Republican Party (United States) aka GOP originally was anti-slavery

Republican Party (United States) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:

'via Blog this'


...Which explains (to me at least) why the south used to be mostly democrats until the civil rights movement when a democrat supported desegregation. Within two terms (I think) most people switched to republican, instead, according to Molly Ivens "Who Let The Dogs In."

"GOP" redirects here. For other uses, see GOP (disambiguation).

Not to be confused with American Republican Party, Democratic-Republican Party, or National Republican Party.

Republican Party
Chairman	Reince Priebus (WI)
Senate Leader	Mitch McConnell(Minority Leader) (KY) Jon Kyl (Minority Whip) (AZ)
House Leader	John Boehner(Speaker) (OH) Eric Cantor (Majority Leader) (VA) Kevin McCarthy(Majority Whip) (CA)
Chair of Governors Association	Bob McDonnell (VA)
Founded	1854
Preceded by	Whig Party Free Soil Party
Headquarters	310 First Street NE Washington, D.C.20003
Student wing	College Republicans
Youth wing	Young RepublicansTeenage Republicans
Ideology	Conservatism(American)  • Classical liberalism  • Fiscal conservatism  • Social conservatism Factions  • Traditionalist conservatism  • Libertarian conservatism  • Neoliberalism  • Neoconservatism
International affiliation	International Democrat Union
Official colors	Red (unofficial)
Position in national political spectrum	Center-right
Seats in the Senate	47 / 100
Seats in the House	242 / 435
Governorships	29 / 50
State Upper House Seats	1,001 / 1,921
State Lower House Seats	3,021 / 5,410
Website
www.gop.com
Politics of United States Political parties Elections

The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporarypolitical parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP (Grand Old Party), although the rival Democratic Party is older. Eighteen US presidents have been Republicans. The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S. political spectrum.^[1][2][3] American conservatism of the Republican Party is not wholly based upon rejection of the political ideology of liberalism, as many principles of American conservatism are based upon classical liberalism.^[4]Rather the Republican Party's conservatism is largely based upon its support of classical liberal principles against the modern liberalism of the Democratic Party that is considered American liberalism in contemporary American political discourse.^[4]

In the 112th Congress, elected in 2010, the Republican Party holds a majority of seats in the House of Representatives and a minority of seats in the Senate. The party holds the majority ofgovernorships as well as the majority of state legislatures.