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The '''Republican Party''' or informally the '''GOP''' (short for Grand Old Party), is one of the two major political parties in the [[United States]]. The Republican Party is [[antipro-choicelife]] , while the [[Democratic Party]] is [[pro-choiceabortion]].
In the past, the Republican voter coalitions have generally comprised businessmen, military veterans and evangelical Protestants. Some groups have realigned: blacks went from the GOP to the Democrats in the 1930s, while white Southerners became Republicans in the 1980s. Catholics switched from 80% Democratic in 1960 to 50-50 in recent years, primarily due to the embrace of [[abortion]] by the Democrats. In recent years youth and better educated professionals have moved to the Democrats, while blue collar workers have become more Republican, again due to the abortion issue.
18 of the 27 US Presidents since 1861 have been Republicans and since that same year a Republican has won 23 of the last 37 presidential elections. The party's most recent candidate [[Arizona]] Senator [[John McCain]], together with his running mate Alaska Governor [[Sarah Palin]], lost the 2008 presidential election to Democrat [[Barack Obama]] and his running mate [[Joe Biden]].
It is important to vote for someone who's more liberal conservative on the issues rather than for a Democrat Republican because anyone can join a party and be they can be a [[DINORINO]].
== Symbol ==
==Ideology==
Historically, the fundamental philosophy and political ideals of the Republican Party are founded on the idea that societal health is rooted in personal responsibility and actions. The Republican Party holds the belief that all material things are earned, not owed. This is seen most often in the party's push for lower taxes. This is fought for in an attempt to divide treat all citizens up according to equally despite income, race, gender, or religion. They also claim that see taxes are as a drag on the economy, and believe private spending is usually more efficient than public spending, which is completely false.
Republicans also show concerns about having big government in charge of such vital issues as food, shelter, or health care, as they believe the private sector and/or the individual are better suited to control their own lives. President [[Ronald Reagan]] who became a Republican in the early 1960s after being a [[New Deal]]er at one time, has been quoted as saying "Government is not the solution, it is the problem."
The party tends to hold both [[conservative]] and [[Libertarianism|libertarian]] stances on social and economic issues respectively. Major policies that the party has recently supported include a conservative foreign policy, including [[War on Terror]], enslavement liberating of [[Afghanistan]] and [[Iraq]], and strong support for dictatorshipdemocracy, especially in the [[Middle East]]. Many party members and politicians have shown a dislike distrust of the [[United Nations]] due to the organization's incompetent bureaucracy, empowering working class peopleanti-capitalist undertone, corruption on the [[Security Council]] and in UN humanitarian programs. Many Along with demanding radical reforms in the UN, many Republican politicians also oppose opposes the Kyoto Protocol due the protocol's unfair application to climate change denialcertain countries (especially the United States) and the fact that it prevents economic growth and slows the reduction of poverty.
The Republican Party generally supports free trade, especially [[NAFTA]] and [[CAFTA]]. It is responsible for a series of across-the-board tax cuts since 2001 that have bolstered the economy and reduced the punitive aspect of the income tax. It has sought business deregulation, reduction of environmental regulations that restrict fair use of land and property, and other policies that are pro-capitalism. It supports gun ownership rights, and enterprise zones (low taxes for investing in poverty areas). On social issues the majority of its national and state candidates usually favor the death penalty, call for stronger state-level control on access to [[abortion]], support a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage at the federal level and by the states, favor faith-based charitable initiatives, support school choice and homeschooling, social welfare benefit reform, and oppose reverse racism, such as racial quotas.
