History on the Republican Party: Positive vs Negative, Research Paper Example

Introduction

The name Republican was preferred since it alluded to fairness and reminded the people of the democratic – Republican Party formed by Thomas Jefferson.  The Republican Party is one of the major and younger contemporary parties in the United States of America, beside the Democratic Party formally known as the Grand Old Party or the GOP. It was formed anti- slavery activists and those people who thought that the government should grant the western lands free of charge to the settlers in the 1850’s.

From its formation, its voters comprise generally military veterans, businessman and evangelical Protestants among other voters and took control of the northern states. The Republican Party is more of conservative, such as social conservatives, fiscal conservatives, moderates, libertarians and neoconservatives, with support coming from the corporate and the upper middle class.

The Republicans became a national party in 1856 when they nominated Fremont C. John for president but the party managed to win the presidency in 1860 when Abraham Lincoln was elected to the white house. Abraham Lincoln advocated for women suffrage, free speech, returning power to the state, streamlining the system of government or bureaucracy as well as abolishing slavery which in present stereotype does not sound like the typical issue Lincoln advocated for.

He also directed the Civil war in America and the reconstruction with the help of war democrats. Since its initiation, the Republican Party has been at the vanguard of the fight for peoples’ rights in disagreement to a large, bloated system of government.

From its first presidential candidate in 1856, John C. Fremont, up to Republican George W Bush in 2000, the republicans party have occupied for 84 years, the White House. The Republican Party dominated the elections from the 1854 to 1894 during the third party system, as well as between 1894 and 1932 during the progressive era or the fourth party system and the sixth party system from 1968. However under President Franklin Roosevelt, the Democrats built a liberal New Deal Coalition, as well as dominating during the 1932-1966 period which was the Fifth Party System.

The Era of the Republican Between 1860 and 2000

In the 1860 when the second Republican national convention occurred and resulted in the presidential nomination of Abraham Lincoln who became the first Republican president. The Republican policy promised to end slavery and made them to call for enactment of legislation for free-homestead, prompt establishment of a transcontinental railroad and daily overland mail service.

In the 1876 Rutherford B. Hayes was nominated and he promised to urge civil service reform as well as removing the federal troops who were in the south. During the Hayes Rutherford era, Reconstruction came to an end, sound money policies were promoted and civil service reformation. In the 1880 Garfield A. James was nominated in the Republican ticket and Chester Arthur was nominated as the vice president.

When Garfield was about to win, he was assassinated and Chester became the president. During Arthur’s time, he created the merit system of the civil service and the he passed the Pendleton Act which classified  all government jobs about ten percent and formed a Civil Service Commission which was bipartisan to prepare and manage competitive examination positions in the government. Although he succeeded during his time, he was not able to control the party and was denied renomination by the convention of the party.

In 1888, Harrison Benjamin was elected as president where his administration passed the McKinley Tariff Act, Sherman Anti Trust Act and admitted other new states in the Republican union. In 1896 McKinley became the president and during his term there Spanish American war occurred with took ten weeks, as well as the acquisition of Puerto Rico, Guam, the Philippines and the capture of Hawaii.

In 1901, McKinley was assassinated after winning his second term in office and Governor Theodore Roosevelt was sworn in as the president, which marked a different era in politics of American era, after being the vice president after the death of Garret Hobart in 1899.

During Roosevelt term, he broke up large business monopoly, was involved in foreign policy, where he negotiated successfully for the Portsmouth treaty, which ended the Japan and Russia conflict and also signed a treaty that allowed the construction of the Panama Canal. Theodore Roosevelt also became the first American to get the Nobel Peace Prize, as well as seeing the US reforming in political, social and economical spheres.

In his second term, he advocated for the regulatory legislation and measures in conservation. In 1916 republicans failed to take the presidency and also even after the promise of the Democrat president Wilson to stop World War 1, it occurred which led to the bipartisan prosecution during the war. In 1918 election, the Republican Party won control of the House of Representatives and the Senate as well as the 1923 election. During the Depression year of 1930’s, the era of the Republicans came to an end after the landslide election of Franklin D. Roosevelt.

The Republican Party came back in 1952 and 1956 as they nominated Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower who won the sit of the white house with Nixon becoming the vice president. Eisenhower and Nixon successfully ended the Korean War as well as moderating the course of the foreign policy. But in 1960, Nixon who won the Republican nomination was defeated by John F. Kennedy of the Democrats.

In 1968, the Republicans nominated Richard Nixon, who captured the sit of the white house from the Democrats who during its era made the US to be involved in the Vietnam War. President Nixon term was successful as he was involved in many issues, such as the improvement of the relationship with China, improved economy, trying to bring peace in Vietnam and also improved the cooperation of the US with the Soviet Socialist Republic Union.

In 1972, Nixon won the presidency again but did not take control of the houses of the congress.  This campaign leads to the destruction of Nixon due to the burglary of the Watergate office complex which belonged to the Democrat National Committee.

Richard Nixon campaign of the 1972 also led to the discovery of criminal and civil misconduct that was within his campaign administration and organization, as well as the white house. Due to the outcome, in 1974 Nixon was forced to resign. His vice president, Agnew was also forced to resign after being found guilty of evasion of income tax in 1973.

Vice president Gerald Ford, who was appointed after resignation of Agnew, succeeded Richard Nixon as the president of the U.S.  Ford during his tern encountered a serious economic situation, like the rising inflation, high unemployment rates, huge budget deficits and high interest rates.

He was also criticized by conservatives for appointing Nelson Rockefeller as vice president, draft evasion and giving amnesty to Vietnam-era and by the moderates for doing nothing to help the economy.  During his second term election, he lost to Jimmy Carter.

In 1980, Reagan was elected as the president after defeating Jimmy Carter who his administration was unable to help the economic situation and also not able to help the U.S hostages who were seized in Iran. Reagan also managed take control of the senate for the first time in 25 years for the Republicans. In 1988, President George Bush won the Republican nomination and the presidency. During his first term, in 1990 there was a huge recession that brought the economy of America down. But on 1991, Bush approval rating was high, after forging against Iraq the international coalition that led to the victory of the war in Persian Gulf.

In 1992, Bush lost his reelection bid as the president of U.S to Bill Clinton due to the recession of 1990, the impatience of the public with the Bush government’s gridlock and the concern by the people on the domestic concerns after the cold war. In year 2000, George W. Bush becomes the president on a republican party. During his tenure, President Bush administration invaded Iran and this made the administration less popular among its electorates.

Political Position and Ideology of the Republicans

The Republicans had from its formation in the 1850’s advocated for different issues, ideology and political position. The Republicans emphasize for economic prosperity through the role of free market decision making. They favored free market, laissez-faire, economic liberty, personal responsibility, fiscal conservatism, and policies supporting business.

Economic Issues

The most important theory of economic advocated by the Republicans in the modern time is the supply-side economics. Some fiscal guidelines influenced by this theory were commonly known as the Reaganomics, a term made popular during the Ronald Reagan presidential administration. The theory of supply-chain economics brought forward by Reagan Ronald administration has reduced income tax rates and increased the Growth Domestic Product of America and thus produces same or more revenue from the lesser tax on the additional growth for the government. Therefore this shows that the Republican Party has a long term advocacy of tax cuts.

The republicans idea on the economic issue supports the use of safety net to assist the poor, but they believe that it is more effective for the private sector that the government to help the poor people. Due to the republicans believe, they support the issue of giving private charitable organizations and the faith based organizations government grants so as to help in their welfare spending.

The Republicans Party also supports the welfare reform which restricted the eligibility for welfare that made it possible for those people who worked for the welfare to find job. Although it supports the welfare reform, it does not support a single player health care system run by the government. This is because they believe that such a system is made up of  socialized medicine, that have a Medicare for the elderly people, Medicaid for the poor as well as favoring the system of insurance that is employer based.

The republicans also support a constitution that is strict, that can be interpreted so closely and narrowly to the original purpose, instead of a constitution that is flexible. For instance a situation where the court upended the laws restricting abortion on the foundation of right of privacy as inferred on the Fourteenth Amendment to the constitution of United States and the Bill of Rights.

Environmental Issues

On the environmental issues, several republicans are doubtful on the global warming issues as being anthropogenic and instead blame the scientific research on the impact humans on climatic change, instead of the scientists emphasizing that global warming is as a result of natural recurring causes. But due to the pressure from the international community, this have changed and republicans like Bush in 2008 saying that the climate change should be acted upon immediately and advocating of legislation that will regulate emission of green house gases.

Social Policies

Most of the Republicans’ states and natural candidates are opposed to optional abortion on moral and religious ground, are pro-life and support initiatives that are faith based. They believe that optional abortion can increase the chances of death and disease and is against the religion teachings. The Republicans also support exclusive marriage between one man and one woman as been proposed in the Federal Marriage Amendment   to the constitution of United States.

Also the some republicans favor stricter and capital punishment as a way of preventing crime, and reduce the cases of crime committed in the U.S. Furthermore, some support the ownership of gun rights and are opposed to the laws that regulate the position of a gun, arguing that the gun is for self protection, although other who are in the cities favor limited restricted sometimes, in order to protect the city.

Most candidates and supporters of the Republicans Party support school choice through and school vouchers and charter schools for private schools; many have criticized the performance of the public school system and the teachers’ unions. The Republican Party has insisted on a system of higher or greater accountability for public schools, most significantly in recent years with the No Child Left behind Act that can into force in 2001.Some in the religious wing in the Republican Party tends to support organized Voluntary prayer in public schools.  Although the Republicans has voted for scientific research increases in government funding , some members  opposed  the funding of embryonic stem cell research beyond the original lines because it involves the destruction of human embryos.

National Defense Policy

The Republican Party has always supported a national defense that is strong, although until lately they used to disapprove of the policy actions interventionist. For instance, they opposed the President Wilson Woodrow World War I, opposed World War II intervention prior to the Pearl Harbor attack by the Japanese.

In the 1990’s, although George Bush supported Gulf War fighting, the Republicans were against the intervention in Somalia and the Balkans by United States. Furthermore, The Republicans support the effort for the democratization of the countries of the Middle East who are still ruled under dictatorship among other policies.

Conclusion

During its time in U.S politics, the Republican Party was able to occupy the White House for 84 years between 1856 and 2000. The Republican throughout its time were able to legislate different issues such as the civil system welfare to even bringing cooperation between different countries such as Japan and Russia during the President Theodore Roosevelt era and also helped in to end reconstruction period.

The Republicans have also supported or been against different issues and the policies in the U.S, such as economic issues, international policies, the natural security issue, cooperation and interference of its foreign affair issues as well as environmental issues like the global warming through sighing protocol with other counties for the conservation of the environment.

References:

Boehm, E. H. (1997). America, history and life. University of Michigan: Clio Press.

Davidson, S. F. (1907). The history of political theory and party organization in the United States: Michigan: World’s Events Publishing Company.

Davis, J (2008). The Republican Party: Its History, Principles, and Policies. Kansas: BiblioBazaar, LLC.

The Republican National Committee (2009). The Republican Party – History. Retrieved on December, 3 2009, from http://www.nfrw.org/republicans/history.htm