Republican Party

Political parties are entities which evolve over time and, at no point in time, are they ever entirely monolithic. In today's world the Republican Party represents something quite different from what it represented in Lincoln's time. Then Lincoln told Congress that "Labor is superior to capital, and deserves much the higher consideration". Today's Republican Party, particularly that part of it that has membership in the House of Representatives, is overtly hostile to labor and the GOP is firmly aligned with big business. The Republicans in Lincoln's time were thought to be violators of "state's rights" because they prevented states from leaving the union; the Republican Party of today is ideologically committed to New Federalism, the shifting of power out of federal and into state hands.

The Republican Party as a Conservative Party

The Republican Party is one of the two dominant political parties in the United States and is a good place to begin looking for topics for your research paper. The Republican Party is generally associated with the American conservative right. Republicans often favor policies that maintain traditional Christian values, such as the abolition of abortion or the definition of marriage as between a man and a woman. However, a significant part of the Republican Party is made up of individuals who hold libertarian values. They prefer small government and do not favor religiously-motivated initiatives. Therefore, the members of the Republican party actually hold very diverse social views. However, Republicans tend to generally agree on the need for a strong national defense. The Republican Party is sometimes called the GOP, an acronym that stands for Grand Old Party. The mascot of the Republican Party is the elephant.

The Republican Presidents

According to the United States House of Representativesebo Organization, below is a list of all the American Republican Presidents:

• Abraham Lincoln
• Ulysses S. Grant
• Rutherford B. Haynes
• James Garfield
• Chester A. Arthur
• Benjamin Harrison
• William McKinley
• Theodore Roosevelt
• William H. Taft
• Warren G. Harding
• Calvin Coolidge
• Herbert C. Hoover
• Dwight D. Eisenhower
• Richard M. Nixon
• Gerald R. Ford
• Ronald W. Reagan
• George H. W. Bush
• George W. Bush

The Republican Party of today is strong in the south; after the Civil War it was strong everywhere but the south, strong enough to dominate national politics. Between 1861 and 1913 only one Democrat, Grover Cleveland, made it to the White House. In Theodore Roosevelt's time the Republicans were the party of "trust busting," a party led by a proactive progressive; in our time the party is firmly against any and all forms of governmental "interference" with big business and views unfettered "market forces" with an almost religious fervor. To be a Republican today is, with few exceptions, to stand for minimal taxation, minimal governmental activism, state's rights, laissez-faire capitalism, an aggressive foreign policy based on what is called "realism" and "American exceptionalism", and globalism. It also stands for social conservatism, a reverential approach to tradition that includes the advocating of restrictions on abortion, an embrace of the religious right, a "hands-off" policy respecting enforcement of the rights of minorities, preservation of marriage as an institution uniting men and women only, and an endorsement of a generalized sense of old-fashioned patriotism. This year's platform contains something of an anomaly.