By Tom Foreman, CNN
updated 10:27 PM EDT, Sat August 25, 2012
Washington (CNN) -- Some may not realize that the modern Republican Party owes its origin to the fight over slavery nearly two centuries ago.
In the tumultuous mid-1800s, right before the Civil War, some political activists were concerned about keeping slavery from spreading into new western territories, and they saw no way to stop it through existing political powers: the Democrats and the Whigs (the pro-Congress party of the mid 1800s that largely destroyed itself in the 1852 elections in a battle over slavery).
So they formed a new party, taking the name "Republicans" in a salute to earlier American politicians.
By 1861, they had their first president: Abraham Lincoln. Soon after, slavery fell. The Whig party disappeared. And the Republicans began a long steady rise in power.
Even back then, the party liked to talk about fiscal responsibility -- immigration, religion -- and the need for a strong business climate. All of this spurred a sympathetic Chicago newspaper to call the Republicans the Grand Old Party, or the GOP.
By Tom Foreman, CNN
updated 10:27 PM EDT, Sat August 25, 2012
Washington (CNN) -- Some may not realize that the modern Republican Party owes its origin to the fight over slavery nearly two centuries ago.
In the tumultuous mid-1800s, right before the Civil War, some political activists were concerned about keeping slavery from spreading into new western territories, and they saw no way to stop it through existing political powers: the Democrats and the Whigs (the pro-Congress party of the mid 1800s that largely destroyed itself in the 1852 elections in a battle over slavery).
So they formed a new party, taking the name "Republicans" in a salute to earlier American politicians.
By 1861, they had their first president: Abraham Lincoln. Soon after, slavery fell. The Whig party disappeared. And the Republicans began a long steady rise in power.
Even back then, the party liked to talk about fiscal responsibility -- immigration, religion -- and the need for a strong business climate. All of this spurred a sympathetic Chicago newspaper to call the Republicans the Grand Old Party, or the GOP.
The parties switched . Lincolns GOP fought the racist south,todays GOP represent the racist south
The Democrats formed the KKK and supported slavery and then later segregation. Racism was deeply ingrained in the original democratic philosophy and the worst examples of modern racism can be found among democrats today.
You can lie as much as you want but it will not change the facts.
The Democratic Party is the party of the Ku Klux Klan and it has been so all the way back to Reconstruction. The Republicans have always fought for individual liberty and racial equality.
The Democrats formed the KKK and supported slavery and then later segregation. Racism was deeply ingrained in the original democratic philosophy and the worst examples of modern racism can be found among democrats today.
You can lie as much as you want but it will not change the facts.
The Democratic Party is the party of the Ku Klux Klan and it has been so all the way back to Reconstruction. The Republicans have always fought for individual liberty and racial equality.
The South formed the KKK and supported slavery and then later segregation
Racism was deeply ingrained in the original southern philosophy and the worst examples of modern racism can be found among southerners today.
The southern states are the states of the Ku Klux Klan and it has been so all the way back to Reconstruction.
The parties switched. ha ha ha. IQ47 you are so full of shit.
Here is one lady's answer to a question about Democrats and the KKK.
In the late 19th century, Democrat governors and Democrat-controlled state legislatures in the South couldn't pass Jim Crow laws fast enough.
Democrat President Woodrow Wilson? After a screening of D.W. Griffith's paean to the Ku Klux Klan, "Birth of a Nation," Wilson, turned-movie critic, said of the film: "It is like writing history with lightning. And my only regret is that it is all so terribly true."
President Wilson was the president who led our nation into WWI with the ringing declaration that it was to make the world "safe for democracy." In Woodrow's mind, though, "democracy" applied to everyone except those annoying little dark-skinned people in America who are always clamoring for civil rights. In 1913, Wilson introduced segregation into the federal government.
in the '50s, it was Democrat governors and Democrat-controlled state legislatures in the South that placed the Confederate battle flag on their state capitol flags. It's an issue that continues to inflame racial passions even today.
In 1957, Orval Faubus, the governor of Arkansas, called out his state's National Guard to prevent the integration of Central High School in Little Rock. In response, President Dwight D. Eisenhower sent U.S. troops to the city to escort nine frightened black teens into the school past riotous mobs inflamed by Faubus' defiance of a federal court order. Faubus was a Democrat. Eisenhower was a Republican
On June 11, 1963, Alabama Gov. George Wallace stood in the doorway of the University of Alabama to block its integration. Wallace was a Democrat.
Robert Kenedy who in 1964 assisted the FBI's efforts to destroy Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. by approving the wiretapping of the man considered the heart and soul of the civil rights movement
But of late, Democrats are not trying to keep black children out, but in. In public opinion polls on school choice, blacks overwhelmingly favor vouchers to rescue their children from failing schools. No one knows better the damage that poor schools can do to their children's future and communities than blacks. Republicans are in favor of school choice. Democrats aren't.
And Sen. Byrd (D) was not just any old member. No, sir. He was a "grand kleagle" – a recruiter!
