The Principles of the Republican Party
- We believe that all persons have been endowed by their Creator with freedom of will and that what has been granted must not be compromised by any other person or government.
- We believe that the first function of our national government is to protect and defend the rights of its citizens; those rights being, and as declared, in the Declaration of Independence and in the Constitution of The United States; our founding documents.
- We believe that our national government functions to protect its citizens from foreign aggressors, who would impose by force their way of life upon us.
- We believe that the national government functions at all levels to protect its citizens from crime.
- We believe that each individual is entitled to equal treatment by their government.
- We affirm the rights of each individual to receive equal treatment and equal opportunity from their government under its laws.
- We believe that the free enterprise system is the best system devised for managing the economic affairs of man because it maximizes freedom and production, maximises the efficient allocation of resources, stimulates competition and thereby benefits the consumer. The free enterprise system, above all other systems, is the only economic system that promotes and supports a free society. So long as effective freedom of exchange is maintained and is not distorted or disfigured by government or any other coersive force, the essential feature of the market is that it enables people to co-operate voluntarily in complex tasks without any person being in a position to interfere with any other. The essence of economic freedom, and the essence of political freedom for that matter, is the absence of coercion of one man by his fellow men. Please do not confuse being pro Free Enterprise, or being pro Capitalism, as being pro Business or pro Corporation. Corporations, especially multinational Corporations, do not want Capitalism. By their nature, they are anti-Capitalists. Still confused? Then please watch this short video .
- We believe that the fundamental danger to economic and political freedom is the concentration of power. The existence of a large measure of power in the hands of a relatively few individuals enables them to use it to coerce their fellow man.
- We believe that the foundation of our economy and the strength of our nation lies in its working citizens who are the producing, taxpaying members of our society.
- We believe that our economic and political system depends upon a strong and stable currency and that excessive government spending reduces the value of the currency, and therefore must be curbed.
- We believe that our national government should live and spend within its means, and perform its functions without running excessive deficits and not by amassing massive debt.
- We believe that with freedom comes responsibility and that individual initiative is a prerequisite to government assistance unless the individual is unable to help themselves.
- We believe that the birthright of each American is to be educated to the maximum of their ability, to enjoy the fruits of their labor and to be allowed to freely advance in economic status. We should be talking about and aiming at excellence, a common standard that challenges people of all backgrounds to achieve their potential.
- As with any other good or service, we believe that every American should have the right to the school of their choice.
- We believe in and affirm our nation’s founding principal that all men are created equal to begin their journey though life with an equal opportunity to freely pursue whatever endeavor they choose. Therefore, we believe in and affirm equal opportunity and not equal outcomes. Regardless of race, everybody faces adversity and must choose whether to buckle down and surmount it, shaping their own fate, or to blame the outcome on powerful forces that make them ineluctably the victim – forces that only a mighty government can master. The Founders’ Constitution presupposes citizens of the first kind. The society that puts equality before freedom will end up with neither. The society that puts freedom before equality will end up with a great measure of both.
On The Issues
The Republican Party is:
The Party of Vision
Theodore Roosevelt embodies our Party’s traditional concern for the environment, but the Republican commitment to the environment actually goes back much further than that. For example, the world’s first national park, Yellowstone, was established during the Ulysses Grant administration.
President Eisenhower advocated groundbreaking civil rights legislation and vigorously enforced the Brown v Board of Education decision, sending the 101st Airborne to Little Rock when chaos erupted following integration at Central High.
Ronald Reagan explained the difference between Democrats and Republicans in a way that cannot be improved upon: “Two visions of the future, two fundamentally different ways of governing – theirs of pessimism, fear, and limits, or ours of hope, confidence, and growth”. Theirs sees individual rights granted solely by them or by government. Ours sees individual rights as inalienable; rights naturally given to every individual at birth that cannot be taken away by government edict, legislation or by executive order. Theirs sees individuals only as members of specific groups. Ours sees individuals as members of a single group; The People of The United States of America.
President George H.W. Bush championed community and volunteer organizations and the tremendous power they have for doing good. He famously described them as “a brilliant diversity spread like stars, like a thousand points of light in a broad and peaceful sky.”
In the first decade of the 21st century, President George W. Bush made an unprecedented commitment to helping those in need beyond our shores through the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), an aid program for countries devastated by HIV/AIDS. Since its inception, PEPFAR has saved over a million lives and currently provides over 5 million people with life-saving treatments.
President Trump’s economic policies lowered the unemployment rate among Blacks, Hispanics and Women to all time lows. His Operation Warp Speed Operation Warp Speed delivered a safe and effective Covid-19 vaccine in just nine months.
The Party of Women’s Rights
The Republican Party pioneered the right of women to vote and was consistent in its support throughout the long campaign for acceptance. It was the first major party to advocate equal rights for women and the principle of equal pay for equal work.
At the request of Susan B. Anthony, Senator A.A. Sargent, a Republican from California, introduced the 19th Amendment in 1878. Sargent’s amendment (also known as the Susan B. Anthony Amendment) was defeated four times by a Democrat-controlled Senate. When the Republican Party regained control of Congress in 1919, the Equal Suffrage Amendment finally passed the House in May of that year and in the Senate in June.
When the Amendment was submitted to the states, 26 of the 36 states that ratified it had Republican legislatures. Of the nine states that voted against ratification, eight were Democratic. Twelve states, all Republican, had given women full suffrage before the federal amendment was ratified.
The Party of Prosperity
Low taxes, sound money, regulatory restraint: these were among the commonsense economic policies established by the GOP that brought about decades of prosperity after the Civil War. Republicans encouraged innovation and rule of law. Buttressed by Republican control in Congress, the McKinley, Theodore Roosevelt and Taft administrations cleared away obstacles to economic growth.
President Dwight Eisenhower and congressional Republicans appreciated the fact that the private sector, not government, is the engine of wealth creation. With his bold tax-cutting agenda, President Ronald Reagan revived the economy after years of Democrat malaise. President Trump continued this policy by drastically reducing the regulatory burden that over time had been placed on the economy and the country’s citizens.
The Party of Freedom
Though popularized in a Thomas Nast cartoon, the GOP’s elephant symbol originated during the 1860 campaign, as a symbol of Republican strength. Republicans envisioned “free soil, free speech, free labor.” Under the leadership of President Abraham Lincoln, the GOP became the Party of the Union as well.
President Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, but it was the entire Republican Party who freed the slaves. The 1864 Republican National Convention called for the abolition of slavery, and Congressional Republicans passed the 13th Amendment unanimously, with only a few Democrat votes.
The early women’s rights movement was solidly Republican, as it was a continuation of abolitionism. They were careful not to be overly partisan, but as did Susan B. Anthony, most suffragists favored the GOP. The 19th Amendment was written by a Republican senator and garnered greater support from Republicans than from Democrats.
The Republican Party was Founded,
On July 6, 1854, just after the anniversary of the nation, an anti-slavery state convention was held in Jackson, Michigan. The hot day forced the large crowd outside to a nearby oak grove. At this “Under the Oaks Convention” the first statewide candidates were selected for what would become the Republican Party.
United by desire to abolish slavery, it was in Jackson that the Platform of the Under the Oaks Convention read: “…we will cooperate and be known as REPUBLICANS…” Prior to July, smaller groups had gathered in intimate settings like the schoolhouse in Ripon, Wisconsin. However, the meeting in Jackson would be the first ever mass gathering of the Republican Party.
The name “Republican” was chosen, alluding to Thomas Jefferson’s Democratic-Republican Party and conveying a commitment to the inalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.