Discussion»Statements»Rosie's Corner» Maybe all Republicans are CONFEDERATES and carry all the baggage that brings with it. DEMS are UNION. Never the twain shall meet. Too bad?
Your question got me wondering when the Republican Party shifted, after the Civil War. So I tried to find when/why they moved away from "abolishionist" (liberal) thinking to more "right wing" (conservative).
The Republican Party emerged in 1854 to combat the Kansas–Nebraska Act and the expansion of slavery into American territories. The early Republican Party consisted of African-Americans, northern white Protestants, businessmen, professionals, factory workers, and farmers. The GOP was pro-business, and it supported banks, the gold standard, railroads and high tariffs; the party opposed the expansion of slavery. At its inception, Republican Party had almost no presence in the Southern United States; by 1858, however it had enlisted former Whigs and former Free Soil Democrats to form majorities in nearly every Northern state.
With the election of Abraham Lincoln (the first Republican president) in 1860, the Party's success in guiding the Union to victory in the American Civil War, and the Party's role in the abolition of slavery, the Republican Party largely dominated the national political scene until 1932. In 1912, Theodore Roosevelt formed the Progressive ("Bull Moose") Party after being rejected by the GOP and ran unsuccessfully as a third-party presidential candidate calling for social reforms. After 1912, many Roosevelt supporters left the Party, and the Party underwent an ideological shift to the right.
Thank you for this exceedingly helpful and informative reply Walt and for the digging and researching it took and for the time you invested. I very much appreciate it. I am also totally GOBSTOMPED! The Republican party GUIDED THE UNION TO VICTORY IN THE CIVIL WAR! Of course I knew Lincoln was a Republican but I thought he was an upstart maverick. So the entire party was anti slavery then? Yet today they are all CONFEDERATES. The trump referred "our heritage" when statues of Civil War TRAITORS are being taken down. That is not "OUR" referring to the union. That "OUR" refers strictly to Confederates. He speaks for them he is one of them and I did not know of the glory the REPUBLICAN PARTY USED TO BE. Which makes what it is today so tragic and sad. Happy Wednesday Walt to thee and thine! :)
Walt O'Reagun 