The Republican Party, also commonly called the GOP (for Grand Old Party), is the second oldest existing political party in the United States after its great rival, the Democratic Party. It emerged in 1854 to combat the Kansas–Nebraska Act, which threatened to extend slavery into the territories, and to promote more vigorous modernization of the economy. The Party had almost no presence in the South, but by 1858 in the North it had enlisted former Whigs and former Free Soil Democrats to form majorities in nearly every Northern state. With its election of Abraham Lincoln in 1860, and its success in guiding the Union to victory and abolishing slavery, it came to dominate the national political scene until 1932. The Republican Party was based on northern white Protestants, businessmen, small business owners, professionals, factory workers, farmers, and African-Americans. It was pro-business, supporting banks, the gold standard, railroads, and tariffs to protect industrial workers and industry. Under William McKinley and Theodore Roosevelt, it emphasized an expansive foreign policy. The GOP (Grand Old Party), as it is often called, lost its majorities during the Great Depression (1929–40). Instead, the Democrats under Franklin D. Roosevelt formed a winning New Deal coalition, which was dominant from 1932 to 1964. That coalition collapsed in the mid-1960s, partly because of white Southern Democrats disaffection with passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Republicans resurged, winning seven of the 10 presidential elections 1968 to 2004, with Ronald Reagan as the partys iconic conservative hero. The GOP expanded its base throughout the South after 1968 (excepting 1976), largely due to its strength among socially conservative white Evangelical Protestants and traditionalist Roman Catholics. As white Democrats in the South lost dominance of the Democratic Party once federal courts declared the Democratic White Primary elections unconstitutional, the region began more taking on the two-party apparatus which characterized most of the nation. The Republican Partys central leader by 1980 was Ronald Reagan, whose conservative policies called for reduced government spending and regulation, lower taxes, and a strong anti-Soviet foreign policy.
Posted on: Tue, 28 Jan 2014 02:33:19 +0000
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