God the most sacred book) and to the left of the altar a sword.
*"On the day of its foundation, the Christian Cross must be removed from all churches, cathedrals and chapels...and it must be superseded by the only unconquerable symbol, the swastika."<ref>Shirer, ''The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich'', p. 240</ref>
When a Manchester Guardian correspondent attended a Berlin meeting of the German People's Church, he found it a noisy, enthusiastic, a theological free-for-all. One Dr. Krause exclaimed, "The lives and utterances of great Germans must be considered equal to the Bible as revelations..."
== History ==
=== Pagan cults ===
[[File:GOP-presidents.jpg|thumb|300px|GOP Presidents by Andy Thomas; clockwise from far right: Nixon, Ford, Lincoln, GHW Bush, Reagan, GW Bush, Eisenhower, Teddy Roosevelt]]
Throughout Germany strange little [[pagan]] cults were seen to arise, such as the pantheistic Nordic Religious Community.
Youth Leader Hartmann-Lautenbacher stated, "Besides the rock of Jesus Christ there is another: Adolf Hitler. It remains to be seen which of the two is stronger. On the one sit the old women. On the other stands the young generation."
Youth Press Agent August Hoppe exhorted war against Christianity, and a return to [[pagan]] roots.
[[Image:Lincoln seated.jpg|thumb|220px|right|Abraham Lincoln was the first Republican president]]
Similar to what some see today in the West, Youth Leader Joachim Benedicte stated, "...The religious faith of the German people must be decided by political elements, the Storm Troops and the Hitler Youth."<ref>Religion: Nazis v. Jesus Christ, Time. 9-03-1934</ref>
As in Communism, the State, or ''Fatherland'' came to be deified, in the name of which Hitler justified his autocratic decision to kill - for political purposes - a large number of S.A. leaders while they were at a resort, during the "[[Night of the Long Knives]]" (June 30 to July 2, 1934).
Rather than initially attacking Christian faith outright, the Nazi Party deceitfully promoted itself as "positive Christianity," and vigorously opposed what they call "negative Christianity", both terms being Nazi inventions which could mean whatever the local Nazi leader chooses them to mean. In their Manifesto of their "anxieties and fears", the German Evangelical Church quoted Rosenberg as saying, "The general ideas of the Roman and of the Protestant churches are negative Christianity and do not, therefore, accord with our soul." The Manifesto concludes: "When, within the compass of the Nazi view of life, an anti-Semitism is forced on the Christian that binds him to hatred of the Jew, the Christian injunction to love one's neighbor still stands...The Evangelical conscience is most heavily burdened by the fact that there are still concentration camps in Germany that describes itself as a country in which Justice is administered..."<ref>Time magazine, Aug. 10, 1936, Foreign News: Churchmen to Hitler</ref>
====Politics 1854–1860====
=== Religious persecution ===
Overall however, the spiritual condition of Germany may be seen to have been weak by and during the time of Hitler's rise to power. Protestant churches in Germany had become largely institutionalized, and its power to effect political change decreased. The Catholic Institution had been pressured into a concordant with Hitler, which the latter continually broke. Loyalties were torn as [[National Socialism]] became the cause, and churches were pressured to submit to its ethos.<ref>''A history of national socialism, Cross against Swastika'', by Konrad Heiden</ref><ref>''Pius XII and the Nazis'', by Darlene Shelton</ref> Jews were overall seen negatively, stubborn and ungrateful.<ref>''Martin Luther and "The Jews" A Reappraisal'', by Dr. Christopher Probst</ref> After their rise to power the Nazis sought to purge the national German Evangelical Church of converted Jews, as well to make the church ideologically submissive to the state. By entertaining the Nazi doctrine of Aryan racial superiority and persecution of Jews, they militated against the authoritative position of the Scriptures. Largely in reaction to such the [[Confessing Church]] emerged. This Protestant church was not recognized by the Nazis, and was persecuted and finally forced underground, as many members and leaders, such as [[Martin Niemöller]], were particularly active in protesting against euthanasia and the persecution of the Jews.<ref>The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition, 2008; Confessing Church</ref><ref>Encyclopædia Britannica, 2009, Confessing Church</ref>
Measures taken against the Christian Churches were an integral part of National Socialism. An [[OSS]] report to the [[Nuremberg War Crimes Tribunal]] Stated,
:"The Nazi conspirators, by promoting beliefs and practices incompatible with Christian teaching, sought to subvert the influence of the Churches over the people and in particular over the youth of Germany. They avowed their aim to eliminate the Christian Churches in Germany and sought to substitute therefore Nazi institutions and Nazi beliefs and pursued a programme of persecution of priests, clergy and members of monastic orders whom they deemed opposed to their purposes and confiscated Church property."<ref>Claire Hulme & Dr. Michael Salter, [http://www-camlaw.rutgers.edu/publications/law-religion/articles/RJLR_3_1_2.pdf ''The Nazi's Persecution as a War Crime: The OSS Response Within the Nuremeberg Trial's Process''], Rutgers Journal of Law and Religion, n.d.</ref>
Though Christians sometime hold Hitler to be an atheist, and atheists often assert he was a Christian, the best evidence shows him to be neither, in particular failing to be the latter, especially in the Biblical sense of the word (being both the source and most authoritative definition of it). In contrast, evidence reveals that while Hitler shared with many atheists a dramatically skewed idea of what Christianity is, and/or made political use of the term, he was quite the contrary to being a Christian.<ref>[https://www.amazon.com/Hitler-Holocaust-Bible-Scriptural-Anti-Semitism/dp/0982277601 Hitler, the Holocaust, and the Bible: A Scriptural Analysis..., by Joe Keysor]</ref>
The resource site Adherents.com states,
There is no question that Hitler was a Nazi. Nazism was clearly his most important religious affiliation, not in the positive way the word "religion" is often defined, but in the general sense that any philosophy or belief system which is most important in a person's life is that person's "religion," regardless of whether or not it is universally labelled as a "religion." Hitler was also born into a Catholic family, but he rejected Catholicism and in most ways he rejected Christianity in general. On occasion we have read people claim that "Hitler was a Catholic" or "Hitler was a Christian" in a meaningful way, implying that Christianity or Catholicism was the primary impetus for his Nazi reign. Such claims are simply vitriolic attacks occasionally voiced by ideologically-inclined anti-Christian, anti-Semitic or pro-Nazi people. Historians agree that Hitler was pointedly anti-Christian. We are not aware of any published sources from acknowledged academic historians or writers that identify Adolf Hitler as significantly Catholic or Christian in his motivations as an adult.”<ref>http://www.adherents.com/people/ph/Adolf_Hitler.html</ref>
In terms of racial issues, "White Republicans as well as Democrats solicited black votes but reluctantly rewarded blacks with nominations for office only when necessary, even then reserving the more choice positions for whites. The results were predictable: these half-a-loaf gestures satisfied neither black nor white Republicans. The fatal weakness of the Republican party in Alabama, as elsewhere in the South, was its inability to create a biracial political party. And while in power even briefly, they failed to protect their members from Democratic terror. Alabama Republicans were forever on the defensive, verbally and physically." [Woolfolk p 134]
=== Hossbach Memorandum ===
In the Hossbach Memorandum, Hitler blamed Christianity for the fall of Rome (rather than such being a judgment due to its degradation, and persecution of Christians and its message), stating: "It was only the disintegrating effect of Christianity, and the symptoms of age which appear in every country, which caused ancient Rome to succumb to the onslaught of the Germans." <ref>[http://avalon.law.yale.edu/imt/hossbach.asp]</ref>
====Gilded Age: 1877–1894====
Additionally, Albert Speer records that Hitler lamented, "You see, it’s been our misfortune to have the wrong religion." and that Islam would have more compatible for them than Christianity.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=XLSa_RIDHMUC&dq=Albert+Speer,+Inside+the+Third+Reich,&printsec=frontcover&source=bn&hl=en&ei=551HSrzDDcm0twf6x7TbBg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=5 Inside the Third Reich, p. 96]</ref>
In another statement attributed to Hitler, he predicts, "I’m going to become a religious figure. Soon I’ll be the great chief of the Tartars. Already Arabs and Moroccans are mingling my name with their prayers."<ref>Adolf Hitler, cited in Waite, Robert, Adolf Hitler: The Psychopathic God (NY: Basic Books, 1977) p. 261) (Lutzer, pp. 62-63.)</ref>[http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2132855/posts?page=101#101]
====Ethnocultural Voters: pietistic Republicans versus liturgical Democrats====
=== Hitler's Table Talk ===
Clear but disputable evidence reveals Hitler as promoting a form of paganism, which the Nazi Party clearly sought to promote. ''Hitler's Table Talk'' is a series of informal, private conversations among Hitler and his closest associates, as recorded by [[Martin Bormann]] (himself one who was vehemently against Christianity). The ''ex tempore'' remarks excerpted below are attributed to Hitler:<ref>Adolf Hitler, London, Weidenfeld & Nicholson, 1953</ref>
Night of 11–12 July 1941
*"[[National Socialism]] and religion cannot exist together....
"The heaviest blow that ever struck humanity was the coming of Christianity. Bolshevism is Christianity's illegitimate child. Both are inventions of the Jew. The deliberate lie in the matter of religion was introduced into the world by Christianity....
*"Let it not be said that Christianity brought man the life of the soul, for that evolution was in the natural order of things." (p 6 & 7)
10 October 1941, midday
*"Christianity is a rebellion against natural law, a protest against nature. Taken to its logical extreme, Christianity would mean the systematic cultivation of the human failure." (p 43)
14 October 1941, midday
*"The best thing is to let Christianity die a natural death.... When understanding of the universe has become widespread... Christian doctrine will be convicted of absurdity....
"Christianity has reached the peak of absurdity.... And that's why someday its structure will collapse....
*"...the only way to get rid of Christianity is to allow it to die little by little....
"Christianity <is> the liar...
*"We'll see to it that the Churches cannot spread abroad teachings in conflict with the interests of the State." (p 49-52)
19 October 1941, night
*"The reason why the ancient world was so pure, light and serene was that it knew nothing of the two great scourges: the pox and Christianity."
21 October 1941, midday
*"Originally, Christianity was merely an incarnation of Bolshevism, the destroyer....
*"The decisive falsification of Jesus' [who he asserts many times was never a Jew] doctrine was the work of St.Paul. He gave himself to this work... for the purposes of personal exploitation....
The party controlled the presidency throughout the 1920s, running on a limited government platform, opposition to the League of Nations, high tariffs, and promotion of business interests. [[Warren G. Harding]], [[Calvin Coolidge]] and [[Herbert Hoover]] were resoundingly elected in the elections of 1920, 1924 and 1928 as the Democrats were deeply split on prohibition and religion. Running on a campaign of ''returning to normalcy'', Harding and Coolidge led a repudiation election of both the war as well as the big government progressivism of Woodrow Wilson.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=8iSeCwAAQBAJ&pg=PA94 Presidents Harding, Coolidge, and Hoover: Meet the Presidents]</ref><ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=LziMzAR4eD0C&pg=PA162 The Great American History Fact-finder: The Who, What, Where, When, and why of American History]</ref>
*"When all is said, we have no reason to wish that the Italians and Spaniards should free themselves from the drug of Christianity. Let's be the only people who are immunized against the disease." (p 118-119)
14 December 1941, midday
*"Kerrl, with noblest of intentions, wanted to attempt a synthesis between National Socialism and Christianity. I don't believe the thing's possible, and I see the obstacle in Christianity itself....
*"Pure Christianity-- the Christianity of the catacombs-- is concerned with translating Christian doctrine into facts. It leads quite simply to the annihilation of mankind. It is merely whole-hearted Bolshevism, under a tinsel of metaphysics." (p 119 & 120)
9 April 1942, dinner
*"There is something very unhealthy about Christianity." (p 339)
27 February 1942, midday
*"Our epoch in the next 200 years will certainly see the end of the disease of Christianity.... My regret will have been that I couldn't... behold <its demise>." (p 278)
Miscellaneous other quotes include,
*"So it's not opportune to hurl ourselves now into a struggle with the churches. The best thing is to let Christianity die a natural death. A slow death has something comforting about it."
*"Christianity, of course, has reached the peak of absurdity in this respect. And that's why one day its structure will collapse. Science has already impregnated humanity. Consequently, the more Christianity clings to its dogmas, the quicker it will decline."
*"We'll see to it that the churches cannot spread abroad teachings in conflict with the interests of the State. We shall continue to preach the doctrine of National Socialism, and the young will no longer be taught anything but the truth."
*"Indeed, it's most important that the higher belief should be well established in them before the lower belief has been removed. We must finally achieve this."
*"We do not want to educate anyone in atheism."
*"The observatory I'll have built at Linz, on the Pöstlingberg, I can see it in my mind ... In future, thousands of excursionists will make a pilgrimage there every Sunday. They'll thus have access to the greatness of our universe. The pediment will bear this motto: 'The heavens proclaim the glory of the everlasting.' It will be our way of giving men a religious spirit, of teaching them humility — but without the priests."
*"The final state must be: in St. Peter's Chair, a senile officiant; facing him, a few sinister old women, as gaga and as poor in spirit as anyone could wish."
*"For my part, in his place [the Duce] I'd have taken the path of revolution. I'd have entered the Vatican and thrown everybody out — reserving the right to apologize later: 'Excuse me, it was a mistake!' But the result would have been, they'd have been outside!"
[[Image:Nazi.jpg|thumb|right|250px|"With our flags is our victory"]]
*"But a pope, even a criminal one, who protects great artists and spreads beauty around him, is nevertheless more sympathetic to me than the protestant minister who drinks from the poisoned spring."
*"I have six Divisions of SS composed of men absolutely indifferent in matters of religion. It doesn't prevent them from going to their deaths with serenity in their souls."
*"The soul and the mind migrate, just as the body returns to nature. Thus life is eternally reborn from life. As for the 'why' of all that, I feel no need to rack my brains on the subject. The soul is unplumbable."<ref>Hitler on Religion: http://library.flawlesslogic.com/religion.htm</ref>
Hitler, much like atheists, is seen to not only have scorned corruptions of Christian faith, but the whole faith as well. Having loosed himself from the moral authority of the Bible (though misappropriating it's "badge" at times for his own purposes) he was much free to be guided by his own "golden compass", which is ultimately the atheistic basis for determining morality. Tragically however, while an innate sense of right can be right, Hitler's compass pointed south rather than north.
==Economic planning==
[[James Burnham]], a former [[Trotskyite]] who served with the [[Office of Strategic Services]] (OSS) during the World War II and later contributed to the ''[[National Review]]'', described the Nazi regime's [[economic planning]]. Burnham pointed out how the original "workers revolution" of [[Marxism]] had in fact become a managerial revolution in all societies where Socialism had been embraced. Writing in 1940, Burnham noted,
{{Cquote|Outright state ownership and operation, advancing in all fields, are particularly ascendant in the extensive areas of new enterprise opened up during the Nazi rule....virtually all economic enterprise is subject to rigid state control; and it is control which we have seen to be decisive in relation to the instruments of production. Legal forms, even income privileges, are in the end subordinate to ''de facto'' control.
Even where private owners still exist in Germany, the decisions about "their" property are not in their hands. They do not decide what to make or not to make. They do not establish prices or bargain about wages. They are not at liberty to buy the raw materials they might choose nor to seek the most profitable markets. They cannot, as a rule, decide how to invest or not invest their surplus funds. In short, they are no longer owners, no longer effective [[capitalist]]s...
The regulation of production in Germany is no longer left to the market. What is to be produced, and how much, is decided, deliberately, by groups of men, by the state boards and bureaus and commissions. It is they that decide whether a new plant shall be built or an old plant retired, how raw materials shall be allotted and orders distributed, what quotas must be fulfilled by various branches of industry, what goods shall be put aside for export, how prices shall be fixed and credit and exchange extended. There is no requirement that these decisions of the bureaus must be based on any profit aim in the capitalist sense. If it is thought expedient, for whatever reason, to produce, for example, an ersatz rubber or wool or food, this will be done even if the production entails, from a capitalist point of view, a heavy loss. Similarly, in order to accumulate foreign exchange or to stimulate some political effect in a foreign nation, goods will be exported regardless of loss. A factory may be compelled to shut down, even though it could operate at a high profit. Banks and individuals are forced to invest their funds with no reference to the private and voluntary opinions about "risks" from a profit standpoint. It is literally true to say that the Nazi economy, already, is not a "profit economy."
The so-called "Reagan Democrats" were Democrats before the Reagan years, and afterward, but who voted for Ronald Reagan in 1980 and 1984 (and for George H.W. Bush in 1988), producing their landslide victories. They were primarily Southern Democrats and ethnic Catholics in the Northeast and were frustrated by their seeing abandonment on cultural issues by the Democrat Party's national leaders.
The workers, on their side, are no longer the "free proletarians" of capitalism. Under Nazism the workers are indeed, free from unemployment. At the same time they cannot, as individuals or through their own independent organizations, bargain for wages or change jobs at will. They are assigned to their tasks, and their labor conditions are fixed, by the decisions of the state bureaus and commissions. Millions of them are allotted to the vast state enterprises. ...With the reduction in the area of private enterprise and the increase of state enterprise, goes also a corresponding reduction in the social position of the private capitalists. So far as control over the instruments of production goes, the capitalists are already near the bottom. As to income privilege: a recent estimate by a New York statistician gives as a mere 5% the share of the German national income going to profits and interest. This is a substantial reduction from the 1933 figures, in spite of a huge increase in the total national income, which, under capitalism, would normally be accompanied by a percentage increase in profits. ...f the German capitalists' 5%, the greater part is appropriated by the state as taxes and "contributions." ...
...how seldom we find a manager among the voluntary or forced exiles from Nazi Germany! There are artists and writers among the exiles, ideologists and politicians, unassailable foes of the new regime, storekeepers and professionals and teachers, and not a few capitalists, both Jews and Christians. But almost never a manager....Germany is to-day a managerial state in an early stage. Structurally, it is less advanced along managerial lines than Russia; ...though structurally less advanced...Its industrial and technological foundation is far stronger; the rising managerial class is much larger, better trained, more able...
...The first part of the second world war, up to the fall of France in June, 1940, was in reality the continuation of the strategic extension begun in 1935. This phase, the consolidation of the European base, was completed with France's surrender. It is completed irreversibly and can no longer be undone whatever the outcome of the succeeding phases of the war, which are really other wars. This consolidation fundamental to the world politics of managerial society, is not going to be dissolved, not even if the present German regime is utterly defeated. The day of a Europe carved into a score of sovereign states is over; if the states remain, they will be little more than administrative units in a larger collectivity.<ref>Burnham, James (1966). ''The Managerial Revolution'', Indiana University Press, Bloomingham, pp. 222-226, 232.</ref>}}
==See also==
==See also==
*[[List of political parties in the United States]]
*[[Anti-Semitism]]
*[[RINO]] – '''R'''epublicans '''i'''n '''N'''ame '''O'''nly
*[[National Socialism]]
*[[Previous Breaking News/Republicans|Articles about '''Republicans''' from previous "Breaking News"]]
*[[Nazi Germany and homosexuality]]
*[[Communism]]
*[[Far Left]]
*[[Health care in Nazi Germany]]
*[[Hugo Boss]] - supplier of party uniforms
==Bibliography==
==References==
{{Reflist|2}}
==External links==
==External links==
*[http://www.gop.com/ Official GOP Site]
*[http://econ161.berkeley.edu/TCEH/Slouch_Alternatives12.html Marxism, Fascism, Nazism] - Brad DeLong, Associate Professor of Economics, University of California at Berkeley
*Hitler, the Holocaust, and the Bible: A Scriptural Analysis of Anti-Semitism, National Socialism, and the Churches in Nazi Germany, by Joe Keysor
*[http://nyyrcrecord.blogspot.com/ New York Young Republican Record]
{{Liberalism}}
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