Republicans

History

Founding

  • Founded in 1854 by anti-slavery activists and former Whigs
  • Opposition of expansion of slavery into western territories
  • First successful presidential candidate was Abraham Lincoln in 1860

Civil War (1860s-1870s)

  • Led the Union during Civil War and abolished slavery
  • Championed civil rights for freed slaves during the Reconstruction
  • Strong federal government and industrialisation

Gilded Age (1870s-1900)

  • Party of big business, high tarrifs, economic growth
  • Supported gold standard and industrial expansion
  • Dominant in North and West

Progressive Era to New Deal (1900-1930s)

  • Split between progresssive (Teddy Roosevelt) and conservative
  • Lost dominance during Great Depression to FDR’s Democrats
  • Opposed New Deal expansion of federal government

Post WWII Conservatism (1940s-1970s)

  • Embraced anti-communism during Cold War
  • Barry Goldwater laid the groundwork for modern constvatism (1964)
  • Nixon pursued the Southern Strategy and appealed to white Southern voters
    • Nixon was a social conservative

Reagan (1980s)

  • Reagan united economic and social conservatives
  • Emphasised trax cuts, deregulation, strong miilitary, traditional values
  • Brought former Southern Democrats into Republicans

Modern Era

  • Increasingly conservative on social issues and taxation
  • Strong support in rural areas, suburban regions, the South
  • Tensions between establishment Republicans and populist movements

Key policies

  • Major government programs are wasteful and inefficient
    • Poverty is solved by incentivising Americans to get jobs and help themselves
  • Market deregulation, Laissez-Faire (leave alone)
  • Lower taxes, trickle-down economics
  • Healthcare provision should reflect personal choice
    • Most Republicans support keeping the existing federal Medicare programme
  • Civil rights have gone too far, affirmative action is discriminative
  • Hostility towards LGBTQ rights, bathroom bills in some Republican state legislatures
  • Pro-life, support Dobbs v. Jackson
  • Religion should have a place in public life, prayers in schools
  • Strong Second Amendment rights
  • Judicial restraint by SCOTUS justices
  • White replacement theory
  • Tight immigration control
  • Opposition to internation organisations, e.g. UN, WHO, even NATO
    • America First
  • Climate skepticism
  • Tarrifs and protectionism under Trump

Economics

  • Trickle-down economics/Reaganomics (Neoliberal Economics)
    • Support for tax cuts, deregulation, reducing government spending, privatisation
  • Individuals should be supporting themselves in terms of medicine
  • Skeptical about federal initiatives, promotes a smaller state
    • e.g. DOGE cut federal spending
    • Used gov shutdown to layoff federal workers
  • Reducing size of federal gov to lower taxes
  • Minarchism: reducing spending to increase defence spending
  • Tarriff policy
    • Used as an economic and political weapon
    • Protecting domestic industry (protectionism)
      • Great Depression era policy
      • Increased tarrifs on European imports
      • Increases support from MAGA and blue-collar crowd
  • 1970s: Leave-alone economics – Laissez-Faire (leave alone)
    • Promotes free trade
    • Conflicts with Trump’s intereference in economics
      • Intereference with free trade – tarrifs
      • Intereference with the Fed
  • Deregulation of business
    • Environmental regulation

Core voting groups

  • Gun Owners
  • White Evangelical Christians
    • Pro-life, pro-Israel
    • Traditional social values especially in LGBTQ+
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