Republican Party

The Republican Party is one of two major political parties in the United States of America along with their historical rival, the Democratic Party.

History
Founded in 1854 by anti-slavery activists and economic modernizers who were former members of the National Republican Party, former President Martin van Buren’s Free Soil Party that opposed the expansion of slavery into the Western States, and the anti-Jacksonian Whig Party. The first Republican President was Abraham Lincoln of Illinois who led the nation through the Civil War, preserving the Union, abolishing slavery, strengthening the federal government, and modernizing the economy. During the Reconstruction Era, the Republicans had the support of formerly enslaved African Americans. There was a reversal of party platforms after the 1912 presidential election, largely due to the Republicans’ progressive faction which included former President Theodore Roosevelt leaving the party due to the fact that President William Howard Taft had moved closer to the conservative wing of the party. In the 1920’s and 1930’s the party made the ideological journey to the pro-business small government conservatism it holds on economic issues today. In 1960’s Republicans used opposition to the African American Civil Rights Movement to achieve the political realignment of many white, conservative voters in the South that had traditionally supported the Democratic Party to the Republican Party. In the 1970’s and 1980’s the Christian Right, a faction of devout Christian voters who support unabashedly socially conservative policies gained prominence in the party. Modern Republican Presidents include John Grady of Indiana who served from 2009 to 2017 and Pat Weil of Iowa who served from 1993 to 2001. The party currently holds 53 seats in the United States Senate, 236 seats in the House of Representatives, and there are Republican Governors in 28 states.

Policy Positions
The Republican Party platform as determined at the 2016 Republican National Convention.

Economics
 * Repealing the estate tax and the alternative minimum tax.


 * Lowering the corporate tax rate to 21% in the near term.


 * Reducing burdensome economic and governmental regulations.


 * Supporting a FairTax plan.


 * Maintaining a balanced budget, ensured by passing a Balanced Budget Amendment, changing budgeting practices, and paying down the federal debt.


 * Supporting free trade agreements like the Pacific Rim Free Trade Agreement (PRFTA).

Environment
 * Supporting entitlement reform such as Social Security reform.
 * Supporting market-based solutions to environmental problems.


 * Supporting a policy of carbon control and sequestration.


 * Supporting coal pollution mitigation also known as “clean coal” and America’s coal miners.


 * Supporting oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR).

Social Issues
 * Supporting the Dakota Access Pipeline and the Keystone XL Pipeline.
 * Opposing abortion except in cases of rape, incest, and to save the life of the mother.


 * Protecting the sanctity of life by opposing embryonic stem cell research and supporting abstinence-only sex education.


 * Supporting the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) and leaving the issue of same-sex marriage to individual states while not supporting a federal ban.


 * Supporting lowering the drinking age to 18.


 * Supporting the right to keep and bear arms through support for the Second Amendment.


 * Supporting legal personhood at fertilization.


 * Replacing affirmative action with a merit-based system built on the basis of talent, effort, and achievement, rather than factors such as sexuality, race, and gender.


 * Opposing the legalization of recreational marijuana.

Healthcare
 * Supporting bathroom bills to maintain privacy, prevent voyeurism, assault, molestation, and rape, and retain psychological comfort.


 * Supporting a free-market approach to health care, including tax deductions for medical expenses and opposing federal regulations discouraging businesses from providing coverage.


 * Opposing the National Healthcare Act.


 * Returning control of the Medicaid program to the states as well as capping the program's funding.


 * Supporting Health Savings Accounts (HSAs).


 * Changing Medicare from a publicly run social insurance program with a defined benefit, for which there is no limit to the government’s expenses, into a program that offers "premium support" for enrollees.


 * Legalization of the medical use of cannabis nationwide.

Ethics, Electoral, and Campaign Finance Reform
 * A law and order approach to the opioid epidemic by reducing the threshold required to impose mandatory minimum sentences on people trafficking or distributing fentanyl.
 * Term limits on U.S. Representatives and Senators.


 * Supporting Voter ID laws in order to combat voter fraud.

Education
 * Stripping the pensions of any official found guilty of violating any federal anti-corruption statute, including but not limited to bribery and gratuity statutes, insider trading laws, and other similar provisions.
 * Supporting school choice through a school voucher system.


 * Supporting abstinence-only sex education.


 * Supporting voluntary student-initiated school prayer.


 * Increasing access to higher education for qualified students through use of a merit-based system.


 * Reduction in spending for higher education in order to avoid a higher education bubble.

Foreign and Immigration Policy
 * Ensuring free speech on college campuses.
 * Promoting democracy and American national interest in international affairs, including by means of military force such as in Korristan.
 * Increasing defense spending.
 * Dismantling Iran's nuclear program through military action if necessary.
 * Supporting Israel's right to exist and taking congressional action against the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions Movement.
 * Maintaining the embargo on Cuba.
 * Returning North Korea to the list of state sponsors of terrorism while working with allies and implementing multilateral sanctions to achieve a denuclearized Korean Peninsula as well as Korean reunification.

Criminal Justice Policy
 * Enforcing existing immigration laws and opposition to illegal immigration.
 * Opposing Russia’s aggressive foreign policy in Europe while working with Ukraine, Georgia, Macedonia, and Bosnia and Herzegovina on eventual ascension into NATO.
 * Supporting our law enforcement officials while working to end police brutality.
 * A law and order approach to the opioid epidemic by reducing the threshold required to impose mandatory minimum sentences on people trafficking or distributing fentanyl.
 * Upholding capital punishment.
 * Supporting broken windows policing as it is a highly discretionary policing method that requires careful training, guidelines, supervision, and community outreach. Holding an ultimate goal of deterring minor offenders from committing more serious crimes in the future and reducing the prison population in the long run.