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{{Infobox_American_Political_Party| party_name = Republican Party
| party_articletitle = Republican Party (United States)
| party_logo = ]
| website = http://www.gop.com www.gop.com
| headquarters = 310 First Street SE
[Washington, D.C.
20003
| chairman = [Mel Martinez, [Mike Duncan
| president = [George W. Bush
| houseleader = [John Boehner
| senateleader = [Mitch McConnell
| foundation = 1854
| ideology = [Conservatism in the United States
[Economic liberalism
[Neoconservatism
[Social conservatism
| fiscalpolicy = [Centre-right,
[Right-wing politics
| socialpolicy = [Centre-right,
[Right-wing politics
| international = [International Democrat Union
| colors = [Red states and blue states (unofficial)
| footnotes =
-->The
Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary Political party in the United States of America, along with the
Democratic Party (United States). It is often referred to as the
Grand Old Party or the
GOP. It is the younger of the two major U.S. political parties, and the second oldest active political party in the United States.
The current
President of the United States, George W. Bush, is the 18th Republican to hold that office. After losses in the
United States general elections, 2006, Republicans fill a minority of seats in both the United States Senate and the
United States House of Representatives, hold a minority of List of current United States Governors, and control a minority of
List of U.S. state legislatures. It is currently the second largest party with 55 million registered members, roughly one third of the electorate.
Founded in 1854 by anti-slavery expansion activists and modernizers, the Republican Party rose to prominence with the election of
Abraham Lincoln, the first Republican president. The party presided over the American Civil War and
Reconstruction and was harried by internal factions and scandals towards the end of the 19th century. Early in the 20th century, Theodore Roosevelt's presidency briefly associated the GOP with
progressivism, but by the Roaring Twenties, the party's economic ideology had developed into the pro-business model seen today. Today, the Republican Party supports a pro-business platform, with further foundations in economic libertarianism, nationalism, and a brand of
social conservatism increasingly based on the viewpoints of the Religious Right.
Current structure and composition
The Republican National Committee (RNC) is responsible for promoting Republican campaign activities. It is responsible for developing and promoting the Republican political platform, as well as coordinating fundraising and election strategy. Senator Mel Martinez of Florida is the Republican Party's current General Chairman, and
Mike Duncan is the chairman of RNC. The chairman of the RNC is chosen by the President when the Republicans have the White House or otherwise by the Party's state committees. The RNC, under the direction of the party's presidential candidate, supervises the
Republican National Convention, raises funds, and coordinates campaign strategy. On the local level there are similar state committees in every state and most large cities, counties and legislative districts, but they have far less money and influence than the national body.
The Republican House and Senate caucuses have separate
fund raising and strategy committees. The
National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) assists in House races, and the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) in Senate races. They each raise over $100 million per election cycle, and play important roles in recruiting strong state candidates. The
Republican Governors Association (RGA) is a discussion group that seldom funds state races.
Current ideology
The Republican Party includes large numbers of Conservatism#Fiscal conservatism,
Social conservatism, and
Libertarianism.
The Republican Party is the more socially
American conservatism and economically libertarian of the two major parties. The party generally supports lower taxes and limited government in some economic areas, while preferring government intervention in others. In the 1980s, the Republican Party was more strongly conservative than before. In his 1981 inaugural address, Republican President
Ronald Reagan summed up his belief in limited government when he said, "In this present crisis, government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem." Since 1980, the GOP has contained what George Will calls "unresolved tensions between, two flavors of conservatism -- Western and Southern." The Western brand, wrote Will, "is largely libertarian, holding that pruning big government will allow civil society -- and virtues nourished by it and by the responsibilities of freedom -- to flourish." The Southern variety, however, reflects a religiosity based in
evangelicalism and fundamentalist churches that is less concerned with economics and more with moralistic issues, such as opposition to
abortion and same-sex marriage. Noting the waning influence of libertarian philosophy on contemporary Republican ideology, Will describes the current Republican Party as "increasingly defined by the ascendancy of the religious right."
Separation of powers and balance of powers
The Republican Party believes that making law is the province of the legislature and that judges, especially the
Supreme Court of the United States, should not "legislate from the bench." Most Republicans point to
Roe v. Wade as a case of
judicial activism, where the court overturned most laws restricting abortion on the basis of a
right to privacy derived from the Bill of Rights and the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. Some Republicans have actively sought to block judges who they see as being
activist judges and they have sought the appointment of judges who will practice judicial restraint. Other Republicans, though, argue that it is the right of judges to extend the interpretation of the constitution and judge actions by the legislative or executive branches as legal or
unconstitutional on previously unarticulated grounds.
The Republican party has supported various bills within the last decade to strip some or all federal courts of the ability to hear certain types of cases, in an attempt to limit judicial review. These
jurisdiction stripping laws have included removing federal review of the recognition of same-sex marriage with the Marriage Protection Acthttp://www.washingtontimes.com/national/20040722-121146-3494r.htm, the constitutionality of the Pledge of Allegiance with the Pledge Protection Act, and the rights of detainees in Guantanamo Bay in the
Detainee Treatment Act. These limitations were overruled by the Supreme Court in
Hamdan v. Rumsfeld, which held that the precedent of
Marbury v. Madison on the federal courts'
original jurisdiction to review the constitutionality of laws overruled the Congress' ability to make exceptions in Article Three of the United States Constitution#Section 2: Federal jurisdiction and trial by jury.
Compared with Democrats, many Republicans believe in a more robust version of
federalism with greater limitations placed upon
Federal government of the United States power and a larger role reserved for the
U.S. state. Following this view on
federalism, Republicans often take a less expansive reading of congressional power under the
commerce clause, such as in the opinion of
William Rehnquist in
United States v. Lopez. Many Republicans on the more libertarian wing wish for a more dramatic narrowing of
commerce clause power by revisiting among cases,
Wickard v. Filburn, a case which held that growing wheat on a farm for consumption on the same farm fell under congressional power to
commerce clausePresident George W. Bush is a proponent of the
unitary executive theory and has cited it within his
signing statements about legislation passed by Congress. Foreign Relations Authorization Act, Fiscal Year 2003, signing statement The administration's interpretation of the unitary executive theory was called seriously into question by
Hamdan v. Rumsfeld, where the Supreme Court ruled 5-3 that the President does not have sweeping powers to override or ignore laws through his power as commander in chief"Why The Court Said No" by David Cole, New York Review of Books - , stating "the Executive is bound to comply with the Rule of Law that prevails."Opinion of the court, Hamdan v. Rumsfeld, pg 72, . Following the ruling, the Bush administration has sought Congressional authorization for programs started only on executive mandate, as was the case with the Military Commissions Act, or abandoned illegal programs it had previously asserted executive authority to enact, in the case of the National Security Agency
NSA warrantless surveillance controversy.
Economic policies
Republicans emphasize the role of corporate and personal decision making in fostering economic prosperity. They favor free-market policies supporting business,
economic liberalism, and limited regulation.A leading economic theory advocated by modern Republicans is
supply-side economics. Some fiscal policies influenced by this theory were popularly known as "
Reaganomics," a term popularized during the Presidential administrations of Ronald Reagan. This theory holds that reduced income tax rates increase
GDP growth and thereby generate the same or more revenue for the government from the smaller tax on the extra growth. This belief is reflected, in part, by the party's long-term advocacy of tax cuts, a major Republican theme since the 1920s. Republicans believe that a series of income
tax cuts since 2001 have bolstered the economy.John Podhoretz (2004).
Bush Country: How George W. Bush Became the First Great Leader of the 21st Century---While Driving Liberals Insane, p. 116. Many Republicans consider the income tax system to be inherently inefficient and oppose graduated tax rates, which they believe are unfairly targeted at those who create jobs and wealth. They believe private spending is usually more efficient than government spending.
Most Republicans agree there should be a "safety net" to assist the less fortunate; however, they tend to believe the private sector is more effective in helping the poor than government is; as a result, Republicans support giving government grants to faith-based and other private charitable organizations to supplant welfare spending. Members of the GOP also believe that limits on eligibility and benefits must be in place to ensure the safety net is not abused. Republicans strongly supported the
Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act, which limited eligibility for welfare and successfully led to many former welfare recipients finding jobs.
The party opposes a single-payer
universal health care system, such as that found in Canada or in most of Europe, sometimes referring to it as "
socialized medicine" and is in favor of the current personal or employer-based system of insurance, supplemented by Medicare for the elderly and Medicaid for the poor. The GOP has a mixed record of supporting the historically popular Social Security, Medicare (United States) and Medicaid programs, all of which Republicans initially opposed. On the one hand, congressional Republicans and the Bush administration supported a reduction in Medicaid's growth rate. On the other hand, congressional Republicans expanded Medicare, supporting a new drug plan for seniors starting 2006.
Republicans are generally opposed by labor unions and have supported various legislation on the state and federal levels, including right to work legislation and the
Taft-Hartley Act which gives workers the right not to participate in unions, as opposed to a closed shop which prohibits workers from choosing not to join unions in workplaces. Republicans generally oppose increases in the minimum wage, believing that the minimum wage increases unemployment and discourages business.
Environmental Records
The Conservative party, a legacy behind the conservation of the environment, is major a supporter of the protection and aid towards wildlife and wilderness. “Our physical health, our social happiness, and our economic well-being will be sustained only by all of us working in partnerships thoughtful, effective stewards of to natural resources.” Many amendments have been passed and lost to help hold on to our natural surroundings. A good example, from the 2006 scorecard is the bill by Rep. Charles Bass. Rep. Bass suggested to have the Wild River Wilderness In New Hampshire set aside, or as written in the scorecard, “designated”. They believe that the wild and beautiful landscapes are critical to the conservative ideals, in their eyes this wilderness “ fosters self reliance”, and “reinforces faith”.
The REP has embraced the idea of having a strong conservation and environmental stewardship as America’s ecological challenges increase. Richard Pombo placed a bill that “authorized oil and gas development in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.” The REP opposed this bill to protect the Arctic Refuge’s “unparalleled wildness”, and “wildlife habitat.”
Social policies
A majority of the GOP's national and state candidates oppose
abortion on religious or moral grounds, oppose the legal recognition of same sex marriage, and favor
faith-based initiatives. There are some exceptions, though, especially in the
Northeastern United States and Pacific Coast states. They support welfare benefit reductions and oppose
racial quotas, and are generally dubious of the desirability of affirmative action for women and minorities. Most of the GOP's membership favors capital punishment and stricter punishments as a means to prevent crime. Republicans generally strongly support constitutionally protected Gun politics in the United States.
Most Republicans support
school choice through
charter schools and
education vouchers for private schools; and many have denounced the performance of the public school system and the teachers' unions. The party has insisted on a system of greater accountability for public schools, most prominently in recent years with the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001.
The religious wing of the party tends to support School prayer and the inclusion of teaching creationism or
intelligent design alongside evolution. Some even advocate the teaching of Creationism exclusively. Although the GOP has voted for increases in government funding of scientific research, many members actively oppose the federal funding of
embryonic stem cell research because it involves the harvesting and destruction of human
embryos (which many consider ethically equivalent to
abortion), while arguing for applying research money into
adult stem cell or amniotic stem cell research. The stem cell issue has garnered two rare vetoes on research funding bills from President Bush, who said the research "crossed a moral boundary."
National defense and security
The Republican Party has always advocated a strong national defense; however, up until recently they tended to disapprove of interventionist foreign policy actions. Republicans opposed Woodrow Wilson's intervention in World War I and his subsequent attempt to create the League of Nations. Many Republicans opposed the creation of NATO. Even in the 1990s, although George H.W. Bush orchestrated the
Gulf War, Republicans opposed the intervention of the United States in Somalia and the Balkans. In 2000, somewhat ironically, George W. Bush ran on a platform that opposed these types of involvement in foreign conflicts.
Today, the Republican party supports unilateralism in issues of national security, believing in the ability and right of the United States to act without external or international support in its own self-interest. In general, Republican defense and international thinking is heavily influenced by the theories of neorealism and
Realism (international relations), characterizing the conflicts between nations as great struggles between faceless forces of international structure, as opposed to the result of individual leaders, their ideas and their actions. The realist school's influence shows in Reagan's Evil empire stance on the Soviet Union and George W. Bush's Axis of Evil.
Republicans secured gains in the 2002 and 2004 elections with the War on Terror being one of the top issues favoring them. Since the
September 11, 2001 attacks, the party supports
neoconservatism policies with regard to the
War on Terror, including the War in Afghanistan (2001–present) and the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
The doctrine of
pre-emptive war, wars to disarm and destroy military foes before they can act, has been advocated by prominent members of the Bush administration, but the civil war within Iraq has undercut the influence of this doctrine within the Republican Party.
Rudy Guliani, a prominent Republican presidential candidate, has stated that Republicans must keep America "on the offensive" against terrorists, stating his support of that policy.
The Bush administration supports the position that the Geneva Conventions do not apply to
unlawful combatants, using the premise that they apply to soldiers serving in the armies of nation-states and not terrorist organizations such as
Al-Qaeda. The Supreme Court overruled this position in Hamdan v. Rumsfeld, which held that the Geneva Conventions were legally binding and must be followed in regards to all enemy combatants.
Other international policies
Republicans support attempts for the democratization of Middle-Eastern countries currently under the rule of dictatorships. However, as the Republican Party favors an international policy based on realism, the President has taken seemingly hypocritical steps in forging strong alliances with dictatorships such as Pakistan and Uzbekistan in an effort to further the United States' foreign policy goals.
The party, through former U.N. Ambassador John R. Bolton, has advocated reforms in the UN to halt corruption such as that which afflicted the
Oil-for-Food Program. Some Republicans oppose the
Kyoto Protocol (although there is a section which supports it within the party), claiming that the treaty would hurt America's economy and do nothing to stop warming from major competitors such as People's Republic of China. The party strongly promotes free trade agreements, most notably
North American Free Trade Agreement, Dominican Republic-Central America Free Trade Agreement and now an effort to go further south to Brazil, Peru and
Colombia.
Republicans are divided on how to confront illegal immigration between a moderate business-friendly platform that allows for migrant workers and easing citizenship guidelines, and a harsher enforcement-only nationalist approach. The Bush administration has made appeals to immigrants a high priority long-term political goal, but that goal is not a high priority in most local GOP entities. In general, pro-growth advocates within the Republican Party support more immigration, and traditional or populist conservatives oppose it. In 2006, the White House supported and Senate passed comprehensive immigration reform that would eventually allow millions of illegal immigrants to become citizens, but the House, taking an enforcement-only approach, refused to go along.
Voter base
Business community. The GOP garners major support from traditional "smokestack industries."
Gender. Since 1980 a "gender gap" has seen slightly stronger support for the GOP among men than among women. In the 2006 House races, women voted 43% GOP while men voted 47%.
Race. Since 1964, the GOP has been weakly represented among
African Americans, winning under 15% of the Black vote in recent national elections (1980 to 2004). The party has nominated African American candidates for senator or governor in Illinois, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Maryland, but they all lost. More recently, President Bush has pushed for
Hispanic votes, winning 35% in 2000 and 44% in 2004. In 2004, 44% of Asian Americans voted for George W. Bush. In the 2006 House races, The GOP won 51% of white votes, 37% Asian votes, and 30% Hispanic votes, while winning only 10% of African American votes. The Republican Party became the party of abolition under
Abraham Lincoln and from the American Civil War until the
Great Depression, blacks voted for Republican candidates by an overwhelming margin; in the Southern states, they were often not allowed to vote, but received Federal patronage appointments from the Republicans. Blacks switched to the Democrats in the 1930s when the New Deal offered them governmental support for civil rights. In the South they began voting again after 1965, when a bipartisan coalition passed the Voting Rights Act, and ever since have formed 20% to 50% of the Democratic vote in the South. Harvard Sitkoff, A New Deal for Blacks (1978).
Family status. In recent elections, Republicans have found their greatest support among whites from married couples with children living at home. Affordable Family Formation–The Neglected Key To GOP’s Future by Steve Sailer Unmarried and divorced women were far more likely to vote for Kerry in 2004. Unmarried Women in the 2004 Presidential Election (PDF). Report by Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research, January, 2005. Page 3: "The marriage gap is one of the most important cleavages in electoral politics. Unmarried women voted for Kerry by a 25-point margin (62 to 37 percent), while married women voted for President Bush by an 11-point margin (55 percent to 44 percent). Indeed, the 25-point margin Kerry posted among unmarried women represented one of the high water marks for the Senator among all demographic groups."
Income. The differences in voting among income groups are small, though the poorest voters favor the Democratic Party. Bush won 41% of the poorest 20% of voters in 2004, 55% of the richest twenty percent, and 53% of those in between. In the 2006 House races, the voters with incomes over $50,000 were 49% Republican, while those under were 38%.
Military. Republicans hold a large majority in the armed services, with 57% of active military personnel and 66% of officers identified as Republican in 2003.
Education. In 1988, the elder Bush got 52% of the total vote, but won 62% of voters with a bachelor's degree (but no higher degree). In 2004, the younger Bush got 52% and the college graduate vote was split in the 2006 mid-term elections. Among voters with a Masters' degree or higher, in 1988 the elder Bush won 50% while in 2004 the younger Bush received 42%. Compensating for this drop were the gains George W. Bush made among voters with 12 to 15 years of school.Data based on exit polls reported in
The New York Times, November 10, 1988, p. 18. Bush had a slim advantage with college graduates at 52%, those with some college (54%) and high school graduates (52%). Democrats have majorities among those with post-graduate study (44% for Bush). In 2006 the best Republican showing was 49% among voters with a bachelor degree. Republicans remain a small minority in academia, with 15% of full-time faculty identifying as conservative.
Age. The Republicans and Democrats are about equally strong in different age groups, with Democrats doing slightly better among younger Americans and Republicans among older Americans. In 2006, the GOP won only 38% of the voters aged 18-29.
Sexual Orientation. Exit polls conducted in 2000, 2004 and 2006 indicate that 23-25% of gay and lesbian Americans voted for the GOP. In recent years, the party has opposed same-sex marriage, adoption by same-sex couples, inclusion of sexual orientation in hate crimes laws, the
Employment Non-Discrimination Act, and
Don't ask, don't tell.
Religion. Religion has always played a major role for both parties but, in the course of a century, the parties' religious compositions have changed. Religion was a major dividing line between the parties before United States presidential election, 1960, with Catholics, Jews, and the Protestant white South heavily Democratic, and Northeastern Protestants heavily Republican. Most of the old differences faded away after the realignment of the late 1960s that undercut the
New Deal coalition. Voters who attend church weekly gave 61% of their votes to Bush in
United States presidential election, 2004; those who attend occasionally gave him only 47%, while those who never attend gave him 36%. 59% of Protestants voted for Bush, along with 52% of Catholics (even though John Kerry was Catholic). Since 1980, large majorities of evangelicals have voted Republican; 70-80% voted for Bush in 2000 and 2004, and 70% for GOP House candidates in
United States general elections, 2006. Jews continue to vote 70-80% Democratic. Democrats have close links with the African American churches, especially the National Baptist Convention, USA, Inc., while their historic dominance among Catholic voters has eroded to 50-50. The main line traditional Protestants (Methodists, Lutherans, Presbyterians, Episcopalians) have dropped to about 55% Republican (in contrast to 75% before 1968). Their church membership have dropped in that time as well, and the conservative evangelical rivals have grown. Robert Booth Fowler et al,
Religion and Politics in America: Faith, Culture, and Strategic Choices (2004)
Region. Since 1980, geographically the Republican "base" ("Red state vs. blue state divide") is strongest in the
Southern United States and
Western United States, and weakest in the Northeast and the Pacific Coast. The
Northeastern United States actually does well for the GOP in state contests (with GOP governors like (formerly)
Mitt Romney in states like
Massachusetts) but not in presidential ones (except New Hampshire). The
Midwestern United States has been roughly balanced since 1854, with Illinois becoming more Democratic due to the City of Chicago and
Minnesota &
Wisconsin more Republican since 1990. Since the 1930s the Democrats have dominated most central cities, the Republicans now dominate rural areas, and the majority of suburbs.
The South has become solidly Republican in national elections since 1980, and has been trending Republican at the state level since then at a slower pace. Earl Black and Merle Black.
Politics and Society in the South (2005) In 2004 Bush led Kerry by 70%-30% among Southern whites, who comprised 71% of the Southern electorate. Kerry had a 70-30 lead among the 29% of the voters who were black or Hispanic. One-third of these Southern voters said they were white evangelicals; they voted for Bush by 80-20; but were only 72% Republican in 2006.
The Republican Party's strongest focus of political influence lies in the Great Plains states, particularly Oklahoma, Kansas, and Nebraska, and in the western states of Idaho,
Wyoming, and Utah (Utah gave George W. Bush more than 70% of the popular vote in 2004). These states are sparsely populated, have very few urban centers, and have overwhelmingly White populations, making it extremely difficult for Democrats to create a sustainable voter base there. Unlike the South, these areas have been strongly Republican since before the party realignments of the 1960s. The Great Plains states were one of the few areas of the country where Republicans had any significant support during the
Great Depression. However, these areas also have very few electoral votes or House seats, making them of limited political utility relative to more populous states.
Conservatives and Moderates. The Republican coalition is quite diverse, and numerous
Factions in the Republican Party (United States) compete to frame platforms and select candidates. The "conservatives" are strongest in the South, where they draw support from religious conservatives. The "
moderates" tend to dominate the party in New England, and used to be well represented in all states. From the 1940s to the 1970s under such leaders as Thomas Dewey, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Nelson Rockefeller, and
Richard Nixon, they usually dominated the presidential wing of the party. Since the 1970s they have been less powerful, though they are always represented in the cabinets of Republican presidents. In the 2006 elections, Rhode Island Senator Lincoln Chafee, arguably the last moderate-to-liberal Northeastern Republican of major prominence, lost his re-election bid.
New Hampshire's two Republican congressmen lost to their Democratic opponents. In
Vermont,
Jim Jeffords, a Republican Senator who became an
Independent (politician) in 2001 due to growing disagreement with President Bush and the party leadership. As of 2007, the most recent Opinion polling for the United States presidential election, 2008 of voters evaluating United States presidential election, 2008 show that three candidates are dominant:
Rudy Giuliani,
John McCain and Mitt Romney. More conservative Republicans like
Mike Huckabee, Newt Gingrich, and
Sam Brownback trail far behind.
Since the 1980s,
talk radio audiences and successful hosts have tended to be conservative, and typically favor the Republicans. Some well known radio hosts include
Rush Limbaugh,
Sean Hannity,
Laura Ingraham,
Michael Reagan,
Howie Carr, and Michael Savage.
Future trends
Republicans have controlled the White House for 26 of the previous 38 years. The party maintained majorities in both houses of Congress from 1995 through 2006, except for 18 months in the Senate while it was controlled by the Democrats from January 3-20, 2001 and June 6, 2001 – November 12, 2002. However, as a result of the United States general elections, 2006, the Democratic Party became the majority party in the House of Representatives as well as the United States Senate in the
110th Congress.
Karl Rove and other commentators have speculated about a permanent political realignment along the lines of the United States presidential election, 1896, in which
Mark Hanna helped William McKinley construct a Republican majority that lasted for the next 36 years. While the American political sphere is relatively evenly divided in terms of ideology,Gould (2003) the Republican party trails the democrats by 17 million registered members.
Two approaches to projecting future trends give opposite results. Emphasizing geography, some commentators point to the growth of suburbs, particularly in the Sun Belt where the Republicans dominate politics, and the population decline of the historically liberal
Rust Belt cities of the Northeast. (Population shifts gave Bush six more electoral votes between 2000 and 2004.) President Bush's victory in 2004 in ninety-seven of the hundred fastest-growing counties in the country was solid evidence of Republican strength in quickly growing
Commuter town and in the booming metropolitan areas of the South. By 2010, the Census projections show that states that voted for President Bush in 2004 will gain six Congressional seats and electoral votes, while states that voted for John Kerry will lose six.
Democratic commentators
Ruy Teixeira and
John Judis, on the other hand, say non-geographic social indicators show a trend toward Democrats. They point to the rapid increase in college graduates (who are trending Democratic), and the possible decrease in white and rural Republican bases. They also point to an increasing Democratic presence in formerly Republican strongholds such as Montana, which as of the November 2006 elections has two Democratic senators, a Democratic governor, and Democratic control of the state senate.
Despite the 2004 election results, the
United States general elections, 2006 signaled a shift toward favoring the Democratic Party as they won the House for the first time since 1994 and gained a one-seat majority in the Democratic caucus in the Senate. Some factors leading to this shift were opposition to the
Iraq War and Republican corruption and scandals involving
Tom DeLay, Mark Foley, and
Jack Abramoff. The split inside the GOP on immigration policy further hurt the party, and modest economic conditions were unable to save the Republicans from losing their majority.
Skeptics ask whether the Republican Party can simultaneously contain both
libertarians and
social conservatives, or whether it can contain both elements that want to remove
Undocumented/Unauthorized immigration, a business community that uses them as necessary employees, and Hispanic voters which typically have more liberal views on immigration. Republican optimists also point to the success of Roosevelt's Democratic coalition, which held together even more disparate elements. For the most part until 2007, the Republican Party has remained fairly cohesive, as both strong economic libertarians and strong
social conservatives are opposed to the Democrats, who they see as both the party of bigger and more secular, progressive government. Wooldridge, Adrian and John Micklethwait.
The Right Nation (2004). Yet, libertarians are increasingly dissatisfied with the party's social policy, which some believe has grown increasingly restrictive of personal liberties.
Historical trends
For more detailed history & bibliography until 1980, see History of the United States Republican Party.
Third party system: 1854–1896
Establishment where the Republican Party was organized in 1854The Republican Party was established in 1854 by a coalition of former Whig Party (United States), History of the United States Democratic Party, and
Free Soil Party who opposed the expansion of History of slavery in the United States and held a vision for modernizing the United States. was the Republican Party's first presidential candidate.The new party was created as an act of defiance against what activists denounced as the Slave Power—the powerful class of slaveholders who were conspiring to control the federal government and to spread slavery nationwide. The party founders adopted the name "Republican," echoing the 1776 Republicanism in the United States values of civic virtue and opposition to aristocracy and corruption. The new party emphasized a vision of modernizing higher education, banking, railroads, industry, and cities, while promising free homesteads to farmers. The party initially had its base in the Northeastern United States and
Midwestern United States. The party enjoyed its first national convention in Pittsburgh in February of 1856, with its first nominating convention coming that summer in Philadelphia.
John C. Frémont ran as the first Republican nominee for President, using the slogan: "Free soil, free labor, free speech, free men, Frémont." Although Frémont lost, his 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 1856-1860 as a divisive force that threatened civil war.
The Civil War and an era of Republican dominance: 1860–1896
, the first Republican President (1861-1865).The election of Abraham Lincoln in 1860 began a new era of Republican dominance based in the industrial Northeast and agricultural Midwest. Republicans still often refer to their party as the "party of Lincoln." Lincoln proved brilliantly successful in uniting all the factions of his party to fight for the Union. However, he often disagreed with the Radical Republicans who demanded harsher measures toward the South. In Congress, the party passed major legislation to promote rapid modernization, including a national banking system, high Morrill Tariff, the first temporary income tax, many excise taxes, paper money issued without backing ("greenbacks"), a huge national debt, homestead laws, and land grants to aid higher education, railroads and agriculture.
The Republicans denounced the northern anti-war Democrats as disloyal
Copperheads and won enough War Democrats to maintain their majority in 1862, and reelect Lincoln by a landslide in 1864. During Reconstruction, 1865-1877, how to deal with the ex-Confederates and the freed slaves or
Freedmen were the major issues. President
Andrew Johnson, a Democrat that had been nominated as Lincoln's running-mate by the
National Union Party (United States) (Republican) convention, broke with the Radicals in 1866. The showdown came in the United States House election, 1866, in which the Radicals won a sweeping victory and took full control of Reconstruction, passing key laws over Johnson's vetoes. The Radicals imposed Republican rule on the South—a coalition of
Freedmen,
Scalawags, and Carpetbaggers, who were deeply resented by the conservative ex-Confederates.
Elected in 1868,
Ulysses S. Grant supported radical reconstruction programs in the South, the
Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, equal civil and voting rights for the freedmen; most of all, Grant was the hero of the war veterans, who marched to his tune. Reconstruction came to an end when the contested election of 1876 was awarded 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.
As the Northern post-war economy boomed with 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. The Democratic Party was largely controlled by pro-business Bourbon Democrats until 1896. The GOP supported big business generally, hard money (i.e., the
gold standard), high
Tariff in American historys, and generous pensions for Union veterans. By 1890, the Republicans had agreed to the
Sherman Antitrust Act and the
Interstate Commerce Commission in response to complaints from owners of small businesses and farmers. Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act was a bipartisan program that eliminated most patronage by 1900. Foreign affairs seldom became partisan issues (except for the annexation of Hawaii, which Republicans favored and Democrats opposed). Much more salient were cultural issues. The GOP supported the pietistic Protestants (especially the Methodists, Congregationalists, Presbyterians, and Scandinavian Lutherans) who demanded Prohibition. That angered wet Republicans, especially German Americans, who broke ranks in 1890-1892, handing power to the Democrats.Shafer and Badger (2001)
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
Roman Catholicism, especially the Irish, who staffed the Democratic Party in the large cities, 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 mostly Democrats, and outnumbered the British and Scandinavian Republicans. During the 1880s, elections were remarkably close. The Democrats usually lost, but won in U.S. presidential election, 1884 and U.S. presidential election, 1892. In United States House election, 1894, the GOP scored the biggest landslide in its history, as Democrats were blamed for the
Panic of 1893 and the violent coal and railroad strikes of 1894.
Fourth party system: 1896–1932
The Progressive Era
The election of
William McKinley in U.S. presidential election, 1896 marked a new era of Republican dominance and is sometimes cited as a
realigning election. He relied heavily on finance, railroads, industry and the middle classes for his support and cemented the Republicans as the party of business. His
campaign manager, Ohio's
Marcus Hanna, developed a detailed plan for getting contributions from the business world, and McKinley outspent his rival William Jennings Bryan by a large margin. McKinley was the first president to promote Pluralism (political philosophy), arguing that prosperity would be shared by all ethnic and religious groups.
Theodore Roosevelt was the most dynamic personality of the era. He became the President after McKinley was assassinated in 1901. After promising to continue McKinley's policies, he won reelection in U.S. presidential election, 1904. He then veered left, attacking big business and busting the trusts. Roosevelt anointed William Howard Taft in
U.S. presidential election, 1908, but Taft worked more with the conservatives led by Senator Nelson W. Aldrich, although more trusts were broken up under Taft than Roosevelt. The
Payne-Aldrich tariff angered Midwestern insurgents. The widening division between Progressivism and conservatism forces in the party resulted in a third-party candidacy for Roosevelt on the
Progressive Party (United States, 1912), or "Bull Moose" ticket in
U.S. presidential election, 1912. He finished ahead of Taft, but the split in the Republican vote resulted in a decisive victory for Democrat
Woodrow Wilson, temporarily interrupting the Republican era.
The party controlled the presidency throughout the 1920s, running on a platform of 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
U.S. presidential election, 1920,
U.S. presidential election, 1924, and
U.S. presidential election 1928 respectively. 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.
In October 1929, the stock market crashed, giving rise to the Great Depression. Hoover, by nature an activist, attempted to do what he could to alleviate the widespread suffering caused by the Depression, but his strict adherence to what he believed were Republican principles precluded him from establishing relief directly from the federal government. The Democrats made major gains in the 1930 midterm elections, giving them congressional parity (though not control) for the first time since Woodrow Wilson's presidency.
Fifth party system: 1933–1980
Opposing the New Deal Coalition: 1933–1953
In 1932, Hoover was swamped in a landslide defeat to Franklin D. Roosevelt and his New Deal Coalition, which became a dominant element of American political life for the middle third of the century. Democrats also gained large majorities in both houses of Congress.
After Roosevelt took office in 1933, New Deal legislation sailed through Congress at lightning speed. In the 1934 midterm elections, ten Republican senators went down to defeat, leaving them with only 25 against 71 Democrats. The House of Representatives was also split in a similar ratio. The "Second New Deal" was heavily criticized by the Republicans in Congress, who likened it to
class warfare and socialism. The volume of legislation, as well as the inability of the Republicans to block it, soon made the opposition to Roosevelt develop into bitterness and sometimes hatred for "that man in the White House."
Little known Governor
Alfred Landon of Kansas ran an ineffective moderate campaign as the Roosevelt landslide of 1936 swept 46 states. The GOP was left with only 16 senators and 88 representatives to oppose the New Deal.
Roosevelt alienated many conservative Democrats, in 1937, by his unexpected plan to “pack” the Supreme Court via the Judiciary Reorganization Bill of 1937. Following a sharp recession that hit early in 1938, major strikes all over the country, and Roosevelt's failed efforts to radically reorganize the Supreme Court and federal courts, the GOP gained 75 House seats in 1938. Conservative Democrats, mostly from the South, joined with Republicans led by Senator
Robert A. Taft to create the conservative coalition, which dominated domestic issues in Congress until 1964.
From 1939 through 1941, there was a sharp debate within the GOP about support for Britain in World War II.
Internationalists, such as
Henry Stimson and Frank Knox, wanted to support Britain and
isolationists, such as
Robert Taft and Arthur Vandenberg, strongly opposed these moves as unwise, if not unconstitutional. The
America First movement was a bipartisan coalition of isolationists. In United States presidential election, 1940, a total unknown,
Wendell Willkie, at the last minute, won over the party, the delegates and was nominated. He crusaded against the inefficiencies of the New Deal and Roosevelt's break with the strong tradition against a third term. Pearl Harbor ended the isolationist-internationalist debate. The Republicans further cut the Democratic majority in the 1942 midterm elections. With wartime production creating prosperity, the Conservative coalition terminated most New Deal relief programs.
As a minority party, the GOP had two wings: The "left wing" supported most of the New Deal while promising to run it more efficiently. The "right wing" opposed the New Deal from the beginning and managed to repeal large parts during the 1940s in cooperation with conservative southern Democrats in the conservative coalition. Liberals, led by Dewey, dominated the Northeast. Conservatives, led by Taft, dominated the Midwest. The West was split, and the South was still solidly Democratic. 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 the early years of the war.
In United States presidential election, 1944, a clearly frail Roosevelt defeated Dewey, who was now governor of New York, for his fourth term, but Dewey made a good showing that would lead to his selection as the candidate in 1948.
Roosevelt died in office in 1945, and
Harry S. Truman became president. With the end of the war, unrest among organized labor led to many strikes in 1946, and the resulting disruptions helped the GOP. With the blunders of the Truman administration in 1945 and 1946, the slogans "Had Enough?" and "To Err is Truman" became Republican rallying cries, and the GOP won control of Congress for the first time since 1928, with
Joseph William Martin, Jr. as
Speaker of the House. The
Taft-Hartley Act of 1947 was designed to balance the rights of management and labor. It was the central issue of many elections in industrial states in the 1940s and 1950s, but the unions were never able to repeal it.
In 1948, with Republicans split left and right, Truman boldly called Congress into a special session, and sent it a load of liberal legislation consistent with the Dewey platform, and dared them to act on it, knowing that the conservative Republicans would block action. Truman then attacked the Republican "Do-Nothing Congress" as a whipping boy for all of the nation's problems. Truman stunned Dewey and the Republicans with a plurality of just over two million popular votes (out of nearly 49 million cast), but a decisive 303-189 victory in the Electoral College.
Eisenhower and Nixon: 1953–1974
After the war the isolationists in the conservative wing opposed the United Nations, and were half-hearted in exercising opposition to the expansion of Communism around the world.
Dwight Eisenhower, a NATO commander, defeated Taft in 1952 on foreign policy issues. The two men were not far apart on domestic issues. Eisenhower was an exception to most presidents in that he usually let Nixon handle party affairs (controlling the national committee and taking the roles of chief spokesman and chief fundraiser). Richard Nixon was defeated in 1960 in a close election, dooming his liberal wing of the party. The conservatives made a comeback in 1964 as
Barry Goldwater defeated Nelson Rockefeller in the primary. 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. He was defeated by
Lyndon Johnson in a landslide that brought down many senior Republican C
{{Infobox_American_Political_Party| party_name = Republican Party
| party_articletitle = Republican Party (United States)
| party_logo = ]
| website =
http://www.gop.com www.gop.com
| headquarters = 310 First Street SE
[Washington, D.C.
20003
| chairman = [Mel Martinez, [Mike Duncan
| president = [George W. Bush
| houseleader = [John Boehner
| senateleader = [Mitch McConnell
| foundation = 1854
| ideology = [Conservatism in the United States
[Economic liberalism
[Neoconservatism
[Social conservatism
| fiscalpolicy = [Centre-right,
[Right-wing politics
| socialpolicy = [Centre-right,
[Right-wing politics
| international = [International Democrat Union
| colors = [Red states and blue states (unofficial)
| footnotes =
-->The
Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary Political party in the
United States of America, along with the Democratic Party (United States). It is often referred to as the
Grand Old Party or the
GOP. It is the younger of the two major U.S. political parties, and the second oldest active political party in the United States.
The current President of the United States, George W. Bush, is the 18th Republican to hold that office. After losses in the
United States general elections, 2006, Republicans fill a minority of seats in both the
United States Senate and the
United States House of Representatives, hold a minority of
List of current United States Governors, and control a minority of
List of U.S. state legislatures. It is currently the second largest party with 55 million registered members, roughly one third of the electorate.
Founded in 1854 by anti-slavery expansion activists and modernizers, the Republican Party rose to prominence with the election of
Abraham Lincoln, the first Republican president. The party presided over the American Civil War and Reconstruction and was harried by internal factions and scandals towards the end of the 19th century. Early in the 20th century, Theodore Roosevelt's presidency briefly associated the GOP with progressivism, but by the Roaring Twenties, the party's economic ideology had developed into the pro-business model seen today. Today, the Republican Party supports a pro-business platform, with further foundations in
economic libertarianism, nationalism, and a brand of social conservatism increasingly based on the viewpoints of the Religious Right.
Current structure and composition
The
Republican National Committee (RNC) is responsible for promoting Republican campaign activities. It is responsible for developing and promoting the Republican political platform, as well as coordinating fundraising and election strategy. Senator
Mel Martinez of Florida is the Republican Party's current General Chairman, and
Mike Duncan is the chairman of RNC. The chairman of the RNC is chosen by the President when the Republicans have the White House or otherwise by the Party's state committees. The RNC, under the direction of the party's presidential candidate, supervises the Republican National Convention, raises funds, and coordinates campaign strategy. On the local level there are similar state committees in every state and most large cities, counties and legislative districts, but they have far less money and influence than the national body.
The Republican House and Senate caucuses have separate
fund raising and strategy committees. The
National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) assists in House races, and the
National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) in Senate races. They each raise over $100 million per election cycle, and play important roles in recruiting strong state candidates. The
Republican Governors Association (RGA) is a discussion group that seldom funds state races.
Current ideology
The Republican Party includes large numbers of Conservatism#Fiscal conservatism,
Social conservatism, and Libertarianism.
The Republican Party is the more socially American conservatism and economically
libertarian of the two major parties. The party generally supports lower taxes and limited government in some economic areas, while preferring government intervention in others. In the 1980s, the Republican Party was more strongly conservative than before. In his 1981 inaugural address, Republican President
Ronald Reagan summed up his belief in limited government when he said, "In this present crisis, government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem." Since 1980, the GOP has contained what
George Will calls "unresolved tensions between, two flavors of conservatism -- Western and Southern." The Western brand, wrote Will, "is largely libertarian, holding that pruning big government will allow civil society -- and virtues nourished by it and by the responsibilities of freedom -- to flourish." The Southern variety, however, reflects a religiosity based in
evangelicalism and
fundamentalist churches that is less concerned with economics and more with moralistic issues, such as opposition to
abortion and
same-sex marriage. Noting the waning influence of libertarian philosophy on contemporary Republican ideology, Will describes the current Republican Party as "increasingly defined by the ascendancy of the religious right."
Separation of powers and balance of powers
The Republican Party believes that making law is the province of the legislature and that judges, especially the Supreme Court of the United States, should not "legislate from the bench." Most Republicans point to Roe v. Wade as a case of judicial activism, where the court overturned most laws restricting abortion on the basis of a right to privacy derived from the
Bill of Rights and the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. Some Republicans have actively sought to block judges who they see as being
activist judges and they have sought the appointment of judges who will practice
judicial restraint. Other Republicans, though, argue that it is the right of judges to extend the interpretation of the constitution and judge actions by the legislative or executive branches as legal or unconstitutional on previously unarticulated grounds.
The Republican party has supported various bills within the last decade to strip some or all federal courts of the ability to hear certain types of cases, in an attempt to limit judicial review. These
jurisdiction stripping laws have included removing federal review of the recognition of same-sex marriage with the Marriage Protection Acthttp://www.washingtontimes.com/national/20040722-121146-3494r.htm, the constitutionality of the Pledge of Allegiance with the Pledge Protection Act, and the rights of detainees in Guantanamo Bay in the Detainee Treatment Act. These limitations were overruled by the Supreme Court in Hamdan v. Rumsfeld, which held that the precedent of
Marbury v. Madison on the federal courts' original jurisdiction to review the constitutionality of laws overruled the Congress' ability to make exceptions in
Article Three of the United States Constitution#Section 2: Federal jurisdiction and trial by jury.
Compared with Democrats, many Republicans believe in a more robust version of federalism with greater limitations placed upon Federal government of the United States power and a larger role reserved for the
U.S. state. Following this view on
federalism, Republicans often take a less expansive reading of congressional power under the
commerce clause, such as in the opinion of William Rehnquist in
United States v. Lopez. Many Republicans on the more libertarian wing wish for a more dramatic narrowing of commerce clause power by revisiting among cases,
Wickard v. Filburn, a case which held that growing wheat on a farm for consumption on the same farm fell under congressional power to commerce clause
President George W. Bush is a proponent of the
unitary executive theory and has cited it within his
signing statements about legislation passed by Congress. Foreign Relations Authorization Act, Fiscal Year 2003, signing statement The administration's interpretation of the unitary executive theory was called seriously into question by Hamdan v. Rumsfeld, where the Supreme Court ruled 5-3 that the President does not have sweeping powers to override or ignore laws through his power as commander in chief"Why The Court Said No" by David Cole, New York Review of Books - , stating "the Executive is bound to comply with the Rule of Law that prevails."Opinion of the court, Hamdan v. Rumsfeld, pg 72, . Following the ruling, the Bush administration has sought Congressional authorization for programs started only on executive mandate, as was the case with the
Military Commissions Act, or abandoned illegal programs it had previously asserted executive authority to enact, in the case of the National Security Agency NSA warrantless surveillance controversy.
Economic policies
Republicans emphasize the role of corporate and personal decision making in fostering economic prosperity. They favor free-market policies supporting business,
economic liberalism, and limited regulation.A leading economic theory advocated by modern Republicans is
supply-side economics. Some fiscal policies influenced by this theory were popularly known as "
Reaganomics," a term popularized during the Presidential administrations of
Ronald Reagan. This theory holds that reduced income tax rates increase
GDP growth and thereby generate the same or more revenue for the government from the smaller tax on the extra growth. This belief is reflected, in part, by the party's long-term advocacy of tax cuts, a major Republican theme since the 1920s. Republicans believe that a series of income tax cuts since 2001 have bolstered the economy.
John Podhoretz (2004).
Bush Country: How George W. Bush Became the First Great Leader of the 21st Century---While Driving Liberals Insane, p. 116. Many Republicans consider the income tax system to be inherently inefficient and oppose graduated tax rates, which they believe are unfairly targeted at those who create jobs and wealth. They believe private spending is usually more efficient than government spending.
Most Republicans agree there should be a "safety net" to assist the less fortunate; however, they tend to believe the private sector is more effective in helping the poor than government is; as a result, Republicans support giving government grants to faith-based and other private charitable organizations to supplant welfare spending. Members of the GOP also believe that limits on eligibility and benefits must be in place to ensure the safety net is not abused. Republicans strongly supported the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act, which limited eligibility for welfare and successfully led to many former welfare recipients finding jobs.
The party opposes a single-payer
universal health care system, such as that found in Canada or in most of Europe, sometimes referring to it as "
socialized medicine" and is in favor of the current personal or employer-based system of insurance, supplemented by Medicare for the elderly and Medicaid for the poor. The GOP has a mixed record of supporting the historically popular Social Security,
Medicare (United States) and
Medicaid programs, all of which Republicans initially opposed. On the one hand, congressional Republicans and the Bush administration supported a reduction in Medicaid's growth rate. On the other hand, congressional Republicans expanded Medicare, supporting a new drug plan for seniors starting 2006.
Republicans are generally opposed by
labor unions and have supported various legislation on the state and federal levels, including right to work legislation and the
Taft-Hartley Act which gives workers the right not to participate in unions, as opposed to a closed shop which prohibits workers from choosing not to join unions in workplaces. Republicans generally oppose increases in the minimum wage, believing that the minimum wage increases unemployment and discourages business.
Environmental Records
The Conservative party, a legacy behind the conservation of the environment, is major a supporter of the protection and aid towards wildlife and wilderness. “Our physical health, our social happiness, and our economic well-being will be sustained only by all of us working in partnerships thoughtful, effective stewards of to natural resources.” Many amendments have been passed and lost to help hold on to our natural surroundings. A good example, from the 2006 scorecard is the bill by Rep. Charles Bass. Rep. Bass suggested to have the Wild River Wilderness In New Hampshire set aside, or as written in the scorecard, “designated”. They believe that the wild and beautiful landscapes are critical to the conservative ideals, in their eyes this wilderness “ fosters self reliance”, and “reinforces faith”.
The REP has embraced the idea of having a strong conservation and environmental stewardship as America’s ecological challenges increase. Richard Pombo placed a bill that “authorized oil and gas development in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.” The REP opposed this bill to protect the Arctic Refuge’s “unparalleled wildness”, and “wildlife habitat.”
Social policies
A majority of the GOP's national and state candidates oppose
abortion on religious or moral grounds, oppose the legal recognition of
same sex marriage, and favor
faith-based initiatives. There are some exceptions, though, especially in the Northeastern United States and Pacific Coast states. They support welfare benefit reductions and oppose
racial quotas, and are generally dubious of the desirability of affirmative action for women and minorities. Most of the GOP's membership favors
capital punishment and stricter punishments as a means to prevent crime. Republicans generally strongly support constitutionally protected
Gun politics in the United States.
Most Republicans support
school choice through
charter schools and
education vouchers for private schools; and many have denounced the performance of the public school system and the teachers' unions. The party has insisted on a system of greater accountability for public schools, most prominently in recent years with the
No Child Left Behind Act of 2001.
The religious wing of the party tends to support
School prayer and the inclusion of teaching
creationism or
intelligent design alongside
evolution. Some even advocate the teaching of Creationism exclusively. Although the GOP has voted for increases in government funding of scientific research, many members actively oppose the federal funding of embryonic stem cell research because it involves the harvesting and destruction of human embryos (which many consider ethically equivalent to
abortion), while arguing for applying research money into
adult stem cell or amniotic stem cell research. The stem cell issue has garnered two rare vetoes on research funding bills from President Bush, who said the research "crossed a moral boundary."
National defense and security
The Republican Party has always advocated a strong national defense; however, up until recently they tended to disapprove of interventionist foreign policy actions. Republicans opposed Woodrow Wilson's intervention in World War I and his subsequent attempt to create the
League of Nations. Many Republicans opposed the creation of NATO. Even in the 1990s, although
George H.W. Bush orchestrated the Gulf War, Republicans opposed the intervention of the United States in Somalia and the Balkans. In 2000, somewhat ironically, George W. Bush ran on a platform that opposed these types of involvement in foreign conflicts.
Today, the Republican party supports
unilateralism in issues of national security, believing in the ability and right of the United States to act without external or international support in its own self-interest. In general, Republican defense and international thinking is heavily influenced by the theories of
neorealism and Realism (international relations), characterizing the conflicts between nations as great struggles between faceless forces of international structure, as opposed to the result of individual leaders, their ideas and their actions. The realist school's influence shows in Reagan's Evil empire stance on the Soviet Union and George W. Bush's
Axis of Evil.
Republicans secured gains in the 2002 and 2004 elections with the War on Terror being one of the top issues favoring them. Since the
September 11, 2001 attacks, the party supports
neoconservatism policies with regard to the War on Terror, including the
War in Afghanistan (2001–present) and the
2003 invasion of Iraq.
The doctrine of
pre-emptive war, wars to disarm and destroy military foes before they can act, has been advocated by prominent members of the Bush administration, but the civil war within Iraq has undercut the influence of this doctrine within the Republican Party.
Rudy Guliani, a prominent Republican presidential candidate, has stated that Republicans must keep America "on the offensive" against terrorists, stating his support of that policy.
The Bush administration supports the position that the
Geneva Conventions do not apply to
unlawful combatants, using the premise that they apply to soldiers serving in the armies of nation-states and not
terrorist organizations such as
Al-Qaeda. The Supreme Court overruled this position in Hamdan v. Rumsfeld, which held that the Geneva Conventions were legally binding and must be followed in regards to all enemy combatants.
Other international policies
Republicans support attempts for the democratization of Middle-Eastern countries currently under the rule of dictatorships. However, as the Republican Party favors an international policy based on realism, the President has taken seemingly hypocritical steps in forging strong alliances with dictatorships such as Pakistan and Uzbekistan in an effort to further the United States' foreign policy goals.
The party, through former U.N. Ambassador John R. Bolton, has advocated reforms in the
UN to halt corruption such as that which afflicted the
Oil-for-Food Program. Some Republicans oppose the Kyoto Protocol (although there is a section which supports it within the party), claiming that the treaty would hurt America's economy and do nothing to stop warming from major competitors such as
People's Republic of China. The party strongly promotes
free trade agreements, most notably North American Free Trade Agreement,
Dominican Republic-Central America Free Trade Agreement and now an effort to go further south to
Brazil,
Peru and Colombia.
Republicans are divided on how to confront
illegal immigration between a moderate business-friendly platform that allows for migrant workers and easing citizenship guidelines, and a harsher enforcement-only nationalist approach. The Bush administration has made appeals to immigrants a high priority long-term political goal, but that goal is not a high priority in most local GOP entities. In general, pro-growth advocates within the Republican Party support more immigration, and traditional or populist conservatives oppose it. In 2006, the White House supported and Senate passed comprehensive immigration reform that would eventually allow millions of illegal immigrants to become citizens, but the House, taking an enforcement-only approach, refused to go along.
Voter base
Business community. The GOP garners major support from traditional "smokestack industries."
Gender. Since 1980 a "gender gap" has seen slightly stronger support for the GOP among men than among women. In the 2006 House races, women voted 43% GOP while men voted 47%.
Race. Since 1964, the GOP has been weakly represented among
African Americans, winning under 15% of the Black vote in recent national elections (1980 to 2004). The party has nominated African American candidates for senator or governor in Illinois, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Maryland, but they all lost. More recently, President Bush has pushed for Hispanic votes, winning 35% in 2000 and 44% in 2004. In 2004, 44% of
Asian Americans voted for George W. Bush. In the 2006 House races, The GOP won 51% of white votes, 37% Asian votes, and 30% Hispanic votes, while winning only 10% of
African American votes. The Republican Party became the party of
abolition under Abraham Lincoln and from the American Civil War until the
Great Depression, blacks voted for Republican candidates by an overwhelming margin; in the Southern states, they were often not allowed to vote, but received Federal patronage appointments from the Republicans. Blacks switched to the Democrats in the 1930s when the New Deal offered them governmental support for civil rights. In the South they began voting again after 1965, when a bipartisan coalition passed the Voting Rights Act, and ever since have formed 20% to 50% of the Democratic vote in the South. Harvard Sitkoff, A New Deal for Blacks (1978).
Family status. In recent elections, Republicans have found their greatest support among whites from married couples with children living at home. Affordable Family Formation–The Neglected Key To GOP’s Future by Steve Sailer Unmarried and divorced women were far more likely to vote for Kerry in 2004. Unmarried Women in the 2004 Presidential Election (PDF). Report by Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research, January, 2005. Page 3: "The marriage gap is one of the most important cleavages in electoral politics. Unmarried women voted for Kerry by a 25-point margin (62 to 37 percent), while married women voted for President Bush by an 11-point margin (55 percent to 44 percent). Indeed, the 25-point margin Kerry posted among unmarried women represented one of the high water marks for the Senator among all demographic groups."
Income. The differences in voting among income groups are small, though the poorest voters favor the Democratic Party. Bush won 41% of the poorest 20% of voters in 2004, 55% of the richest twenty percent, and 53% of those in between. In the 2006 House races, the voters with incomes over $50,000 were 49% Republican, while those under were 38%.
Military. Republicans hold a large majority in the armed services, with 57% of active military personnel and 66% of officers identified as Republican in 2003.
Education. In 1988, the elder Bush got 52% of the total vote, but won 62% of voters with a bachelor's degree (but no higher degree). In 2004, the younger Bush got 52% and the college graduate vote was split in the 2006 mid-term elections. Among voters with a Masters' degree or higher, in 1988 the elder Bush won 50% while in 2004 the younger Bush received 42%. Compensating for this drop were the gains George W. Bush made among voters with 12 to 15 years of school.Data based on exit polls reported in
The New York Times, November 10, 1988, p. 18. Bush had a slim advantage with college graduates at 52%, those with some college (54%) and high school graduates (52%). Democrats have majorities among those with post-graduate study (44% for Bush). In 2006 the best Republican showing was 49% among voters with a bachelor degree. Republicans remain a small minority in academia, with 15% of full-time faculty identifying as conservative.
Age. The Republicans and Democrats are about equally strong in different age groups, with Democrats doing slightly better among younger Americans and Republicans among older Americans. In 2006, the GOP won only 38% of the voters aged 18-29.
Sexual Orientation. Exit polls conducted in 2000, 2004 and 2006 indicate that 23-25% of gay and lesbian Americans voted for the GOP. In recent years, the party has opposed same-sex marriage, adoption by same-sex couples, inclusion of sexual orientation in hate crimes laws, the
Employment Non-Discrimination Act, and
Don't ask, don't tell.
Religion. Religion has always played a major role for both parties but, in the course of a century, the parties' religious compositions have changed. Religion was a major dividing line between the parties before United States presidential election, 1960, with Catholics, Jews, and the Protestant white South heavily Democratic, and Northeastern Protestants heavily Republican. Most of the old differences faded away after the realignment of the late 1960s that undercut the New Deal coalition. Voters who attend church weekly gave 61% of their votes to Bush in
United States presidential election, 2004; those who attend occasionally gave him only 47%, while those who never attend gave him 36%. 59% of Protestants voted for Bush, along with 52% of Catholics (even though
John Kerry was Catholic). Since 1980, large majorities of evangelicals have voted Republican; 70-80% voted for Bush in 2000 and 2004, and 70% for GOP House candidates in United States general elections, 2006. Jews continue to vote 70-80% Democratic. Democrats have close links with the African American churches, especially the National Baptist Convention, USA, Inc., while their historic dominance among Catholic voters has eroded to 50-50. The main line traditional Protestants (Methodists, Lutherans, Presbyterians, Episcopalians) have dropped to about 55% Republican (in contrast to 75% before 1968). Their church membership have dropped in that time as well, and the conservative evangelical rivals have grown. Robert Booth Fowler et al,
Religion and Politics in America: Faith, Culture, and Strategic Choices (2004)
Region. Since 1980, geographically the Republican "base" ("Red state vs. blue state divide") is strongest in the Southern United States and Western United States, and weakest in the Northeast and the Pacific Coast. The
Northeastern United States actually does well for the GOP in state contests (with GOP governors like (formerly) Mitt Romney in states like
Massachusetts) but not in presidential ones (except
New Hampshire). The Midwestern United States has been roughly balanced since 1854, with Illinois becoming more Democratic due to the City of Chicago and
Minnesota &
Wisconsin more Republican since 1990. Since the 1930s the Democrats have dominated most central cities, the Republicans now dominate rural areas, and the majority of suburbs.
The South has become solidly Republican in national elections since 1980, and has been trending Republican at the state level since then at a slower pace. Earl Black and Merle Black.
Politics and Society in the South (2005) In 2004 Bush led Kerry by 70%-30% among Southern whites, who comprised 71% of the Southern electorate. Kerry had a 70-30 lead among the 29% of the voters who were black or Hispanic. One-third of these Southern voters said they were white evangelicals; they voted for Bush by 80-20; but were only 72% Republican in 2006.
The Republican Party's strongest focus of political influence lies in the Great Plains states, particularly
Oklahoma, Kansas, and
Nebraska, and in the western states of
Idaho,
Wyoming, and
Utah (Utah gave George W. Bush more than 70% of the popular vote in 2004). These states are sparsely populated, have very few urban centers, and have overwhelmingly White populations, making it extremely difficult for Democrats to create a sustainable voter base there. Unlike the South, these areas have been strongly Republican since before the party realignments of the 1960s. The Great Plains states were one of the few areas of the country where Republicans had any significant support during the Great Depression. However, these areas also have very few electoral votes or House seats, making them of limited political utility relative to more populous states.
Conservatives and Moderates. The Republican coalition is quite diverse, and numerous
Factions in the Republican Party (United States) compete to frame platforms and select candidates. The "conservatives" are strongest in the South, where they draw support from religious conservatives. The "
moderates" tend to dominate the party in New England, and used to be well represented in all states. From the 1940s to the 1970s under such leaders as
Thomas Dewey, Dwight D. Eisenhower,
Nelson Rockefeller, and Richard Nixon, they usually dominated the presidential wing of the party. Since the 1970s they have been less powerful, though they are always represented in the cabinets of Republican presidents. In the 2006 elections,
Rhode Island Senator
Lincoln Chafee, arguably the last moderate-to-liberal Northeastern Republican of major prominence, lost his re-election bid.
New Hampshire's two Republican congressmen lost to their Democratic opponents. In Vermont, Jim Jeffords, a Republican Senator who became an Independent (politician) in 2001 due to growing disagreement with President Bush and the party leadership. As of 2007, the most recent Opinion polling for the United States presidential election, 2008 of voters evaluating
United States presidential election, 2008 show that three candidates are dominant: Rudy Giuliani, John McCain and
Mitt Romney. More conservative Republicans like Mike Huckabee,
Newt Gingrich, and
Sam Brownback trail far behind.
Since the 1980s, talk radio audiences and successful hosts have tended to be conservative, and typically favor the Republicans. Some well known radio hosts include Rush Limbaugh,
Sean Hannity,
Laura Ingraham, Michael Reagan, Howie Carr, and
Michael Savage.
Future trends
Republicans have controlled the White House for 26 of the previous 38 years. The party maintained majorities in both houses of Congress from 1995 through 2006, except for 18 months in the Senate while it was controlled by the Democrats from January 3-20, 2001 and June 6, 2001 – November 12, 2002. However, as a result of the
United States general elections, 2006, the Democratic Party became the majority party in the House of Representatives as well as the United States Senate in the
110th Congress. Karl Rove and other commentators have speculated about a permanent political realignment along the lines of the United States presidential election, 1896, in which Mark Hanna helped William McKinley construct a Republican majority that lasted for the next 36 years. While the American political sphere is relatively evenly divided in terms of ideology,Gould (2003) the Republican party trails the democrats by 17 million registered members.
Two approaches to projecting future trends give opposite results. Emphasizing geography, some commentators point to the growth of suburbs, particularly in the
Sun Belt where the Republicans dominate politics, and the population decline of the historically liberal Rust Belt cities of the Northeast. (Population shifts gave Bush six more electoral votes between 2000 and 2004.) President Bush's victory in 2004 in ninety-seven of the hundred fastest-growing counties in the country was solid evidence of Republican strength in quickly growing Commuter town and in the booming metropolitan areas of the South. By 2010, the Census projections show that states that voted for President Bush in 2004 will gain six Congressional seats and electoral votes, while states that voted for John Kerry will lose six.
Democratic commentators Ruy Teixeira and
John Judis, on the other hand, say non-geographic social indicators show a trend toward Democrats. They point to the rapid increase in college graduates (who are trending Democratic), and the possible decrease in white and rural Republican bases. They also point to an increasing Democratic presence in formerly Republican strongholds such as Montana, which as of the November 2006 elections has two Democratic senators, a Democratic governor, and Democratic control of the state senate.
Despite the 2004 election results, the
United States general elections, 2006 signaled a shift toward favoring the Democratic Party as they won the House for the first time since 1994 and gained a one-seat majority in the Democratic caucus in the Senate. Some factors leading to this shift were opposition to the Iraq War and Republican corruption and scandals involving Tom DeLay,
Mark Foley, and
Jack Abramoff. The split inside the GOP on immigration policy further hurt the party, and modest economic conditions were unable to save the Republicans from losing their majority.
Skeptics ask whether the Republican Party can simultaneously contain both
libertarians and social conservatives, or whether it can contain both elements that want to remove
Undocumented/Unauthorized immigration, a business community that uses them as necessary employees, and
Hispanic voters which typically have more liberal views on immigration. Republican optimists also point to the success of Roosevelt's Democratic coalition, which held together even more disparate elements. For the most part until 2007, the Republican Party has remained fairly cohesive, as both strong economic libertarians and strong
social conservatives are opposed to the Democrats, who they see as both the party of bigger and more secular, progressive government. Wooldridge, Adrian and John Micklethwait.
The Right Nation (2004). Yet, libertarians are increasingly dissatisfied with the party's social policy, which some believe has grown increasingly restrictive of personal liberties.
Historical trends
For more detailed history & bibliography until 1980, see History of the United States Republican Party.
Third party system: 1854–1896
Establishment where the Republican Party was organized in 1854The Republican Party was established in 1854 by a coalition of former
Whig Party (United States), History of the United States Democratic Party, and Free Soil Party who opposed the expansion of History of slavery in the United States and held a vision for modernizing the United States. was the Republican Party's first presidential candidate.The new party was created as an act of defiance against what activists denounced as the Slave Power—the powerful class of slaveholders who were conspiring to control the federal government and to spread slavery nationwide. The party founders adopted the name "Republican," echoing the 1776 Republicanism in the United States values of civic virtue and opposition to aristocracy and corruption. The new party emphasized a vision of modernizing higher education, banking, railroads, industry, and cities, while promising free homesteads to farmers. The party initially had its base in the
Northeastern United States and Midwestern United States. The party enjoyed its first national convention in Pittsburgh in February of 1856, with its first nominating convention coming that summer in Philadelphia.
John C. Frémont ran as the first Republican nominee for President, using the slogan: "Free soil, free labor, free speech, free men, Frémont." Although Frémont lost, his 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 1856-1860 as a divisive force that threatened civil war.
The Civil War and an era of Republican dominance: 1860–1896
, the first Republican President (1861-1865).The election of
Abraham Lincoln in 1860 began a new era of Republican dominance based in the industrial Northeast and agricultural Midwest. Republicans still often refer to their party as the "party of Lincoln." Lincoln proved brilliantly successful in uniting all the factions of his party to fight for the Union. However, he often disagreed with the Radical Republicans who demanded harsher measures toward the South. In Congress, the party passed major legislation to promote rapid modernization, including a national banking system, high
Morrill Tariff, the first temporary income tax, many excise taxes, paper money issued without backing ("greenbacks"), a huge national debt, homestead laws, and land grants to aid higher education, railroads and agriculture.
The Republicans denounced the northern anti-war Democrats as disloyal
Copperheads and won enough War Democrats to maintain their majority in 1862, and reelect Lincoln by a landslide in 1864. During
Reconstruction, 1865-1877, how to deal with the ex-Confederates and the freed slaves or
Freedmen were the major issues. President Andrew Johnson, a Democrat that had been nominated as Lincoln's running-mate by the
National Union Party (United States) (Republican) convention, broke with the Radicals in 1866. The showdown came in the United States House election, 1866, in which the Radicals won a sweeping victory and took full control of Reconstruction, passing key laws over Johnson's vetoes. The Radicals imposed Republican rule on the South—a coalition of
Freedmen, Scalawags, and
Carpetbaggers, who were deeply resented by the conservative ex-Confederates.
Elected in 1868, Ulysses S. Grant supported radical reconstruction programs in the South, the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, equal civil and voting rights for the freedmen; most of all, Grant was the hero of the war veterans, who marched to his tune. Reconstruction came to an end when the contested election of 1876 was awarded 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.
As the Northern post-war economy boomed with 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. The Democratic Party was largely controlled by pro-business Bourbon Democrats until 1896. The GOP supported big business generally, hard money (i.e., the gold standard), high
Tariff in American historys, and generous pensions for Union veterans. By 1890, the Republicans had agreed to the
Sherman Antitrust Act and the
Interstate Commerce Commission in response to complaints from owners of small businesses and farmers. Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act was a bipartisan program that eliminated most patronage by 1900. Foreign affairs seldom became partisan issues (except for the annexation of Hawaii, which Republicans favored and Democrats opposed). Much more salient were cultural issues. The GOP supported the pietistic Protestants (especially the Methodists, Congregationalists, Presbyterians, and Scandinavian Lutherans) who demanded Prohibition. That angered wet Republicans, especially
German Americans, who broke ranks in 1890-1892, handing power to the Democrats.Shafer and Badger (2001)
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 Roman Catholicism, especially the Irish, who staffed the Democratic Party in the large cities, 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 mostly Democrats, and outnumbered the British and Scandinavian Republicans. During the 1880s, elections were remarkably close. The Democrats usually lost, but won in U.S. presidential election, 1884 and
U.S. presidential election, 1892. In United States House election, 1894, the GOP scored the biggest landslide in its history, as Democrats were blamed for the Panic of 1893 and the violent coal and railroad strikes of 1894.
Fourth party system: 1896–1932
The Progressive Era
The election of
William McKinley in U.S. presidential election, 1896 marked a new era of Republican dominance and is sometimes cited as a realigning election. He relied heavily on finance, railroads, industry and the middle classes for his support and cemented the Republicans as the party of business. His
campaign manager, Ohio's
Marcus Hanna, developed a detailed plan for getting contributions from the business world, and McKinley outspent his rival William Jennings Bryan by a large margin. McKinley was the first president to promote
Pluralism (political philosophy), arguing that prosperity would be shared by all ethnic and religious groups.
Theodore Roosevelt was the most dynamic personality of the era. He became the President after McKinley was assassinated in 1901. After promising to continue McKinley's policies, he won reelection in U.S. presidential election, 1904. He then veered left, attacking big business and busting the trusts. Roosevelt anointed
William Howard Taft in
U.S. presidential election, 1908, but Taft worked more with the conservatives led by Senator
Nelson W. Aldrich, although more trusts were broken up under Taft than Roosevelt. The Payne-Aldrich tariff angered Midwestern insurgents. The widening division between Progressivism and
conservatism forces in the party resulted in a third-party candidacy for Roosevelt on the
Progressive Party (United States, 1912), or "Bull Moose" ticket in U.S. presidential election, 1912. He finished ahead of Taft, but the split in the Republican vote resulted in a decisive victory for Democrat
Woodrow Wilson, temporarily interrupting the Republican era.
The party controlled the presidency throughout the 1920s, running on a platform of 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
U.S. presidential election, 1920,
U.S. presidential election, 1924, and
U.S. presidential election 1928 respectively. 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.
In October 1929, the stock market crashed, giving rise to the Great Depression. Hoover, by nature an activist, attempted to do what he could to alleviate the widespread suffering caused by the Depression, but his strict adherence to what he believed were Republican principles precluded him from establishing relief directly from the federal government. The Democrats made major gains in the 1930 midterm elections, giving them congressional parity (though not control) for the first time since Woodrow Wilson's presidency.
Fifth party system: 1933–1980
Opposing the New Deal Coalition: 1933–1953
In 1932, Hoover was swamped in a landslide defeat to Franklin D. Roosevelt and his New Deal Coalition, which became a dominant element of American political life for the middle third of the century. Democrats also gained large majorities in both houses of Congress.
After Roosevelt took office in 1933, New Deal legislation sailed through Congress at lightning speed. In the 1934 midterm elections, ten Republican senators went down to defeat, leaving them with only 25 against 71 Democrats. The House of Representatives was also split in a similar ratio. The "Second New Deal" was heavily criticized by the Republicans in Congress, who likened it to
class warfare and
socialism. The volume of legislation, as well as the inability of the Republicans to block it, soon made the opposition to Roosevelt develop into bitterness and sometimes hatred for "that man in the White House."
Little known Governor
Alfred Landon of Kansas ran an ineffective moderate campaign as the Roosevelt landslide of 1936 swept 46 states. The GOP was left with only 16 senators and 88 representatives to oppose the New Deal.
Roosevelt alienated many conservative Democrats, in 1937, by his unexpected plan to “pack” the Supreme Court via the Judiciary Reorganization Bill of 1937. Following a sharp recession that hit early in 1938, major strikes all over the country, and Roosevelt's failed efforts to radically reorganize the Supreme Court and federal courts, the GOP gained 75 House seats in 1938. Conservative Democrats, mostly from the South, joined with Republicans led by Senator
Robert A. Taft to create the
conservative coalition, which dominated domestic issues in Congress until 1964.
From 1939 through 1941, there was a sharp debate within the GOP about support for Britain in World War II.
Internationalists, such as Henry Stimson and
Frank Knox, wanted to support Britain and
isolationists, such as
Robert Taft and
Arthur Vandenberg, strongly opposed these moves as unwise, if not unconstitutional. The
America First movement was a bipartisan coalition of isolationists. In
United States presidential election, 1940, a total unknown,
Wendell Willkie, at the last minute, won over the party, the delegates and was nominated. He crusaded against the inefficiencies of the New Deal and Roosevelt's break with the strong tradition against a third term. Pearl Harbor ended the isolationist-internationalist debate. The Republicans further cut the Democratic majority in the 1942 midterm elections. With wartime production creating prosperity, the
Conservative coalition terminated most New Deal relief programs.
As a minority party, the GOP had two wings: The "left wing" supported most of the New Deal while promising to run it more efficiently. The "right wing" opposed the New Deal from the beginning and managed to repeal large parts during the 1940s in cooperation with conservative southern Democrats in the conservative coalition. Liberals, led by Dewey, dominated the Northeast. Conservatives, led by Taft, dominated the Midwest. The West was split, and the South was still solidly Democratic. 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 the early years of the war.
In
United States presidential election, 1944, a clearly frail Roosevelt defeated Dewey, who was now governor of New York, for his fourth term, but Dewey made a good showing that would lead to his selection as the candidate in 1948.
Roosevelt died in office in 1945, and
Harry S. Truman became president. With the end of the war, unrest among organized labor led to many strikes in 1946, and the resulting disruptions helped the GOP. With the blunders of the Truman administration in 1945 and 1946, the slogans "Had Enough?" and "To Err is Truman" became Republican rallying cries, and the GOP won control of Congress for the first time since 1928, with Joseph William Martin, Jr. as Speaker of the House. The Taft-Hartley Act of 1947 was designed to balance the rights of management and labor. It was the central issue of many elections in industrial states in the 1940s and 1950s, but the unions were never able to repeal it.
In 1948, with Republicans split left and right, Truman boldly called Congress into a special session, and sent it a load of liberal legislation consistent with the Dewey platform, and dared them to act on it, knowing that the conservative Republicans would block action. Truman then attacked the Republican "Do-Nothing Congress" as a whipping boy for all of the nation's problems. Truman stunned Dewey and the Republicans with a plurality of just over two million popular votes (out of nearly 49 million cast), but a decisive 303-189 victory in the Electoral College.
Eisenhower and Nixon: 1953–1974
After the war the isolationists in the conservative wing opposed the United Nations, and were half-hearted in exercising opposition to the expansion of Communism around the world.
Dwight Eisenhower, a NATO commander, defeated Taft in 1952 on foreign policy issues. The two men were not far apart on domestic issues. Eisenhower was an exception to most presidents in that he usually let Nixon handle party affairs (controlling the national committee and taking the roles of chief spokesman and chief fundraiser). Richard Nixon was defeated in 1960 in a close election, dooming his liberal wing of the party. The conservatives made a comeback in 1964 as Barry Goldwater defeated
Nelson Rockefeller in the primary. 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. He was defeated by
Lyndon Johnson in a landslide that brought down many senior Republican C
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