Free Republic

There has been quite a fuss in Sodom on the Potomac of late due to the revelations of a certain Mr. Abramoff and the money he so promiscuously passed around in his lobbying activities to people who should have known better than to take it--both Republicans and Democrats. One of those tainted by this situation, Tom DeLay, is stepping down as Majority Leader in the House of Representatives, which opens up somewhat of a race for his spot. So far there seem to be three people vying for that spot. One e-mail message I received from a conservative activist tells...

Stop The Republicans About Me Name:Lone Ranger Location:Arlington, Virginia, United States I've been a broadcaster for more than 32 years. I've held every job there is in a radio or television station. I've lived and worked all over the world and am presently writing for an international news agency based in Washington, DC. loneranger85@hotmail.com View my complete profile The History of Republican Evil April 2005 Current Posts Saturday, April 30, 2005 The History of Republican Evil The Republican Party was formed in 1854 specifically to oppose the Democrats, and for more than 150 years, they have done everything they could...

Until recently it was widely assumed that the Republican Party is America's conservative party. But increasingly it has been argued that the Republican Party is anything but a conservative party. The issue first gained traction in the mid 1990s, before George W. Bush's inauguration. The self-described Oakeshottian conservative Andrew Sullivan complained in a 1998 New York Times Magazine essay that the Republican Party's regnant governing philosophy had "lost sight of the principles of privacy and restraint, modesty and constitutionalism, which used to be its hallmarks." And not long after, the Weekly Standard's Christopher Caldwell argued in the Atlantic that Republicans...

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Republican Party Platform. Adopted at St. Louis, June 16, 1896. The Republicans of the United States, assembled by their representatives in National Convention, appealing for the popular and historical justification of their claims to the matchless achievements of thirty years of Republican rule, earnestly and confidently address themselves to the awakened intelligence, experience, and conscience of their countrymen in the following declaration of facts and principles: For the first time since the Civil War the American people have witnessed the calamitous consequences of full and unrestricted Democratic control of the Government. It has been a record of unparalleled incapacity,...

As America honors its fallen military heroes this Memorial Day, Republicans can be proud that the holiday was established by one of their own, Senator John Logan (R-IL). Logan Circle in Washington, DC and Logan Square in Chicago were named after him. As head of the Grand Army of the Republic, an early veterans organization, John Logan proclaimed that on May 30, 1868 Americans should honor the soldiers and sailors who died in the Civil War by decorating their graves with flowers. Five thousand people came to Arlington National Cemetery for the first Memorial Day ceremony. The principal speaker that...

In Ripon, Wisconsin, former members of the Whig Party meet to establish a new party to oppose the spread of slavery into the western territories. The Whig Party, which was formed in 1834 to oppose the "tyranny" of President Andrew Jackson, had shown itself incapable of coping with the national crisis over slavery. With the successful introduction of the Kansas-Nebraska Bill of 1854, an act that dissolved the terms of the Missouri Compromise and allowed slave or free status to be decided in the territories by popular sovereignty, the Whigs disintegrated. By February 1854, anti-slavery Whigs had begun meeting in...

In Ripon, Wisconsin, former members of the Whig Party meet to establish a new party to oppose the spread of slavery into the western territories. The Whig Party, which was formed in 1834 to oppose the "tyranny" of President Andrew Jackson, had shown itself incapable of coping with the national crisis over slavery. With the successful introduction of the Kansas-Nebraska Bill of 1854, an act that dissolved the terms of the Missouri Compromise and allowed slave or free status to be decided in the territories by popular sovereignty, the Whigs disintegrated. By February 1854, anti-slavery Whigs had begun meeting in...

GOP's Proud Black Legacy [part way down the article] The House Policy Committee's 2005 Republican Freedom Calendar offers 365 examples of GOP support for women, blacks, and other minorities, often over Democratic objections. Among its highlights: "To stop the Democrats' pro-slavery agenda, anti-slavery activists founded the Republican party, starting with a few dozen men and women in Ripon, Wisconsin on March 20, 1854," the calendar notes. "Democratic opposition to Republican efforts to protect the civil rights of all Americans lasted not only throughout Reconstruction, but well into the 20th century. In the south, those Democrats who most bitterly opposed equality...

1870 African American congressman sworn in Hiram Rhoades Revels, a Republican from Natchez, Mississippi, is sworn into the U.S. Senate, becoming the first African American ever to sit in Congress. During the Civil War, Revels, a college-educated minister, helped form African American army regiments for the Union cause, started a school for freed men, and served as a chaplain for the Union army. Posted to Mississippi, Revels remained in the former Confederate state after the war and entered into Reconstruction-era Southern politics. In 1867, the first Reconstruction Act was passed by a Republican-dominated U.S. Congress, dividing the South into five...

The name "Republican" was chosen because it alluded to equality and reminded individuals of Thomas Jefferson's Democratic-Republican Party. In 1856, the Republicans became a national party when John C. Fremont was nominated for President under the slogan: "Free soil, free labor, free speech, free men, Fremont." Even though they were considered a "third party" because the Democrats and Whigs represented the two-party system at the time, Fremont received 33% of the vote. Four years later, Abraham Lincoln became the first Republican to win the White House. The Civil War erupted in 1861 and lasted four grueling years. During the war,...