It's a collection of letters (but not really an acronym if I'm right) that is thrown about when the Democrats and Republicans have their bitch fights about, well, anything. What does GOP mean ?. Could it translate to politics in countries other than the USA ?.
Democratic Party n. One of the two major political parties in the United States, owing its origin to a split in the Democratic-Republican Party under Andrew Jackson in 1828. Republican Party n. One of the two primary political parties of the United States, organized in 1854 to oppose the extension of slavery. The Democratic-Republican Party. the younger of 2 major political parties in the US; GOP stands for Grand Old Party Republican party. (U.S. Politics) (a) An earlier name of the Democratic party when it was opposed to the Federal party. Thomas Jefferson was its great leader. (b) One of the existing great parties. It was organized in 1856 by a combination of voters from other parties for the purpose of opposing the extension of slavery, and in 1860 it elected Abraham Lincoln president. Source: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, © 1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc. So, these parties were once one? Republicans were once called Democrats? Democrats were once called Democratic-Republicans? The GOP is not the oldest party, even the name indicates it?
http://www.cqservices.com/MyCQ/News/Default.asp?V=858 "Watch out grandma," said Rep. Edward Markey, D-Mass. "GOP now stands for Get Old People."
It is alot more complicated than that. The party system in both England and the pre-Revolutionary colonites was weak. Broadly, there were what might be called tendencies, but no real parties as we know them. In Britian, the pro-Hanovarians were called Whigs and the pro-Stuarts Tories, but the Tories had pretty much disappeared and the Whigs were broken into different factions, surrounding an important figure (Chatham (Pitt), Rockingham, Lord North, etc.) In the Revolution, supporters of the Crown were called Tories and supporters of the Revolution called Patriots or Whigs. Parties began to develop around the time of the consitution. The Federalist Party supported the constitution, while the "anti-Federalists" opposed it. Once the consitution was adopted, the Federalists continued in name. The Federalists than began to break apart for ideological reasons. The aristocratic wing of the party, headed by Hamilton, fueded with the more pragmatic wing of the party, headed by Adams, which in turn fueded with the more democractic wing of the party, headed by Madison. While this was going on, the French Revolution broke out, and began to exacerbate the conflicts. Thomas Jefferson returned from Paris as a great admirer of the French Revolution and agrarian democracy (which he saw as a counter weight the mercentilism of the leading Federalist), and started "Democracy CLubs." The Democracy clubs became the base for the Republican Party. Madison then defected to the Republican Party. The anti-Federalists did not as a while join the Republicans. Many sympathized with the Federalists on everything BUT the Constitution, which was now an established fact. Many people who were Federalists in 1789 and supported the Constitution now disagreed with the policies of the party. Anyway, the Federalists began to disintergarte through infighting and unpopular policies. By 1820, the party no longer existed. Theoretically, all politiicans at the time were Republicans. The Republicans then split into two factions -- the "National" faction headed by Henry Clay and John Quincy Adams and the "Democratic" faction headed by Andrew Jackson. The Nationals stood for support of industry and mercintilism, tarrifs, a National Bank and internal improvements (like canals and later railroads). The Democrats looked to further the agrarianism of Jefferson. T The National Democrats later became the Whigs, many of whom later joined the Republican Party.
Yeah, IIRC, the Dems went from Republicans to Republicna-Democrat to Democrat. But Republicans have always been Republican. Yeah, that's weird. I wonder how the term originated.
Keep in mind that the political ideology of the two parties also switched, most dramatically around the time of the New Deal. Democrats used to be the conservatives, and GOP the liberals. The term "Southern Democrat" refers to those southerners who have stayed Democrats in name even though their political philosophy hasn't evolved (or devolved, depending on your point of view) with the party. This is part of the irony of the GOP calling itself the Party of Lincoln -- Lincoln's Republican Party has very, very little in common with today's version.
Completely untrue. I can go chapter and verse if I have to. I don't think anyone is up for a 10 or 20 paragraph post, tho. Be careful about using modern political concepts and shoehorning past issues into them.
The timing of the change is debatable (maybe most manifested when Wilson was elected), but I fail to see how you can disagree with the statement that the Democratic Party of the late 19th century was more conservative (in the way that we now think of that term) than what we have now, but it's probably not worth the long debate. Here's more on the history of the Democrats.
Labor unions. Monopolies. Prohibition. Diversity. Without triggering a long debate. If your perception of politics comes down to, should we screw blacks? And if so, how badly? Then you're pretty much right. But there's alot more to it. For a very long time, Reeps had an anti-Democratic slogan, calling the Dems the party of Rum, Romanism, and Rebellion. Since the last refers to a reactionary rebellion, I'll give you that one. Still, 2/3 of this slogan paints the Dems as (in today's terms) too liberal.
Ahh, yes Mr. Jefferson. He used to roger his (female) slaves didn't he ??. Anyway, is the term 'Grand Old Party' a degrogatory term as 'Tory' and 'Whig' were until at at least the 1850's in Britain ?..
Not really. It is a term in use since at least the 1880's. And even then it was a term used by Republicans. Blaine, Blaine James G. Blaine! Grand Old Man Of the State of Maine was often called the "Grand Old Man of the Grand Old Party." The term is an old one, and seems to have evolved from the British referring to PM Gladstone as the GOM or Grand Old Man. http://www.c-span.org/questions/week111.asp
The donkey dates back to the campaigns of Andrew Jackson, whose opponents called him a jackass. Jackson embraced it and put a donkey on his campaign posters. Widespread use of the animals to represent the parties came about because of Thomas Nast, the leading political cartoonist after the Civil War. He was a Republican and chose the elephant because it was strong and regal, and used the jackass to show his opinion of Democrats, and it was already somewhat associated with the party because of Jackson. The Democrats continued to embrace it out of a sense of irony, I suppose. These images were used in many of Nast's cartoons and became ubiquitous.
Nast also created the Tammany Tiger to represent the Democratic Party in NY City. It was meant to be insulting, as a Tiger was a ravenous beast. I do not think Tammy really embraced the symbol, but as late as the 1950's (long after Tammany's glory days) Republicans in the suburbs were using posters saving: "Don't Feed the Tiger -- Vote Republican"