Republican Party
From Turtledove
The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States of America, along with the Democratic Party. It is often referred to as the Grand Old Party or the GOP. It is the younger of the two major U.S. political parties, and the second oldest active political party in the United States
[edit] Republican Party in The Man With the Iron Heart
In the years leading up to World War II, the Republican Party generally opposed both the New Deal program of Franklin D. Roosevelt and American involvement in world affairs, particulary the war in Europe. This was not absolute; many Republicans supported the New Deal and interventionism, and many conservative Democrats opposed.
However, the Republican Party was generally the party of opposition until America's entry in World War II, when both parties united until victory. After the defeat of Germany, the rise of the German Freedom Front helped validate the non-interventionist tendencies of the conservative Republicans. Congressman Jerry Duncan, (R-Indiana), spearheaded opposition in the House of Representatives, while Robert Taft (R-Ohio), took a leadership role in the Senate. In 1946, the Republican Party regained a majority in Congress, and sought to pass legislation to bring American forces back from Germany. While this legislation was vetoed by President Harry Truman, Congressional Republicans nonetheless carried the day when they refused to pass legislation allocating funding for the occupation.
[edit] Republican Party in Southern Victory
The Republican Party reached its zenith in the mid-nineteenth century when its candidate, Abraham Lincoln, won election as President of the United States in 1860. The Republicans, whose central platform plank was opposition to slavery, were positively despised by the Southern states, and eleven southern states, refusing to accept the results of the election, seceded from the Union and formed the Confederate States. The War of Secession followed, ending in US defeat and a steep decline in the country's international prestige.
Lincoln was soundly defeated by Democrat Horatio Seymour in 1864, and Republicans did not retake the presidency until 1880 under James G. Blaine. Blaine's administration was marked by his opposition to CS President James Longstreet's purchase of Chihuahua and Sonora in 1881. This led to the Second Mexican War and a second defeat of the US at the hands of the CS, Britain, and France--though it also led indirectly to the incorporation of the US into the Central Powers with Germany and Austria-Hungary.
In 1882, the Republican Party was clearly marked as the scapegoat for the low ebb of US fortunes. Abraham Lincoln convened a number of Republican leaders in Chicago, Illinois, where he explained that the platform of hostility to the CS was unpopular, impracticable, and dangerous. He suggested changing the party's focus to domestic affairs, namely workers' rights. The other Republicans refused, and Lincoln defected to the Socialist Party, taking with him a number of his followers. The Socialists soon surpassed the Republicans as the country's second-largest party, the Democrats absorbed most of the rest when they incorporated a more hawkish foreign policy stance into their platform, and the Republican Party would never again be a dominant force in national politics, though it would continue to compete in regional elections in several Midwestern states.
[edit] Republican Party in Worldwar
By 1960, the Republican Party was viewed as the party of national defense, taking a hard line on the Race's Colonization Fleet. In 1962, Republican President Earl Warren launched a secret missle attack on the Fleet.
