Republican Party

The Republican Party was established in 1854 by a coalition of former Whigs, Northern Democrats, and Free-Soilers who opposed the expansion of slavery and held a Hamiltonian vision for modernizing the United States. more...

In the modern political era, the Republican Party is usually considered the more socially conservative and economically neoliberal of the two major parties. Eighteen of the twenty-seven U.S. Presidents since 1861 have been Republicans. The current party Chairman is Ken Mehlman. Since 2002, the Republican Party has held a majority in both the Senate and the House of Representatives. It also holds a majority of governorships, and is tied with Democrats in the number of state legislatures it controls.

The official symbol of the Republican Party is the elephant. Grand Old Party is a traditional nickname, and the acronym G.O.P. is commonly used as a shorthand political designation.

Ideological Base

Since the 1960s the Republican Party has been increasingly dominated by conservative politics. In broad terms, Republicans believe the private sector and/or the individual are better suited than the government to control their own lives. In his 1981 Inaugural Address, Republican President Ronald Reagan summed up his qualified belief in limited government when he said, "In the present crisis, government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem."

Read more at Wikipedia.org