Republican Party (United States)
The Republican Party (in English, Republican Party; also known as the GOP, from Grand Old Party, "Great Old Party") is an American political party. Along with the Democratic Party, they are the only two parties that have exercised power in that country since the mid-19th century. The party is commonly associated with conservatism.
History
Republican Party Foundation
In 1854, the Whig Party in the United States eventually disintegrated and disappeared; this had been, since 1834, the second largest party in the country (the first being the United States Democratic Party). On March 20 of that same year, the Republican Party was founded, in a meeting held in a small school in the city of Ripon, State of Wisconsin. Specifically, at that meeting it was agreed that, with the disintegration of the Whig Party, the Local Committee (Municipal) of the Whig Party in Ripon would be transformed into the Local Committee of a new party to be called Republican in honor of Thomas Jefferson (who had been the founder of the defunct Democratic-Republican Party of the United States). Soon the example of Ripon was imitated by other Local and State Committees of the late Whig Party in different regions of the North of the country; and by the middle of the year the first State Conventions of the new party could be held. The first of these State Conventions was that of the State of Michigan, which met on July 6, 1854, in the city of Jackson; the Midwestern states took the lead in founding and organizing the new party, while the eastern states took a year or so to do so.
Obviously most of the founding members of the Republican Party had been members of the Whig Party in the United States, but some were also former members of the Democratic Party, and some of the founders were independents or had been part of other groups (such as the Free Soil Party).
What all these groups that came together to form the new party had in common was their ideological belonging to the powerful anti-slavery or abolitionist movement, which brought together all white-skinned people in the Northern States of the United States who were fighting to abolish the slavery of black people in the southern states of the North American country. They also agreed to promote an economic policy based on two fundamental aspects: a protectionist trade policy, which would reduce or prevent imports through high tariffs, to protect the national industry from foreign competition; and a policy of "federal improvements", whereby the Federal (National) Government had to invest much more money in public works or infrastructure (bridges, roads, etc.) to stimulate the economy.
The party's program made it very popular in the North of the country (especially for its protectionist trade policy), but intensely hated in the South (not only for the abolition of slavery, but also for the protectionist policy that harmed to some States like the southern ones that had almost no industry and that needed free trade to place their agricultural products in Europe).
In the legislative elections of November 1854, the Republican Party obtained good results in its first major electoral test, when a total of 46 Republican politicians were elected Representatives (deputies). These forty-six Republican parliamentarians represented 18.3% of the members of the House of Representatives of the United States Congress (at that time the House was made up of a total of 252 Representatives or congressmen).
In 1856 the Republican Party participated for the first time in a presidential election, with its candidate John C. Frémont; but he lost the election, coming in a respectable second place (the winner was Chairman James Buchanan of the Democratic Party). However, the party dominated the New England, New York State, and northern Midwest regions, proving that it only needed to win two more northern states to win a presidential one; They also increased the number of their Representatives in Congress to 90 (38% of the House) and they managed to get the State Legislatures of several States to appoint up to 20 Republican Senators to the United States Senate (their first representation in that House of Congress). And in the legislative elections of 1858 the Republican Party won 116 Representatives, which was equivalent to 48.7% of the House and which gave it a simple majority in said House (which it used to make things difficult for President Buchanan); and increased to 26 the number of its Senators in the other Chamber. In the following presidential elections, luck would lean even more in favor of the Republicans.
Lincoln Stage
In the elections of November 6, 1860, the presidential candidate of the Republican Party was Abraham Lincoln, a former representative of the United States Congress who had been a member of the Whig Party and who was a great orator and a moderate anti-slavery.
In addition to Lincoln, there were three other candidates for the presidency; the Democratic Party split in two, with Democrats from the Northern States running one candidate and Democrats from the South running another. In addition, there was a fourth candidate from the Constitutional Union Party who wanted to be an option for those who rejected both Republicans and Democrats (northern and southern). The election was very close and polarizing; in the Southern States, Lincoln's candidacy did not even appear on the ballot papers. In the end Lincoln won, though his victory was greeted with enthusiasm in the North and indignation in the South.
Most of the slaveholding states of the South seceded from the United States before Lincoln became President (he assumed power on March 4, 1861); but the Independence of these States (self-styled Confederate States of America) was not recognized by Lincoln and his Government, due to being unconstitutional and criminal. This is how the Civil War or Secession War broke out.
During the war, the southern part of the Democratic Party, which had fueled the separatist rebellion, was virtually outlawed; while the northern part (and the southern states that had not joined the rebellion) continued to be legal, but lost influence that the Republican Party gained. The Republicans managed to make their entire program a reality: they decreed the freedom of the black slaves and the perpetual abolition of the slaveholding institution, they implemented their protectionist policy and increased state spending on projects that brought federal improvements. In addition, they raised federal taxes (creating for the first time something similar to what would later be the income tax).
Lincoln won the war and saved the country from division; but he was assassinated on April 15, 1865, shortly after the start of the second term of government (he had been re-elected in 1864 with a wide lead over his only rival, the Northern Democratic Party candidate).
The Stage of Dominance (1865-1933)
After the Civil War, the most difficult part of the historical process known as Reconstruction began, which helped to consolidate the dominance of the Republicans.
Lincoln's second Vice President, Andrew Johnson was not a Republican but a Democrat from Tennessee. Very soon Johnson came into conflict with the radical Republicans (the majority sector of the Republican Party) who wanted to punish the Southern states for their past rebellion, and who also wanted to impose their radical reforms regarding former slaves.
Southern states did not want to grant full citizenship to blacks who had been slaves, and Johnson did not want to force them; The United States Congress, dominated by radical Republicans, bypassed the authority of the President and used the Army to impose provisional governments in ex-rebel states. It also approved the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution to guarantee equality between whites and blacks (including the right to vote for blacks); and by force compelled the southern states to ratify them. Johnson vetoed the measures, but Congress rejected his vetoes and even tried to remove him.
Thanks to the reforms, and to the prohibition imposed on the whites of the South so that they could not vote until their past rebellion was not forgiven and they accepted the legal changes; Republicans won control of the southern states with black votes, and that added to their majority in the northern states guaranteed them control of power (almost as a single party). This situation lasted for a few years.
When the military occupation of the South ended, and white Southerners regained their right to vote (and blacks effectively lost it, because white Southern Democrats harassed them not to vote); the Republican Party all but disappeared in the South, but they retained a majority in the North and West. But as the population grew more in these two regions than in the South, the party remained in power.
From 1869 to 1933 all the Presidents of the United States were Republicans, with only two exceptions: the Democrats Grover Cleveland who ruled from 1885 to 1889 and from 1893 to 1897, and Woodrow Wilson who ruled from 1913 to 1921. That is, that subtracting the 16 years that these two Democrats ruled, that was 48 years of Republican rule (and greater and almost uninterrupted control of Congress).
During this period of almost absolute hegemony of the Republican Party, the country experienced a great economic expansion. High tariffs (in the framework of the Republican protectionist policy) allowed US industry to develop without foreign competition; although the enormous size of the internal market was almost equal to the size of the market formed by the rest of the world at that time. The state intervened little in the economy, taxes were fairly low, regulations almost non-existent, and there were not a large number of state-owned businesses. In the early 20th century, various politicians (including Republican President Theodore Roosevelt) fought to reduce the power of large private companies turned into monopolies and oligopolies, and forced them to give up their dominant position in favor of free competition.
But in the second decade of the XX century, due to the so-called Great Depression, the country plunged into the worst economic and social crisis in its history (bordering on a human tragedy). The hungry masses brought Democratic presidential candidate Franklin Delano Roosevelt to power in the 1932 elections, and with it came to an end the period of Republican hegemony.
The long journey through the desert (1933-1953)
From 1933 to 1953 the Republicans had to remain in opposition; It was 20 years in which they lost 5 consecutive presidential elections (four won by Roosevelt and one by Harry Truman), and on at least one occasion (1937) they were reduced to an insignificant minority in Congress.
During this time, the Democrats introduced important social reforms (retirement pension, minimum wage, etc.) that made them consecrate themselves within the social democracy and gain space on the political left in the United States, leaving the Republicans on the right politics, when in the past it had been (more or less) the other way around. During this period, Democratic popularity increased among minorities and the working class. Finally in 1953 the Republicans returned to power with Dwight Eisenhower.
In the wake of the Democrats (1953-1981)
When the Republicans returned to power in 1953, they did not eliminate the reforms introduced by the Democrats in their long reign; and what they did was continue the democratic social policies, but in a more moderate way.
In the 1960s, with the Democrats back in power, state intervention in the economy intensified and public spending on social programs increased. Republicans bowed to Democratic policies and offered no substantive changes.
The change in the Democratic Party, from a haven for racists in the South and an enemy of black rights, to a defender of equality between whites and blacks and protector of the rights of the latter, caused a change in the Republican Party. Some whites in the South began to leave the Democratic Party and move to the Republican Party; the geographic center of the Republicans moved from the Northeast of the country to the South, while the Democrats won the Northeast. But it also caused the black population to turn their backs on the Republicans (whom they supported for freeing them from slavery); and they will switch overwhelmingly to the Democrats. The 1964 presidential elections were decisive in this regard, as it was the first time that the South voted majority Republican, which it has done ever since. A historic political reversal had taken place: the South, once a Democratic stronghold, had become a faithful bastion of Lincoln's party. It was also in these historic 1964 elections that the party presented Barry Goldwater as its candidate for the White House. Despite obtaining a very poor result, Goldwater significantly influenced the ideological evolution that the Republicans would make in the following decades towards much more liberal positions in the economic sphere and conservative in the social sphere. Thus Goldwater began the GOP swing to the right that the Reagan era would make irreversible.
The disastrous end of the Richard Nixon government, and the gray role of Gerald Ford, left the party weakened in the 1970s; but then the country entered a serious economic crisis with high rates of unemployment and inflation under the government of Democrat Jimmy Carter. The situation was the result of the oil crisis of those years. It was time for a radical change.
The Conservative Revolution and the New Republican Party
When Ronald Reagan won the Presidency in the 1980 elections, a new era began for the Republican Party.
During the Reagan government (1981-1989) the Republican Party turned the internal politics of the United States around. The Republicans made large reductions in taxes to try to stimulate savings, this activated investment and with it economic growth was generated, which meant more employment and higher income, although the growth rate was lower than during the previous stage of 1950- 1973 due to the most recurrent economic and financial crises that began to occur. However, although the United States grew economically during the Reagan era, some economists associate this growth with the bullish period in the business cycle of the US economy. In addition, a reduction in public spending and government bureaucracy was implemented, along with reducing or eliminate social programs to continue reducing public spending, and on some occasions they would be reasons for discontent on the part of some citizens. This turn to the right would stifle the most liberal wing of the party, replacing it with a rise of the newer sectors. liberals, religious fundamentalists, and libertarians within the party and the American right.
Republicans advocated a return to the individualistic spirit of American pioneers. They defended the free market economy against State intervention, which, according to them, slowed down economic growth, the creation of new companies and therefore job creation. His doctrine goes against what is known as the Welfare State and Keynesian economics. According to the Republican position, this model was inefficient, with costly economic plans and high taxes.
This stage, dubbed the "Conservative Revolution" it coexisted with a certain economic takeoff (which also occurred in Europe), but for critics social inequalities were accentuated, which in their opinion left the less wealthy classes out of economic advance. For their part, the defenders of this conservative economic policy, highlight positive economic indicators such as the increase in savings, greater freedom of management and the creation of 20 million new jobs during the Reagan administration. Although critics tend to blame this decrease in unemployment to which the United States (in theory) had reached the historical maximum of unemployment, therefore employment would tend to grow.
After the Reagan era, the Republican Party continues to house a large political faction that favors free markets and liberal policies.
Ideology and internal tendencies of the Republican Party
The Republican Party is the more conservative of the two major parties in the country. Ideologically speaking, it could be categorized as a "secular conservative" to distinguish it from the Christian-Democratic parties that embody the right in other Western nations. The party is affiliated with the International Democratic Union (IDU) to which other conservative democratic parties such as the Conservative Party, the Republicans or the Christian Democratic Union belong.
In the economic aspect his doctrine is economic liberalism; the economic branch or slope of liberalism. In the United States, this doctrine, defender of the free market and enemy of State intervention, is usually called fiscal conservatism.
For this reason, Republicans consider themselves the most zealous defenders of American laissez faire.
In the United States there are few public or state companies. The Federal (National) Government only owns an electric power generating company (Tennessee Valley Authority), controlling shareholding in a railroad company (Amtrak), and the public mail (United States Postal Service); but all three must compete with private companies. But the Republicans want to further shrink the state by privatizing other areas. As an example, many Republicans want to partially privatize the Social Security pension system; making young workers allocate a part of their mandatory Social Security contribution to pension funds managed by private companies that would invest them in the Stock Market. The Republican Party is always committed to market solutions to national problems, hence the strong criticism received when it opted for the rescue of large companies and banks after the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers.
From its founding until well into the 20th century, the Republican Party was seen as a "progressive" party; since it was born to fight for a very progressive cause (the abolition of black slavery) and because its rival (the Democratic Party) was seen as "conservative" at the time. Although already at that time his defense of private companies, his rejection of State interference in the economy and his frontal opposition to socialists and communists stood out.
As the Democratic Party moved away from conservatism and more to the center-left; the Republican Party became the conservative force in the United States.
But it is necessary to delimit two points: the first is that due to the great freedom of conscience and the little partisan discipline that exists in the American parties, they are very heterogeneous, and within each of them people and groups with large doctrinal differences in relation to relevant issues. Although the Republican Party is slightly less heterogeneous than its Democratic rival; It does not escape the existence of groups or internal tendencies that have different visions of the philosophy and principles of the party and the second is that the ideological scale in each country is different. In the United States, social-liberalist tendencies are considered to be on the left when in Europe or Latin America they would be classified between the center and the liberal center-right on social and economic issues.
Throughout most of the xx century, there was talk of three major trends in the Republican Party: liberals, conservatives, and moderates.
The Liberal Republicans (the name Liberal in the United States is interpreted as leftist, unlike in Europe where it is associated with the center-right) were the wing of the party closest to the ideas usually associated with the Democrats (in fact these republicans think and act almost like democrats). Unlike most of their party mates, they are less favorable to cutting taxes; they are more willing to increase public spending (especially on social programs); they are for a bigger state than other Republicans are willing to tolerate; and they are more tolerant on social issues (abortion, homosexuality, etc.)
In the 20th century the most famous liberal Republican was Nelson A. Rockefeller, who led this tendency of the party (hence the liberals were called the "Rockfeller Republicans"). During his term as Governor of the State of New York he increased the public spending of the Government, allocating more funds to social policy and public works.
Liberals fought for control of the party in the 1960s and 1970s, but when the conservatives took control under Ronald Reagan in the 1980s; the liberals were isolated and were losing presence until they were reduced to an insignificant and marginalized minority.
The conservative Republicans are the most radical wing of the party; they are the most right-wing and therefore the harshest critics of the Democrats. On most issues they take absolute positions, especially on social or moral issues. Thus, they defend the death penalty. Staunch enemies of "Big Government", they want to drastically reduce the size of the State; which translates especially into reductions in public spending.
For their part, the moderate Republicans claimed to be between liberals and conservatives, representing the political center of the party; they can act like liberals on some issues, and like conservatives on others.
However, in recent years this classification has become obsolete and there is talk of a greater number of trends. Broadly speaking, these trends are:
Religious Right or Christian Right (Theoconservatives): Since the 80s, this great movement made up of fundamentalist activists from various Christian churches (mainly evangelicals) has gained strength in the party. They base their politics on their concepts of religion. They are radically opposed to abortion, homosexual marriages, sexual licentiousness, etc. Several evangelical Christian pastors have become Republican leaders; and parishioners represent a large part of the party's electorate. Their critics accuse them of being religious fanatics and of being a threat to individual liberty and to the principle of separation between Church and State. Theoconservative Republicans operate through a political organization called the National Federation of Republican Assemblies which offers support to Republicans committed to their moral vision. and denounces those who are moderates or liberals who distance themselves from it.
Social Conservatives: they are people with a conservative mind on social issues, and for this reason they have positions similar to those of Christian right-wingers on issues such as abortion, sex, etc.; but with the difference that they are not necessarily religious militants like the previous ones and therefore do not necessarily work under the direction of their churches. They are mostly middle-class people who also want a return to the moral values of yesteryear (the «family values»), but without exaggerating the mixture of religion with politics (are a bit more secular); and sympathize with Republican economic policy. However, some observers prefer not to distinguish between this trend and that of religious rightists, also referring to them as social conservatives.
Fiscal Conservatives: Their main reason for being Republican is their support for the party's traditional economic policy; fiscal conservatism (called economic liberalism in other countries). Less public spending, less regulations and less taxes is their goal; they passionately defend the free market and want a smaller and less interventionist state. They also defend fiscal balance, and therefore, the reduction or elimination of the fiscal deficit. They promote the payment of the national debt, the privatization of Social Security through individual accounts and international free trade. They are not as interested in the subject of morality as the previous ones. Fiscal Conservative Republicans have a powerful political organization called the Club for Growth, an organization dedicated to supporting intraparty elections (between other things by raising funds for them) to the candidates most committed to their economic policies, while at the same time the organization attacks and denounces those Republicans that they consider to be moving away from fiscal conservatism by not cutting taxes enough and by supporting a very high public spending.
Republicans in Name Only (RINO): Conservatives derogatory term for what were formerly known as "liberal Republicans". However, many conservatives also use this term to refer to moderate Republicans, since for them there is no difference between one and the other; and in this way they also disqualify the moderates.
Moderates: the ones we already talked about try to represent moderation between the extremes of the party. Moderate Republicans organize themselves into large pressure, thought, and lobbying groups; Those groups are: the Republican Main Street Partnership and the Republican Leadership Council (Republican Leadership Council). There are also pro-abortion and environmental Republican groups that are considered natural allies of moderate and liberal Republican groups.
Neoconservatives: or "new conservatives", they advocate more social spending and an aggressive and interventionist foreign policy. They are more willing to spend state money on large projects and programs aimed at creating a more socially conservative society (such as government-funded programs for the poor, but run by religious institutions); but without giving up tax reductions (which can bring fiscal imbalances). They clash with traditional or fiscal conservatives who oppose more spending. In foreign policy they fervently believe in the role of "chosen people" of the United States and that therefore this country must spread democracy throughout the world; They are convinced that only an aggressive foreign policy can protect the nation from its many foreign enemies, and for this the United States must use its force anywhere in the world, unilaterally if necessary. They believe that the country should actively exercise its role as the only superpower in a unipolar world without sacrificing national interests in search of international consensus.
Paleoconservatives: They are a minority group that continues to advocate protectionist trade policy (despite the fact that the party abandoned this policy since at least the last decades of the XX). Paleoconservatism is at odds with the free trade espoused by the majority of the party. They are also strong opponents of foreign policy because they are isolationists (supporters of the country isolating itself from the problems of the rest of the world). They reject illegal immigration and affirmative action in favor of ethnic minorities.
Gay and Lesbian Republicans (Log Cabin Republicans, name of your organization): despite the fact that the majority of the party opposes accepting gay marriage; many gays and lesbians belong to the Republican Party and have articulated a movement to change the party from within. But they have not had much luck in imposing their goals, although the Republican leadership respects them.
It is necessary to note that the lines that separate these groups or factions are sometimes not so clear; and there are Republicans who have characteristics that make them belong to more than one of these tendencies. For example, former Secretary of State Colin Powell defined himself as "a conservative on fiscal issues (fiscal conservative) and a moderate on social and political issues"; although his critics within the party describe him as RINO (liberal). Another case is that of Senator John McCain, who is considered very conservative; but whose views on some issues make him look like a moderate at times.
The geopolitical factor also plays a prominent role in relation to these internal ideological tendencies. Thus, Republican politicians from conservative states (those where the vast majority of public opinion is clearly ideologically conservative) tend to be more conservative and less moderate in order to attract voters. In contrast, in those states that are known for being progressive (where the majority of public opinion leans to the center-left) Republican politicians tend to be more moderate so as not to lose votes to Democrats. In other words, in those states that are their natural strongholds because they are conservative, the Republicans tend to be more conservative while in the states that are the strongholds of their Democratic rivals because they are progressive, the Republicans are forced to be more moderate; all for reasons of electoral expediency. In such a way that, to give an example, in the Republican Party of Texas the conservatives predominate over the moderates while in the Republican Party of New York it is the other way around. The Democratic Party is affected by the same factor, but in reverse in terms of the conservative-progressive polarity.
Foreign Policy
Unlike their Democratic rivals who tend to be more pro-Tibet, Republicans maintain a pro-China position, despite the fact that this country has a communist system. Many Republicans have a favorable view of China as a strategic business partner and an abundant market. Even so, the religious wing of the party, made up of evangelical Christians, tends to be more critical of Beijing and demand greater pressure for respect for human rights., particularly from the Christian minority.
Another issue where they differ sharply from the Democrats is in the Middle East, the Republican Party is almost entirely unified around its support for Israel; 75% of Republicans say they feel sympathy and support for Israel, unlike Democrats where the majority (albeit by a narrower margin of 40 out of 33%) say they feel more sympathy and support for Palestine. Only 6 % of Republicans say they sympathize with the Palestinians or support them in the conflict, with the remaining percentage split between those who say they support neither or support both equally.
Electoral demographics
According to statistical studies, Republicans receive the main support of men more than women. In terms of socioeconomic strata, the working class and low-income tend to be Democrats, while the Republicans receive the support of the upper-class sectors, small, medium, and large companies, sectors linked to industry, and the military. or who have served in the military. Ethnically, as better explained below, Republicans receive majority support from the white population of European origin, since 60% of non-Hispanic whites are Republicans, while Black (about 90%), Latino (about 70%), and Jewish (about 70%) are primarily Democrats. Excepted from this percentage are Cuban-Americans, who are the only Hispanic group that votes majority Republican.
Religiously, white Protestants 67% (as of 2010) and Mormons (73% as of 2010) overwhelmingly support the Republican Party, while black Protestants, Catholics of all ethnicities, and Muslims are mostly Democrats. Only 27% of American atheists and agnostics are Republicans compared to 64% Democrats.
Present and future of the Republican Party
American society has traditionally been very conservative, and until recently there was a rise in conservatism; this gave the Republican Party a relative advantage over its rival, the Democratic Party. But the relatively advantageous position of the Republicans is being lost by the demographic reality of the United States.
Most Republicans belong to the Non-Hispanic Whites ethnic group, a subcategory recognized by the United States Census Bureau for official statistical purposes to identify all white Americans of European descent who are not of Latino or Hispanic ancestry; This subcategory constitutes, together with that of Hispanic or Latino whites (white-skinned people who are of Latino or Hispanic blood or ancestry), the much broader category of American whites. Furthermore, many Republicans are of the so-called W.A.S.P. (White Anglo-Saxons and Protestants) the racial and religious type that was long the most powerful in America. Non-Hispanic whites are still the majority of the US population, but are gradually shrinking as ethnic minorities grow.
As we have already seen, the Republican Party enjoyed the sympathies of black Americans until the 1960s XX; but when in that decade the Democratic Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson managed to impose a series of legal reforms that made reality the provisions of the Constitution that guaranteed the equality of races, the whites of the South (enemies of African-Americans) They felt betrayed by the Democratic Party they always voted for, and many of them began to vote Republican. The Democratic South became the Republican South, which resulted in the Republican Party stopping standing up for the rights of African Americans, and African Americans becoming Democrats.
The black African-American minority (so called, among other reasons, to differentiate it from black Hispanics or Latinos in official statistics) is the ethnic group most committed to a single party; in all elections, especially presidential ones, more than 90% vote for the Democratic Party candidates. Republican African Americans exist and are a minority.
President George W. Bush, in an attempt to change this situation, surrounded himself with several black African-American collaborators, such as Colin Powell, the first African-American Secretary of State in the history of the United States, and Condoleezza Rice, the first African-American woman. in holding the same position, who had previously also been the first to hold the position of National Security Advisor; Rice was his most important adviser during his presidency. But beyond Bush's attempts, the Republican Party has not succeeded in bringing this minority closer to the party.
Even so, a further step in the Republican Party's outreach to African-Americans was taken in 2010 when for the first time since the turn of the century XIX two African-American Republicans won seats in the House of Representatives of Congress for districts located in the Deep South of the United States, traditionally the most racist region of the country. They were Allen West, who won a Florida district, and Tim Scott, who won a South Carolina district; the latter's victory is also more important, since he had previously defeated the son of former segregationist leader Strom Thurmond in the GOP primary elections in his district. They were 2 of the 32 African-American congressional candidates the Republican Party fielded in those elections. On December 17, 2012, the Republican governor of South Carolina, Nikki Haley (an American daughter of Sikh immigrants from India), appointed Tim Scott as a senator for that state to the United States Senate to fill the vacancy left by Jim DeMint, who resigned his seat to be president of the Heritage Foundation; with his inauguration on January 2, 2013, Scott became the first African-American in the US Senate since Roland Burris (Barack Obama's successor as senator) finished his term in 2010, and a milestone for being an African-American Republican. But at the same time that Scott was entering the Senate, Allen West was leaving the House of Representatives because he lost his bid for re-election, so there are currently no African-American Republicans in that House of Congress.
The case of Hispanics or Latinos is even more important. For some years now, the Hispanic or Latino population is already the most numerous minority in the country, and it will continue to grow to be an increasingly important percentage of the total US population; so to win the elections a party requires your support. Traditionally, the vast majority of Mexican-Americans (the most numerous Latin Americans in the United States), Puerto Ricans, Dominicans, and other Latino groups always vote Democratic. Only Cuban-Americans vote overwhelmingly Republican.
But George W. Bush managed to turn that trend around in his elections. Already in his time as Governor of Texas, he accomplished a feat, by obtaining 49% of the Hispanic or Latino vote in his re-election as Governor (in a State where the majority of Hispanics are Mexican). And as President he managed to set another record by obtaining approximately 40% of the votes of Hispanics throughout the country in his re-election to the Presidency in 2004, an unimaginable feat for a Republican just a few years ago.
In his government there was not a Hispanic figure of the stature of Rice, but there were some Secretaries (Ministers) of Latino origin. Among them, the eighty-first Secretary of Justice, Alberto R. González and the former senator in the United States Congress, the Cuban-American, Mel Martínez (Former Secretary of Housing and Urban Development).
There are more and more elected officials (federal and state representatives, state senators, councilors, etc.) of the Republican Party who are of Latino origin; especially in States with a strong Hispanic presence such as Florida, California and Texas. In the midterm legislative, state and local elections held in 2010, several prominent Latino figures in the Republican Party won victories that propelled them to the national spotlight. The most famous were Susana Martínez, elected Governor of New Mexico; Brian Sandoval, Governor-elect of Nevada, and Marco Rubio, Senator-elect from Florida to the United States Senate. In addition, five other Latino Republicans were elected for their first term in Congress, and added to the two Hispanic Republicans who were already congressmen (Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and Mario Díaz-Balart), they and Rubio added eight Latino Republicans in the US Congress compared to twenty Hispanic congressmen who belonged to the Democratic Party. In the legislative elections held simultaneously with the presidential ones on November 6, 2012, seven Republican Latinos were elected to the United States Congress, one less than in the previous elections; but now there is another Latino or Hispanic Republican in the United States Senate, Senator Ted Cruz from Texas, which together with Marco Rubio makes for two Republican Latino senators in the US Congress (out of a total of only three Latino senators, the other is Democrat Bob Menendez). The other five Latino Republicans are members of the United States House of Representatives (there were 16 Latino or Hispanic Republican candidates for the House of Representatives, but only those five were elected in their respective districts); however, the seven Latino Republican legislators are still significantly fewer than the 24 Democratic Latino legislators who were elected in the 2012 election.
The traditional and conservative moral values (so-called "family values") of Republicans are very popular among people like Latinos, who come from relatively conservative and very religious societies, and is one of the main “ weapons” used by Republicans to obtain the Hispanic vote. On the other hand, the reduction of the money allocated to social programs (always raised by this party) is usually unpopular among many Latinos who depend on these state aids.
The main obstacle to the efforts of Bush and other leaders to attract Latino militants and sympathizers to the Republican Party is the strongly anti-immigrant discourse of various radical and influential party representatives. The measures that these politicians intend to take against undocumented foreigners (the majority from Latin America) make them win votes among some sectors (those of US citizens who have been citizens for several generations and who believe that immigrants only cause problems), but they alienate Hispanics from the party. In fact, some electoral losses for Republicans in state and local elections have been due in large part to the anger of Latinos with Republican politicians who have taken demagogic anti-immigrant measures. Other ethnic minorities (Jews, Asians, etc.) are also mostly Democrats. The future idea of the Republican Party, to be able to attract minorities, until today clearly inclined towards the Democratic Party, without losing the support of its traditional allies and maintaining its status as a "conservative force".
In other ways, the presidency of George W. Bush ushered in a difficult era for the party; his economic policy was harshly criticized by the majority sectors of the Republican Party for going against the postulates of fiscal conservatism. Although Bush made huge cuts in federal taxes, somewhat in line with fiscal conservatism, on the other hand he was also responsible for massive increases in public spending, and therefore broke with fiscal discipline, causing gigantic deficits. This both caused the rejection and anger of the majority of the Republicans. Other aspects of his management, such as foreign policy, also caused criticism within the party, which is why at the end of his government all the Republican presidential candidates kept their distance from him and the candidate elected, John McCain, was his biggest rival within of the party
But McCain was unable to convince the electorate that he represented a break with Bush and was ultimately defeated by the 44th President, Democrat Barack Obama; In its new role as an opposition party, the Republican Party found itself confused and lacking in leadership. Subsequently, an internal polarization broke out between moderates and conservatives; the latter have revitalized the opposition with their harsh and radical campaign against Obama, symbolized by the Tea Party Movement, at the price of causing a bitter confrontation with moderates who fear that this radicalization to the right, even if it serves to mobilize public opinion against Obama, in the end, can drive away the independent voters from the center.
However, growing popular discontent with Obama's tenure and the success of the Tea Party in channeling it led the Republican Party to victory in the 2010 midterm elections. Republicans regained control of the House of Congressional Representatives, reduced the Democratic majority in the Senate and won most of the governorships of the states that called state elections. Although this series of victories increased the power of the Republican Party and infused it with renewed strength; President Barack Obama managed to win re-election just two years later, largely due to the support of minorities, whom the Republican Party could not convince and instead ended up alienating them.
The 2012 Republican Primary is the selection process in which the United States Republican Party will select delegates to attend the 2012 Republican National Convention, in which the sole candidate for the Presidency will be nominated for the 2012 elections. Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, who also ran in the 2008 presidential primary, gained early support from Republican voters, being the favorite for his party's presidential nomination. However, his lead over the Republican field has been precarious, with the entry of new candidates attracting considerable media attention between April and August 2011. Support among Republicans for Governor Rick Perry of Texas spurred him upon joining the race in August 2011, he performed strongly in the polls, instantly becoming a serious contender. On April 10, Santorum suspended his campaign, leaving Mitt Romney the undisputed favorite for the presidential nomination. At the end of August, at the 2012 Republican National Convention, he will be declared the candidate for the Presidency. He already announced Paul Ryan as his vice-presidential candidate. On November 6, 2012, the former governor and current candidate for the Republican party lost the elections to the candidate and president Barack Obama, adding a majority of voters greater than the 270 necessary to secure the presidency, coming in second with the higher vote. A few days after losing the election, amid cross reproaches among Republicans, a string of criticisms of Romney was unleashed for his controversial statements.
In the subsequent presidential election, in November 2016, the party chose controversial millionaire Donald Trump as its candidate for the White House. His victory in the primaries caused tensions within the formation, as he was a candidate new to the party and politics, who had had bitter controversies with Republican veterans such as McCain or his rivals in those primaries Jeb Bush and Marco Rubio and who Because of his lifestyle, he broke with the conditions that were usually attributed to a Republican candidate. The public rejection of Trump by prominent members of the GOP, even when he is already president, is an unprecedented case that shows the internal fracture of the party.
The future of the Republican Party causes uncertainty among its own ranks, in the face of this situation of internal rupture and extremism, or in the face of the collection of a growing prominence within American society of groups such as blacks, Hispanics or sexual minorities far removed from Republicans. A former collaborator of George W. Bush, David Frum, wondered in a book entitled Why Romney Lost and published on the occasion of the 2012 elections (which he considered lost) why "we see so much extremism [among us Republicans].” Frum also pointed out several eloquent facts: «The Republican Party is increasingly isolated from modern America. In the quarter century that has passed since 1988 there have been six presidential elections. In only one of them did the Republican candidate get a majority of the popular vote, and by a miserable 50.73 percent. By contrast, of the six elections that took place between 1968 and 1988, the Republicans won five. The median percentage of the vote, including the 1976 defeat, was 52.5 percent."
Election results
Presidential Elections
| Year | Formula | Votes | % | Votes electoral elections | % | Outcome | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chairman | Vice-Chairman | |||||||||||
| 1856 | John C. Frémont | William L. Dayton | 1.342.345 |
| 114/296 |
| 2. |  Not elected | ||||
| 1860 | Abraham Lincoln | Hannibal Hamlin | 1.865.908 |
| 180/303 |
| 1.o |  Elects | ||||
| 1864 | Abraham Lincoln | Andrew Johnson (Democratic) | 2.218.388 |
| 212/233 |
| 1.o | Elects | ||||
| 1868 | Ulysses S. Grant | Schuyler Colfax | 3.013.650 |
| 214/294 |
| 1.o | Elects | ||||
| 1872 | Ulysses S. Grant | Henry Wilson | 3.598.235 |
| 286/352 |
| 1.o | Elects | ||||
| 1876 | Rutherford B. Hayes | William A. Wheeler | 4.034.311 |
| 185/369 |
| 2. | Elects | ||||
| 1880 | James A. Garfield | Chester A. Arthur | 4.454.443 |
| 214/369 |
| 1.o | Elects | ||||
| 1884 | James G. Blaine | John A. Logan | 4.856.905 |
| 182/401 |
| 2. | Not elected | ||||
| 1888 | Benjamin Harrison | Levi P. Morton | 5.443.892 |
| 233/401 |
| 2. | Elects | ||||
| 1892 | Benjamin Harrison | Whitelaw Reid | 5.190.819 |
| 145/444 |
| 2. | Not elected | ||||
| 1896 | William McKinley | Garret Hobart | 7.111.607 |
| 271/447 |
| 1.o | Elects | ||||
| 1900 | William McKinley | Theodore Roosevelt | 7.228.864 |
| 292/447 |
| 1.o | Elects | ||||
| 1904 | Theodore Roosevelt | Charles W. Fairbanks | 7.630.457 |
| 336/476 |
| 1.o | Elects | ||||
| 1908 | William Howard Taft | James S. Sherman | 7.678.335 |
| 321/483 |
| 1.o | Elects | ||||
| 1912 | William Howard Taft | Nicholas Murray Butler | 3.486.242 |
| 8/531 |
| 3.o | Not elected | ||||
| 1916 | Charles Evans Hughes | Charles W. Fairbanks | 8.548.728 |
| 254/531 |
| 2. | Not elected | ||||
| 1920 | Warren G. Harding | Calvin Coolidge | 16.144.093 |
| 404/531 |
| 1.o | Elects | ||||
| 1924 | Calvin Coolidge | Charles G. Dawes | 15.723.789 |
| 382/531 |
| 1.o | Elects | ||||
| 1928 | Herbert Hoover | Charles Curtis | 21.427.123 |
| 444/531 |
| 1.o | Elects | ||||
| 1932 | Herbert Hoover | Charles Curtis | 15.761.254 |
| 59/531 |
| 2. | Not elected | ||||
| 1936 | Alf Landon | Frank Knox | 16.681.862 |
| 8/531 |
| 2. | Not elected | ||||
| 1940 | Wendell Willkie | Charles L. McNary | 22.347.744 |
| 82/531 |
| 2. | Not elected | ||||
| 1944 | Thomas E. Dewey | John W. Bricker | 22.017.929 |
| 99/531 |
| 2. | Not elected | ||||
| 1948 | Thomas E. Dewey | Earl Warren | 21.991.292 |
| 189/531 |
| 2. | Not elected | ||||
| 1952 | Dwight D. Eisenhower | Richard Nixon | 34.075.529 |
| 442/531 |
| 1.o | Elects | ||||
| 1956 | Dwight D. Eisenhower | Richard Nixon | 35.579.180 |
| 457/531 |
| 1.o | Elects | ||||
| 1960 | Richard Nixon | Henry Cabot Lodge Jr. | 34.108.157 |
| 219/537 |
| 2. | Not elected | ||||
| 1964 | Barry Goldwater | William E. Miller | 27.175.754 |
| 52/538 |
| 2. | Not elected | ||||
| 1968 | Richard Nixon | Spiro Agnew | 31.783.783 |
| 301/538 |
| 1.o | Elects | ||||
| 1972 | Richard Nixon | Spiro Agnew | 47.168.710 |
| 520/538 |
| 1.o | Elects | ||||
| 1976 | Gerald Ford | Bob Dole | 39.148.634 |
| 241/538 |
| 2. | Not elected | ||||
| 1980 | Ronald Reagan | George H. W. Bush | 43.903.230 |
| 489/538 |
| 1.o | Elects | ||||
| 1984 | Ronald Reagan | George H. W. Bush | 54.455.472 |
| 525/538 |
| 1.o | Elects | ||||
| 1988 | George H. W. Bush | Dan Quayle | 48.886.597 |
| 426/538 |
| 1.o | Elects | ||||
| 1992 | George H. W. Bush | Dan Quayle | 39.104.550 |
| 168/538 |
| 2. | Not elected | ||||
| 1996 | Bob Dole | Jack Kemp | 39.197.469 |
| 159/538 |
| 2. | Not elected | ||||
| 2000 | George W. Bush | Dick Cheney | 50.456.002 |
| 271/538 |
| 2. | Elects | ||||
| 2004 | George W. Bush | Dick Cheney | 62.040.610 |
| 286/538 |
| 1.o | Elects | ||||
| 2008 | John McCain | Sarah Palin | 59.948.323 |
| 173/538 |
| 2. | Not elected | ||||
| 2012 | Mitt Romney | Paul Ryan | 60.933.504 |
| 206/538 |
| 2. | Not elected | ||||
| 2016 | Donald Trump | Mike Pence | 62.984.828 |
| 304/538 |
| 2. | Elects | ||||
| 2020 | Donald Trump | Mike Pence | 74.223.251 |
| 232/538 |
| 2. | Not elected | ||||
Republican Presidents of the United States
- Abraham Lincoln (1861-1865)
- Ulysses S. Grant (1869-1877)
- Rutherford B. Hayes (1877-1881)
- James A. Garfield (1881)
- Chester A. Arthur (1881-1885)
- Benjamin Harrison (1889-1893)
- William McKinley (1897-1901)
- Theodore Roosevelt (1901-1909)
- William Taft (1909-1913)
- Warren Harding (1921-1923)
- Calvin Coolidge (1923-1929)
- Herbert C. Hoover (1929-1933)
- Dwight David Eisenhower (1953-1961)
- Richard Nixon (1969-1974)
- Gerald Ford (1974-1977)
- Ronald Reagan (1981-1989)
- George H. W. Bush (1989-1993)
- George W. Bush (2001-2009)
- Donald J. Trump (2017-2021)
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