The GOP Briefing Room. The Brand. The iconic President Conservative Ronald Reagan on its masthead.
I see people continually mentioning and/or stating how opinions from various people do not reflect The GOP standard.
What exactly is this GOP standard? In current terms.
From Wikipedia:
Ideological beginnings
See also: Third Party System
The Republican party began as a coalition of anti-slavery "Conscience Whigs" and Free Soil Democrats opposed to the Kansas–Nebraska Act, submitted to Congress by Stephen Douglas in January 1854. The Act opened Kansas Territory and Nebraska Territory to slavery and future admission as slave states, thus implicitly repealing the prohibition on slavery in territory north of 36° 30′ latitude, which had been part of the Missouri Compromise. This change was viewed by Free Soil and Abolitionist Northerners as an aggressive, expansionist maneuver by the slave-owning South.
The Act was supported by all Southerners, by Northern "Doughface" (pro-Southern) Democrats and by other Northern Democrats persuaded by Douglas' doctrine of "popular sovereignty". In the North the old Whig Party was almost defunct. The opponents were intensely motivated and began forming a new party.[2]
The new party went well beyond the issue of slavery in the territories. It envisioned modernizing the United States—emphasizing giving free western land to farmers ("free soil") as opposed to letting slave owners buy up the best lands, expanded banking, more railroads, and factories. They vigorously argued that free market labor was superior to slavery and the very foundation of civic virtue and true republicanism—this was the "Free Soil, Free Labor, Free Men" ideology.[2]
The Republicans absorbed the previous traditions of its members, most of whom had been Whigs; others had been Democrats or members of third parties (especially the Free Soil Party and the American Party, also known as the Know Nothings). Many Democrats who joined were rewarded with governorships,[Note 1] or seats in the U.S. Senate,[Note 2] or House of Representatives.[Note 3] Since its inception, its chief opposition has been the Democratic Party, but the amount of flow back and forth of prominent politicians between the two parties was quite high from 1854 to 1896.
Historians have explored the ethnocultural foundations of the party, along the line that ethnic and religious groups set the moral standards for their members, who then carried those standards into politics. The churches also provided social networks that politicians used to sign up voters. The pietistic churches emphasized the duty of the Christian to purge sin from society. Sin took many forms—alcoholism, polygamy and slavery became special targets for the Republicans.[3]
The Yankees, who dominated New England, much of upstate New York, and much of the upper Midwest were the strongest supporters of the new party. This was especially true for the pietistic Congregationalists and Presbyterians among them and (during the war), the Methodists, along with Scandinavian Lutherans. The Quakers were a small tight-knit group that was heavily Republican. The liturgical churches (Roman Catholic, Episcopal, German Lutheran), by contrast, largely rejected the moralism of the Republican Party; most of their adherents voted Democratic.[3]
The early standard bearers of the Party expressed views of government that marked the first years of its existence. For instance, William H. Seward, New York governor who ran vied with Lincoln for the nomination in 1860, had called for welcoming immigrants with "all the sympathy that their misfortunes at home, their condition as strangers here, and their devotion to liberty, ought to excite."[4] And Lincoln, in his 1861 message to Congress, argued that the essential reason for preserving the central government was to maintain "in the world, that form, and substance of government, whose leading object is to elevate the condition of men – to lift artificial weights from all shoulders – to clear the paths of laudable pursuit for all – to afford all, an unfettered start, and a fair chance, in the race of life."[5]
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=4&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwjw9Zmm0KPQAhVY3mMKHbZHAWgQFggqMAM&url=https%3A%2F%2Fen.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2FHistory_of_the_United_States_Republican_Party&usg=AFQjCNFgDlccgHPw7VK5D-4xDpEZlM6a1A&sig2=OwH8Z8Io5M1r7J7veR-gQAComments about eating humble pie. Mea Culpas. Getting back on the reservation.
IMO, the GOP as it stands today reflects very little of the ideological intent of its origins.
We have bigger government. Enslavement through entitlements. No gold standard. Corporate, lobbyists, and foreign interests in control of said government.
Perhaps the site owners would help me out, being a newcomer, with exactly what they would define as what is appropriate for discussion on their forum. Starting a thread and then locking it seems chulrsih. And smacks of censorship when it doesn't go your way.
President Elect Donald Trump has made promises that he is now modifying. No surprise to me there. That is what politicians do.
On a personal note I define my own Truth. I use sources both esoteric and Biblical. I didn't vote for Trump. Mostly because he falls outside my defintion of Conservatism and that personal truth. That I state my opinions from that standpoint doesn't necessarily mean that I am #nevertrump or even anti-Trump.
@mystery-ak @R4 TrumPence
