User:Stephen2000/sandbox
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Republican Party, also commonly called the GOP (abbreviation for Grand Old Party), is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, the other being the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery activists in 1854, it dominated politics nationally for most of the period from 1860 to 1932. There have been 18 Republican presidents, the first being Abraham Lincoln, serving from 1861 to 1865, and the most recent being George W. Bush, serving from 2001 to 2009. The most recent Republican presidential nominee was former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney in 2012.
Republican Party | |
---|---|
Chairman | Reince Priebus (WI) |
Senate Leader | Mitch McConnell (Minority Leader) (KY) John Cornyn (Minority Whip) (TX) |
House Leader | John Boehner (Speaker) (OH) Eric Cantor (Majority Leader) (VA) Kevin McCarthy (Majority Whip) (CA) |
Chair of Governors Association | Chris Christie (NJ)[1] |
Founded | March 20, 1854; 170 years ago (1854-03-20) |
Preceded by | Whig Party Free Soil Party |
Headquarters | 310 First Street SE Washington, D.C. 20003 |
Student wing | College Republicans |
Youth wing | Young Republicans Teen Age Republicans |
Ideology | Conservatism (American)[2] Internal factions: • Fiscal conservatism[3][4] • Social conservatism[5] • Neoconservatism[6] • Libertarianism[7] |
International affiliation | International Democrat Union |
Colors | Red |
Seats in the Senate | 46 / 100 |
Seats in the House | 233 / 435 |
Governorships | 29 / 50 |
State Upper House Seats | 1,088 / 1,972 |
State Lower House Seats | 2,825 / 5,411 |
Website | |
www | |
The party's platform is generally based upon American conservatism,[8][9][10] in contrast to the Democratic Party, which supports contemporary American liberalism. American conservatism of the Republican Party is not wholly based upon rejection of the political ideology of liberalism; some principles of American conservatism are based on classical liberalism and a significant portion of the Republican base is made up of neoliberals and other free market, pro-capitalism factions.[11] Rather, the Republican Party's conservatism is largely based upon its support of classically liberal principles against the social liberalism and Keynesian economics of the Democratic Party that is considered liberalism in contemporary American political discourse.[11]
In the 113th Congress, elected in 2012, the Republican Party holds a majority of seats in the United States House of Representatives and a minority of seats in the United States Senate. The party holds the majority of governorships as well as the majority of state legislatures.