The Republican Party was founded in 1854 by anti-slavery expansion activists and modernizers. It is often referred to as the Grand Old Party or the GOP. In spite of its nickname, it is the younger of the two major U.S. political parties; nonetheless, it is the second oldest active political party in the United States. 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. Today, the Republican Party supports a conservative platform (as far as American politics are concerned), with further foundations in economic liberalism and social conservatism.

The current U.S. President, George W. Bush, is the 19th Republican to hold office. Republicans currently fill a minority of seats in both the United States Senate and the House of Representatives, hold a minority of state governorships, and control a minority of state legislatures. It is currently the second largest party with 55 million registered members, encompassing roughly one third of the electorate.

 

Ideology

 

The Republican Party includes fiscal conservatives, social conservatives, and libertarians.

The Republican Party is the more socially conservative (from an American Christian point of view) and economically libertarian of the two major parties. The party generally supports lower taxes and limited government in most economic areas allowing for more economic freedom.

 

Economic policies

Republicans emphasize the role of corporate and personal decision making in fostering economic prosperity. They support the idea of individuals being economically responsible for their own actions and decisions. They favor a free-market, policies supporting business, economic liberalism, and fiscal conservatism but with higher spending on the military. A leading economic theory advocated by modern Republicans is supply-side economics. 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. The party opposes a single-payer universal health care system, such as that found in all other developed countries, 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 and Medicaid programs, all of which Republicans initially opposed. Republicans are generally opposed by labor union management and members, 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 unfairly hit the poor, who have the least number of options when prices rise, or when services are cut.

 

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, should not "legislate from the bench." 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 Act, 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. The last of these limitations was overruled by the Supreme Court. Compared with Democrats, many Republicans believe in a more robust version of federalism with greater limitations placed upon federal power and a larger role reserved for the States.

 

Social policies

The 2004 Republican platform expressed support for the Federal Marriage Amendment to the United States Constitution to define marriage exclusively between a man and a woman. A majority of the GOP's national and state candidates are pro-life and oppose abortion on religious or moral grounds, and favor faith-based initiatives. There are some exceptions, though, especially in the Northeast 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 ownership rights.

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. Although, many Republicans opposed the creation of the United States Department of Education when it was initially created in 1979.

The religious wing of the party tends to support organized prayer in public schools and the inclusion of teaching creationism or intelligent design alongside evolution. Although the GOP has voted for increases in government funding of scientific research, some 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 once-rare vetoes on research funding bills from President Bush, who said the research "crossed a moral boundary."

 

Environmental policies

Most Republicans believe that strict environmental standards hurt businesses and therefore support reductions in environmental regulations based on the principle of laissez-faire economics. A considerable percentage of Republicans are skeptical of anthropogenic global warming and doubt scientific studies that demonstrate the impact human activity has on climate change, instead asserting that global warming is part of natural cyclical phenomenon.

Historically, however, the Republican Party has made several notable contributions to the protection of the environment. Republican President Theodore Roosevelt was a prominent conservationist whose policies eventually led to the creation of the modern U.S. National Park Service. Currently the Bush Administration, along with several of the candidates seeking the Republican Presidential nomination in 2008, supports increased Federal investment into the development of clean alternative fuels such as ethanol as a way of helping the U.S. achieve energy independence. Senator John McCain, while his record on supporting ethanol is inconsistent, is also a strong proponent of protecting the environment. However, most Republicans also support increased oil drilling in currently protected areas such as the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, a position which has drawn sharp criticism from many environmental activists.

 

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. 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. However, in 2000, 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, 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. Since the September 11, 2001 attacks, the party supports neoconservative policies with regard to the War on Terror, including the 2001 war in Afghanistan 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 war within Iraq has undercut the influence of this doctrine within the Republican Party.

 

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, President Bush has taken contradictory steps in forging strong alliances with dictatorships such as Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, and Uzbekistan and in opposing democratically elected governments in Venezuela and elsewhere as an effort to further the United States' foreign policy goals.

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 enforcement-first 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.

 

 http://www.rnc.org/

 

http://www.wikipedia.org

 

 

The Republican Party