Republican Party

THE REPUBLICAN Party (also known as the Grand Old Party, GOP) is one of the two major political parties in the United States. It is known as a more conservative, right-of-center political party, as opposed to the Democratic Party.

The Republican Party emerged amid a tumultuous time in American history, before the Civil War. In the 1850s, the Whig and Democratic Parties were unable to resolve their differences over the issue of slavery and over the growing economic, social, and cultural issues between the north and the south. President Abraham Lincoln (a former Whig) was elected in 1860 as a Republican. During and after the brutal Civil War that followed, the GOP was the party for the freedom of slaves and for the unity of the country.

The Great Depression of the 1930s was a severe blow to the Republican Party, for a Republican was in office at that time, President Herbert Hoover, and so the GOP was blamed for the economic and social effects of the Great Depression. This plagued the GOP for decades. The elections of President Dwight Eisenhower (1952 and 1956), a hero of World War II, seemed to be an election that in some ways celebrated a great person and not so much the election of a political party.

The spirited campaign of Republican Senator Barry Goldwater in 1964 resulted in a sizable defeat to President Lyndon B. Johnson. However, Goldwater's campaign galvanized a budding conservative movement, and seemed to pave the way for Republican President Richard M. Nixon's successes in 1968 and 1972, and certainly for the historic election of Republican President Ronald Reagan in 1980. In 1990, President George H.W. Bush was elected, and in 2000 and 2004 his son, President George W. Bush, was elected. Under George W. Bush's leadership, the GOP gained a majority in both the House and Senate, something that it was not able to achieve for decades.