The Republican Party in the United States includes several factions, or wings. During the 19th century, Republican factions included the Half-Breeds, who supported civil service reform; the Radical Republicans, who advocated the immediate and total abolition of slavery, and later advocated civil rights for freed slaves during the Reconstruction era; and the Stalwarts, who supported machine politics.
In the 20th century, Republican factions included the Progressive Republicans, the Reagan coalition, and the liberal Rockefeller Republicans.
In the 21st century, Republican factions include conservatives (represented in the House by the Republican Study Committee and the Freedom Caucus), moderates (represented in the House by the Republican Governance Group, Republican Main Street Caucus, and the Republican members of the Problem Solvers Caucus), and libertarians (represented in Congress by the Republican Liberty Caucus). During and after the presidency of Donald Trump, Trumpist and anti-Trumpist factions arose within the Republican Party.
During the presidency of Barack Obama, the Republican Party experienced internal conflict between its governing class (known as the Republican establishment) and the anti-establishment, small-government Tea Party movement. [1] [2] [3] [4] In 2019, during the presidency of Donald Trump, Perry Bacon Jr. of FiveThirtyEight.com asserted that there were five groups of Republicans: Trumpists, Pro-Trumpers, Trump-Skeptical Conservatives, Trump-Skeptical Moderates, and Anti-Trumpers. [5]
In February 2021, following Trump's 2020 loss to Democrat Joe Biden and the 2021 United States Capitol attack, Philip Bump of The Washington Post posited that the Republican Party in the U.S. House of Representatives consisted of three factions: the Trumpists (who voted against the second impeachment of Donald Trump in 2021, voted against stripping Marjorie Taylor Greene of her committee assignments, and supported efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election), the accountability caucus (who supported either the Trump impeachment, the effort to discipline Greene, or both), and the pro-democracy Republicans (who opposed the Trump impeachment and the effort to discipline Greene but also opposed efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election results). [6] Also in February 2021, Carl Leubsdorf of the Dallas Morning News asserted that there were three groups of Republicans: Never Trumpers (including Bill Kristol, Sen. Mitt Romney, and governors Charlie Baker and Larry Hogan), Sometimes Trumpers (including Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley), and Always Trumpers (including Sens. Ted Cruz and Josh Hawley). [7]
In March 2021, one survey indicated that five factions of Republican voters had emerged following Trump's presidency: Never Trump, Post-Trump G.O.P. (voters who liked Trump but did not want him to run for president again), Trump Boosters (voters who approved of Trump, but identified more closely with the Republican Party than with Trump), Die-hard Trumpers, and Infowars G.O.P. (voters who subscribe to conspiracy theories). [8] In November 2021, Pew Research Center identified four Republican-aligned groups of Americans: Faith and Flag Conservatives, Committed Conservatives, the Populist Right, and the Ambivalent Right. [9]
As of 2023, congressional Republicans refer to the various House Republican factions as the Five Families. [10] [11] [12] [13] Derived from The Godfather , the term refers to Mafia crime families. [11] The Five Families consist of "the right-wing House Freedom Caucus, the conservative Republican Study Committee, the business-minded Main Street Caucus, the mainstream Republican Governance Group", and the Republican members of the bipartisan Problem Solvers Caucus. The House Republican factions overlap with one another, and some members belong to no caucus. [12]
The conservative wing grew out of the 1950s and 1960s, with its initial leaders being Senator Robert A. Taft, Russell Kirk, and William F. Buckley Jr. Its central tenets include the promotion of individual liberty and free-market economics and opposition to labor unions, high taxes, and government regulation. [14] The Republican Party has undergone a major decrease in the influence of its establishment conservative faction since the election of Donald Trump in 2016. [15] [16] [17]
In economic policy, conservatives call for a large reduction in government spending, less regulation of the economy, and privatization or changes to Social Security. Supporters of supply-side economics and fiscal conservatives predominate, but there are deficit hawks and protectionists within the party as well. Before 1930, the Northeastern industrialist faction of the GOP was strongly committed to high tariffs, a political stance that returned to popularity in many conservative circles during the Trump presidency. [18] [19] The conservative wing typically supports socially conservative positions, such as supporting gun rights and restrictions on abortion, though there is a wide range of views on such issues within the party. [20]
Conservatives generally oppose affirmative action, support increased military spending, and are opposed to gun control. On the issue of school vouchers, conservative Republicans split between supporters who believe that "big government education" is a failure and opponents who fear greater government control over private and church schools. Parts of the conservative wing have been criticized for being anti-environmentalist [22] [23] [24] and promoting climate change denial [25] [26] [27] in opposition to the general scientific consensus, making them unique even among other worldwide conservative parties. [27]
Long-term shifts in conservative thinking following the election of Trump have been described as a "new fusionism" of traditional conservative ideology and right-wing populist themes. [28] These have resulted in shifts towards greater support of national conservatism, [29] protectionism, [30] cultural conservatism, a more realist foreign policy, skepticism of neoconservatism, reduced efforts to roll back entitlement programs, and a disdain for traditional checks and balances. [28] [31]
Neoconservatives promote an interventionist foreign policy and democracy or American interests abroad. Neoconservatives have been credited with importing into the Republican Party a more active international policy. They are amenable to unilateral military action when they believe it serves a morally valid purpose (such as the spread of democracy or deterrence of human rights abuses abroad). They grounded in a realist philosophy of "peace through strength." [32] [33] [34] [35] Many of its adherents became politically famous during the Republican presidential administrations of the late 20th century, and neoconservatism peaked in influence during the administration of George W. Bush and Dick Cheney during the 2000s, when they played a major role in promoting and planning the 2003 invasion of Iraq. [36]
Prominent neoconservatives in the Bush-Cheney administration included John Bolton, Paul Wolfowitz, Elliott Abrams, Richard Perle, and Paul Bremer. During and after Donald Trump's presidency, neoconservatism has declined and non-interventionism and right-wing populism has grown among elected federal Republican officeholders. [37] [38] However, after Trump took office, some neoconservatives joined his administration, such as John Bolton, Mike Pompeo, Elliott Abrams [39] and Nadia Schadlow.
Neoconservatives' role remains key in foreign policy issues. The Hudson Institute has been described as neoconservative, [40] [41] whose researchers and foreign policy experts have played a key role in Republican administrations since the 2000s. Other organizations associated with this faction include the American Enterprise Institute, [42] the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, [43] [44] [45] the Henry Jackson Society [46] and the Project for the New American Century. [47]
The Christian right is a conservative Christian political faction characterized by strong support of socially conservative and Christian nationalist policies. [48] [49] [50] Christian conservatives seek to use the teachings of Christianity to influence law and public policy. [51]
In the United States, the Christian right is an informal coalition formed around a core of evangelical Protestants and conservative Roman Catholics, as well as a large number of Latter-day Saints (Mormons). [52] [53] [54] [55] The movement has its roots in American politics going back as far as the 1940s and has been especially influential since the 1970s. [56] In the late 20th century, the Christian right became strongly connected to the Republican Party. [57] Republican politicians associated with the Christian right in the 21st century include Tennessee Senator Marsha Blackburn, former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee, and former Senator Rick Santorum. [58] Many within the Christian right have also identified as social conservatives, which sociologist Harry F. Dahms has described as Christian doctrinal conservatives (anti-abortion, anti-LGBT rights) and gun-rights conservatives (pro-NRA) as the two domains of ideology within social conservatism. [59] Christian nationalists generally seek to declare the U.S. a Christian nation, enforce Christian values, and overturn the separation of church and state. [49] [50]
Libertarians make up a relatively small faction of the Republican Party. [60] [61] In the 1950s and 60s, fusionism—the combination of traditionalist and social conservatism with political and economic right-libertarianism—was essential to the movement's growth. [62] This philosophy is most closely associated with Frank Meyer. [63] Barry Goldwater also had a substantial impact on the conservative-libertarian movement of the 1960s. [64]
Libertarian conservatives in the 21st century favor cutting taxes and regulations, repealing the Affordable Care Act, and protecting gun rights. [65] On social issues, they favor privacy, oppose the USA Patriot Act, and oppose the war on drugs. [65] On foreign policy, libertarian conservatives favor non-interventionism. [66] [67] The Republican Liberty Caucus, which describes itself as "the oldest continuously operating organization in the Liberty Republican movement with state charters nationwide", was founded in 1991. [68] The House Liberty Caucus is a congressional caucus formed by former Representative Justin Amash, a former Republican of Michigan who joined the Libertarian Party in 2020 before returning in 2024. [69]
Prominent libertarian conservatives within the Republican Party include New Hampshire Governor Chris Sununu, [70] [71] Senators Mike Lee and Rand Paul, Representative Thomas Massie, former Representative and Governor of South Carolina Mark Sanford, [72] and former Representative Ron Paul [73] (who was a Republican prior to 1987 and again from 1996 to 2015, and a Libertarian from 1987 to 1996 and since 2015). Ron Paul ran for president once as a Libertarian and twice more recently as a Republican.
The libertarian conservative wing of the party had significant cross-over with the Tea Party movement. [74] [75]
Moderate Republicans tend to be conservative-to-moderate on fiscal issues and moderate-to-liberal on social issues, and usually represent swing states or blue states. Moderate Republican voters are typically highly educated, [76] affluent, socially moderate or liberal and often part of the Never Trump movement. [77] Ideologically, such Republicans resemble the conservative liberals of Europe. [78]
While they sometimes share the economic views of other Republicans (i.e. lower taxes, deregulation, and welfare reform), moderate Republicans differ in that some support affirmative action, [79] LGBT rights and same-sex marriage, legal access to and even public funding for abortion, gun control laws, more environmental regulation and action on climate change, fewer restrictions on immigration and a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants, and embryonic stem cell research. [80] [81] In the 21st century, some former Republican moderates have switched to the Democratic Party. [82] [83] [84]
Prominent 21st century moderate Republicans include Senators John McCain of Arizona, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Susan Collins of Maine [85] [86] [87] [88] and several current or former governors of northeastern states, such as Charlie Baker of Massachusetts [89] and Phil Scott of Vermont. [90] Another moderate Republican is incumbent governor of Nevada Joe Lombardo, who was previously the Sheriff of Clark County. [91] Moderate Republican Representatives include Brian Fitzpatrick, Mike Lawler, and David Valadao.[ citation needed ]
One of the most high-ranking moderate Republicans in recent history was Colin Powell as Secretary of State in the first term of the George W. Bush administration (Powell left the Republican Party in January 2021 following the 2021 storming of the United States Capitol, and had endorsed every Democrat for president in the general election since 2008). [92]
The Republican Governance Group is a caucus of moderate Republicans within the House of Representatives. [11]
Sometimes referred to as the MAGA or "America First" movement, [93] [94] Trumpists are the dominant faction in the Republican Party as of 2024. [95] [15] [96] [17] [97] It has been described as consisting of a range of right-wing ideologies including but not limited to right-wing populism, [98] [99] [100] national conservatism, [101] neo-nationalism, [102] and Trumpism, the political movement associated with Donald Trump and his base. [103] [104] They have been described by some commentators, including Joseph Lowndes, James A. Gardner, and Guy-Uriel Charles, as the American political variant of the far-right. [105] [106] [107]
Rachel Kleinfeld, senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, characterizes Trumpism as an authoritarian, antidemocratic movement which has successfully weaponized cultural issues, and that cultivates a narrative placing white people, Christians, and men at the top of a status hierarchy as its response to the so-called "Great Replacement" theory, a claim that minorities, immigrants, and women, enabled by Democrats, Jews, and elites, are displacing white people, Christians, and men from their "rightful" positions in American society. [108] In international relations, Trumpists support U.S. aid to Israel but not to Ukraine, [109] [110] are generally supportive towards Russia, [111] [112] [113] yet claim to favor an isolationist "America First" foreign policy agenda. [114] [115] [116] [117] They generally reject compromise within the party and with Democrats, [118] [119] and are willing to oust fellow Republican office holders they deem to be too moderate. [120] [121] Compared to other Republicans, the Trumpist faction is more likely to be immigration restrictionists, [122] and to be against free trade, [123] neoconservatism, [124] and environmental protection laws. [125]
The Republican Party's Trumpist and far-right movements emerged in occurrence with a global increase in such movements in the 2010s and 2020s, [126] [127] coupled with entrenchment and increased partisanship within the party since 2010, fueled by the rise of the Tea Party movement which has also been described as far-right. [128] The election of Trump in 2016 split the party into pro-Trump and anti-Trump factions. [129] [130]
When conservative columnist George Will advised voters of all ideologies to vote for Democratic candidates in the Senate and House elections of November 2018, [131] political writer Dan McLaughlin at the National Review responded that doing so would make the Trumpist faction even more powerful within the Republican party. [132] Anticipating Trump's defeat in the U.S. presidential election held on November 3, 2020, Peter Feaver wrote in Foreign Policy magazine: "With victory having been so close, the Trumpist faction in the party will be empowered and in no mood to compromise or reform." [133] A poll conducted in February 2021 indicated that a plurality of Republicans (46% versus 27%) would leave the Republican Party to join a new party if Trump chose to create it. [134] Nick Beauchamp, assistant professor of political science at Northeastern University, says he sees the country as divided into four parties, with two factions representing each of the Democratic and Republican parties: "For the GOP, there's the Trump faction—which is the larger group—and the non-Trump faction". [135]
Lilliana Mason, associate professor of political science at Johns Hopkins University, states that Donald Trump solidified the trend among Southern white conservative Democrats since the 1960s of leaving the Democratic Party and joining the Republican Party: "Trump basically worked as a lightning rod to finalize that process of creating the Republican Party as a single entity for defending the high status of white, Christian, rural Americans. It's not a huge percentage of Americans that holds these beliefs, and it's not even the entire Republican Party; it's just about half of it. But the party itself is controlled by this intolerant, very strongly pro-Trump faction." [136]
Julia Azari, an associate professor of political science at Marquette University, noted that not all Trumpist Republicans are public supporters of Donald Trump, and that some Republicans endorse Trump policies while distancing themselves from Trump as a person. [137]
In a speech he gave on November 2, 2022, at Washington's Union Station near the U.S. Capitol, President Biden asserted that "the pro-Trump faction" of the Republican Party is trying to undermine the U.S. electoral system and suppress voting rights. [138] [139]
A divide has formed in the party between those who remain loyal to Donald Trump and those who oppose him. [140] A recent survey concluded that the Republican Party was divided between pro-Trump (the "Trump Boosters," "Die-hard Trumpers," and "Infowars G.O.P." wings) and anti-Trump factions (the "Never Trump" and "Post-Trump G.O.P." wings). [8] Senator John McCain was an early leading critic of Trumpism within the Republican Party, refusing to support the then-Republican presidential nominee in the 2016 presidential election. [141]
Several critics of the Trump faction have faced various forms of retaliation. Representative Liz Cheney was removed from her position as Republican conference chair in the House of Representatives, which was perceived as retaliation for her criticism of Trump; [142] in 2022, she was defeated by a pro-Trump primary challenger. [143] Representative Adam Kinzinger decided to retire at the end of his term, while Murkowski faced a pro-Trump primary challenger in 2022 against Kelly Tshibaka whom she defeated. [144] [145] A primary challenge to Romney had been suggested [146] by Jason Chaffetz, who has criticized his opponents within the Republican Party as "Trump haters". [147] Romney chose not to run for re-election in 2024. [148]
Representative Anthony Gonzalez, one of 10 House Republicans who voted to impeach Trump over the Capitol riot, called him "a cancer" while announcing his retirement. [149] Former Governor of New Jersey Chris Christie, who was running against Trump in the 2024 Republican primaries, called him "a lonely, self-consumed, self-serving, mirror hog" in his presidential announcement. [150] Indiana senator Todd Young is one of few elected Republican senators that has pledged to not support Trump's 2024 campaign. [151]
Organizations associated with this faction include The Lincoln Project, [152] Republican Accountability Project [153] and Republicans for the Rule of Law. [154]
Caucus | Problem Solvers Caucus | Republican Governance Group | Republican Main Street Caucus | Republican Study Committee | Freedom Caucus |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Political position | Center [155] | Center [156] to center-right [157] | Center [158] | Center-right [159] to right-wing [160] | Right-wing [161] to far-right [162] |
2020 | 28 / 213 | 45 / 213 | 0 / 213 | 157 / 213 | 45 / 213 |
2022 [163] | 29 / 222 | 42 / 222 | 67 / 222 | 173 / 222 | 33 / 222 |
The Stalwarts were a traditionalist faction that existed from the 1860s through the 1880s. They represented "traditional" Republicans who favored machine politics and opposed the civil service reforms of Rutherford B. Hayes and the more progressive Half-Breeds. [166] They declined following the elections of Hayes and James A. Garfield. After Garfield's assassination by Charles J. Guiteau, his Stalwart Vice President Chester A. Arthur assumed the presidency. However, rather than pursuing Stalwart goals he took up the reformist cause, which curbed the faction's influence. [167]
The Half-Breeds were a reformist faction of the 1870s and 1880s. The name, which originated with rivals claiming they were only "half" Republicans, came to encompass a wide array of figures who did not all get along with each other. Generally speaking, politicians labeled Half-Breeds were moderates or progressives who opposed the machine politics of the Stalwarts and advanced civil service reforms. [167]
The Radical Republicans were a major factor of the party from its inception in 1854 until the end of the Reconstruction Era in 1877. The Radicals strongly opposed slavery, were hard-line abolitionists, and later advocated equal rights for the freedmen and women. They were often at odds with the moderate and conservative factions of the party. During the American Civil War, Radical Republicans pressed for abolition as a major war aim and they opposed the moderate Reconstruction plans of Abraham Lincoln as too lenient on the Confederates. After the war's end and Lincoln's assassination, the Radicals clashed with Andrew Johnson over Reconstruction policy. [168]
After winning major victories in the 1866 congressional elections, the Radicals took over Reconstruction, pushing through new legislation protecting the civil rights of African Americans. John C. Frémont of Michigan, the party's first nominee for president in 1856, was a Radical Republican. Upset with Lincoln's politics, the faction split from the Republican Party to form the short-lived Radical Democracy Party in 1864 and again nominated Frémont for president. They supported Ulysses S. Grant for president in 1868 and 1872, who worked closely with them to protect African Americans during Reconstruction. As Southern Democrats retook control in the South and enthusiasm for continued Reconstruction declined in the North, their influence within the GOP waned. [168]
Historically, the Republican Party included a progressive wing that advocated using government to improve the problems of modern society. Theodore Roosevelt, an early leader of the progressive movement, advanced a "Square Deal" domestic program as president (1901–09) that was built on the goals of controlling corporations, protecting consumers, and conserving natural resources. [169] After splitting with his successor, William Howard Taft, in the aftermath of the Pinchot–Ballinger controversy, [170] Roosevelt sought to block Taft's re-election, first by challenging him for the 1912 Republican presidential nomination, and then when that failed, by entering the 1912 presidential contest as a third party candidate, running on the Progressive ticket. He succeeded in depriving Taft of a second term, but came in second behind Democrat Woodrow Wilson.
After Roosevelt's 1912 defeat, the progressive wing of the party went into decline. Progressive Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives held a "last stand" protest in December 1923, at the start of the 68th Congress, when they refused to support the Republican Conference nominee for Speaker of the House, Frederick H. Gillett, voting instead for two other candidates. After eight ballots spanning two days, they agreed to support Gillett in exchange for a seat on the House Rules Committee and pledges that subsequent rules changes would be considered. On the ninth ballot, Gillett received 215 votes, a majority of the 414 votes cast, to win the election. [171]
In addition to Theodore Roosevelt, leading early progressive Republicans included Robert M. La Follette, Charles Evans Hughes, Hiram Johnson, William Borah, George W. Norris, William Allen White, Victor Murdock, Clyde M. Reed and Fiorello La Guardia. [172]
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In the 1964 Republican primaries, the John Birch Society (JBS) helped to secure Barry Goldwater’s Republican presidential nomination, defeating Nelson Rockefeller. Original members believed the Republican party was in danger of becoming too moderate. [173] Members of the John Birch Society, known as Birchers, were associated with the radical right, anti-communism, and ultraconservatism. [174] [ page needed ] The John Birch Society was founded in 1958 by businessman Robert W. Welch Jr., and is controversial for its promotion of conspiracy theories. [175]
Moderate or liberal Republicans in the 20th century, particularly those from the Northeast and West Coast, were referred to as "The Eastern Establishment" or "Rockefeller Republicans", after Nelson Rockefeller, Vice President during the Gerald Ford administration. [176] [177] [178]
With their power decreasing in the final decades of the 20th century, many Rockefeller-style Republicans were replaced by conservative and moderate Democrats, such as those from the Blue Dog or New Democrat coalitions. Massachusetts Republican Elliot Richardson (who served in several cabinet positions during the Richard Nixon administration) and writer and academic Michael Lind argued that the liberalism of Democratic President Bill Clinton and the Third Way movement were in many ways to the right of Dwight Eisenhower, Rockefeller, and John Lindsay, Republican Congressman and Mayor of New York City in the late 1960s. [179] [180]
According to historian George H. Nash, the Reagan coalition in the Republican Party, which centered around Ronald Reagan and his administration throughout all of the 1980s (continuing in the late 1980s with the George H. W. Bush administration), originally consisted of five factions: the libertarians, the traditionalists, the anti-communists, the neoconservatives, and the religious right (which consisted of Protestants, Catholics, and some Jewish Republicans). [14] [181]
The Tea Party movement was an American fiscally conservative political movement within the Republican Party that began in 2009 following the election of Barack Obama as President of the United States. [182] [183] Members of the movement have called for lower taxes, and for a reduction of the national debt of the United States and federal budget deficit through decreased government spending. [184] [185] The movement supports small-government principles [186] [187] and opposes government-sponsored universal healthcare. [188] It has been described as a popular constitutional movement. [189]
On matters of foreign policy, the movement largely supports avoiding being drawn into unnecessary conflicts and opposes "liberal internationalism". [190] Its name refers to the Boston Tea Party of December 16, 1773, a watershed event in the launch of the American Revolution. [191] By 2016, Politico said that the modern Tea Party movement was "pretty much dead now"; however, the article noted that it seemed to die in part because some of its ideas had been "co-opted" by the mainstream Republican Party. [192]
Politicians associated with the Tea Party include former Representatives Ron Paul, Michele Bachmann and Allen West, [193] [194] Senators Ted Cruz, Mike Lee, Rand Paul and Tim Scott, [195] [196] [197] former Senator Jim DeMint, [196] former acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney, [198] and 2008 Republican vice presidential nominee and former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin. [194] Although there has never been any one clear founder or leader of the movement, Palin scored highest in a 2010 Washington Post poll asking Tea Party organizers "which national figure best represents your groups?". [199] Ron Paul was described in a 2011 Atlantic article as its "intellectual godfather". [200] Both Paul and Palin, although ideologically different in many ways, had a major influence on the emergence of the movement due to their separate 2008 presidential primary and vice presidential general election runs respectively. [201] [190]
Several political organizations were created in response to the movement's growing popularity in the late 2000s and into the early 2010s, including the Tea Party Patriots, Tea Party Express and Tea Party Caucus.
The Republican Party, also known as the GOP, is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States. It emerged as the main political rival of the then-dominant Democratic Party in the 1850s, and the two parties have dominated American politics since then.
Neoconservatism is a political movement which began in the United States during the 1960s among liberal hawks who became disenchanted with the increasingly pacifist Democratic Party along with the growing New Left and counterculture of the 1960s. Neoconservatives typically advocate the unilateral promotion of democracy and interventionism in international relations together with a militaristic and realist philosophy of "peace through strength". They are known for espousing opposition to communism and radical politics.
American electoral politics have been dominated by successive pairs of major political parties since shortly after the founding of the republic of the United States. Since the 1850s, the two largest political parties have been the Democratic Party and the Republican Party—which together have won every United States presidential election since 1852 and controlled the United States Congress since at least 1856. Despite keeping the same names, the two parties have evolved in terms of ideologies, positions, and support bases over their long lifespans, in response to social, cultural, and economic developments—the Democratic Party being the left-of-center party since the time of the New Deal, and the Republican Party now being the right-of-center party.
The Rockefeller Republicans were members of the United States Republican Party (GOP) in the 1930s–1970s who held moderate-to-liberal views on domestic issues, similar to those of Nelson Rockefeller, Governor of New York (1959–1973) and Vice President of the U.S. (1974–1977). Rockefeller Republicans were most common in the Northeast and the industrial Midwestern states, while they were rare in the South and the West.
Paleolibertarianism is a right-libertarian political activism strategy aimed at uniting libertarians and paleoconservatives. It was developed by American anarcho-capitalist theorists Murray Rothbard and Lew Rockwell in the American political context after the end of the Cold War. From 1989 to 1995, they sought to communicate libertarian notions of opposition to government intervention by using messages accessible to the working class and middle class people of the time. They combined libertarian free market views with the cultural conservatism of paleoconservatism, while also opposing protectionism. The strategy also embraced the paleoconservative reverence for tradition and religion. This approach, usually identified as right-wing populism, was intended to radicalize citizens against the state. The name they chose for this style of activism evoked the roots of modern libertarianism, hence the prefix paleo. That founding movement was American classical liberalism, which shared the anti-war and anti-New Deal sentiments of the Old Right in the first half of the 20th century. Paleolibertarianism is generally seen as a right-wing ideology.
In American politics, a Libertarian Republican is a politician or Republican Party member who has advocated libertarian policies while typically voting for and being involved with the Republican Party.
Conservatism in the United States is based on a belief in individualism, traditionalism, republicanism, and limited federal governmental power in relation to U.S. states. Conservatism is one of two major political ideologies of the United States with the other being liberalism. Conservative and Christian media organizations and American conservative figures are influential, and American conservatism is a large and mainstream ideology in the Republican Party and nation. As of 2021, 36 percent of Americans consider themselves conservative, according to polling by Gallup, Inc.
The Republican Party, also known as the GOP, is one of the two major political parties in the United States. It is the second-oldest extant political party in the United States after its main political rival, the Democratic Party. In 1854, the Republican Party emerged to combat the expansion of slavery into western territories after the passing of the Kansas–Nebraska Act. The early Republican Party consisted of northern Protestants, factory workers, professionals, businessmen, prosperous farmers, and after the Civil War also of former black slaves. The party had very little support from white Southerners at the time, who predominantly backed the Democratic Party in the Solid South, and from Irish and German Catholics, who made up a major Democratic voting block. While both parties adopted pro-business policies in the 19th century, the early GOP was distinguished by its support for the national banking system, the gold standard, railroads, and high tariffs. The party opposed the expansion of slavery before 1861 and led the fight to destroy the Confederate States of America (1861–1865). While the Republican Party had almost no presence in the Southern United States at its inception, it was very successful in the Northern United States, where by 1858 it had enlisted former Whigs and former Free Soil Democrats to form majorities in nearly every Northern state.
The Democratic Party of the United States is a party composed of various factions. The liberal faction supports modern liberalism that began with the New Deal in the 1930s and continued with both the New Frontier and Great Society in the 1960s. The moderate faction supports Third Way politics that includes center-left social policies and centrist fiscal policies. The progressive faction supports progressivism.
American political ideologies conventionally align with the left–right political spectrum, with most Americans identifying as conservative, liberal, or moderate. Contemporary American conservatism includes social conservatism and fiscal conservatism. The former ideology developed as a response to communism and the civil rights movement, while the latter developed as a response to the New Deal. Contemporary American liberalism includes social liberalism and progressivism, developing during the Progressive Era and the Great Depression. Besides conservatism and liberalism, the United States has a notable libertarian movement, developing during the mid-20th century as a revival of classical liberalism. Historical political movements in the United States have been shaped by ideologies as varied as republicanism, populism, separatism, fascism, socialism, monarchism, and nationalism.
The House Liberty Caucus is a congressional caucus consisting of conservative, libertarian, and libertarian conservative members of the United States House of Representatives.
The Tea Party movement was an American fiscally conservative political movement within the Republican Party that began in 2009. The movement formed in opposition to the policies of Democratic President Barack Obama and was a major factor in the 2010 wave election in which Republicans gained 63 House seats and took control of the U.S. House of Representatives.
Justin A. Amash is an American lawyer and politician who served as the U.S. representative for Michigan's 3rd congressional district from 2011 to 2021. He was the second Palestinian American and Syrian American member of Congress. Originally a Republican, Amash became an independent in 2019. He joined the Libertarian Party the following year, leaving Congress in January 2021 as the only Libertarian to serve in Congress. Amash returned to the Republican Party in 2024.
The Tea Party Caucus (TPC) was a congressional caucus of the Republican Party in the United States House of Representatives, consisting of its most conservative members. It was founded in July 2010 by Minnesota Congresswoman Michele Bachmann in coordination with the Tea Party movement the year following the movement's 2009 creation. Bachmann served as the Caucus's first chair.
The Libertarian Party in the United States is composed of various factions, sometimes described as left and right, although many libertarians reject use of these terms to describe the political philosophy.
This timeline of modern American conservatism lists important events, developments and occurrences that have affected conservatism in the United States. With the decline of the conservative wing of the Democratic Party after 1960, the movement is most closely associated with the Republican Party (GOP). Economic conservatives favor less government regulation, lower taxes and weaker labor unions while social conservatives focus on moral issues and neoconservatives focus on democracy worldwide. Conservatives generally distrust the United Nations and Europe and apart from the libertarian wing favor a strong military and give enthusiastic support to Israel.
The Freedom Caucus, also known as the House Freedom Caucus, is a congressional caucus consisting of Republican members of the United States House of Representatives. It is generally considered to be the most conservative and furthest-right bloc within the chamber. The caucus was formed in January 2015 by a group of conservatives and Tea Party movement members, with the aim of pushing the Republican leadership to the right. Its first chairman, Jim Jordan, described the caucus as a "smaller, more cohesive, more agile and more active" group of conservative representatives. Its current chairman, Andy Harris is considered to be a far-right politician due to his radical proposals. Members of the Freedom Caucus are typically considered a part of the MAGA movement and loyalists to Donald Trump.
The Never Trump movement is an ongoing conservative movement that opposes Trumpism and U.S. president-elect Donald Trump. It began as an effort on the part of a group of Republicans and other prominent conservatives to prevent Republican front-runner Trump from obtaining the 2016 Republican Party presidential nomination.
The Libertarian Party Mises Caucus (LPMC) is a caucus within the Libertarian Party in the United States that promotes paleolibertarianism, Fusionism, as well as a more conservative version of American libertarianism associated with the presidential campaigns of former U.S. congressman Ron Paul. It was founded in 2017 by Michael Heise, mainly in opposition to Nicholas Sarwark's position as party chairman and the pragmatic faction of the party associated with the presidential campaigns of former New Mexico Governor Gary Johnson. It is named after economist Ludwig von Mises.
In keeping with the party's deep division between its dominant Trumpist faction and its more traditionalist party elites, the twin responses seem aimed at appealing on one hand to its corporate-friendly allies and on the other hand to its populist rightwing base. Both have an anti-immigrant element.
republican party anti-environmental.
The U.S. Republican Party is an anomaly in denying anthropogenic climate change.
Of all the major conservative parties in the democratic world, the Republican Party stands alone in its denial of the legitimacy of climate science. Indeed, the Republican Party stands alone in its conviction that no national or international response to climate change is needed. To the extent that the party is divided on the issue, the gap separates candidates who openly dismiss climate science as a hoax, and those who, shying away from the political risks of blatant ignorance, instead couch their stance in the alleged impossibility of international action.
The current study establishes that, independent of these influences, voting for Trump was, at least for many Americans, a symbolic defense of the United States' perceived Christian heritage. Data from a national probability sample of Americans surveyed soon after the 2016 election shows that greater adherence to Christian nationalist ideology was a robust predictor of voting for Trump, even after controlling for economic dissatisfaction, sexism, anti-black prejudice, anti-Muslim refugee attitudes, and anti-immigrant sentiment, as well as measures of religion, sociodemographics, and political identity more generally.
More than half of all Christian right candidates attend evangelical Protestant churches, which are more theologically liberal. A relatively large number of Christian Right candidates (24 percent) are Catholics; however, when asked to describe themselves as either "progressive/liberal" or "traditional/conservative" Catholics, 88 percent of these Christian right candidates place themselves in the traditional category.
Most European liberals are Conservative Liberals, located at the right end of the left-right line, exactly opposite the American liberals' position. If transplanted to the United States, they would occupy the Left wing and the center of the Republican Party. Only the less numerous social liberals resemble American liberals.
In this article, we first illustrate that the Republican Party, or at least the dominant wing, which supports or tolerates Donald Trump and his Make America Great Again (MAGA) agenda have become a proto-typical populist radical right-wing party (PRRP).
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: CS1 maint: DOI inactive as of November 2024 (link)In keeping with the party's deep division between its dominant Trumpist faction and its more traditionalist party elites, the twin responses seem aimed at appealing on one hand to its corporate-friendly allies and on the other hand to its populist rightwing base. Both have an anti-immigrant element.
On a practical level, the United Kingdom's withdrawal from the European Union and Trump's election as the United States president are regarded as typical events of neo-nationalism.
Trump unabashedly employed the language of white supremacy and misogyny, rage and even violence at Trump rallies was like nothing seen in decades.
Experts say a variety of factors have led to the GOP's more lenient approach to Moscow, some of which preceded Trump's arrival on the political scene ... Trump's popularity has only encouraged other Republicans to adopt a soft-gloves approach to Russia.
But during his time in office and after, Trump managed to create, from the grassroots up, a Republican constituency for Russia-friendly policy ... Conservatives vying to be the Trumpiest of them all have realized that supporting Russia translates in the Republican mind as a proxy for supporting Trump. Hence the politicians most willing to defend his offenses against democratic norms — Marjorie Taylor Greene, Jim Jordan, Tommy Tuberville, Mike Lee, J. D. Vance — hold the most anti-Ukraine or pro-Russia views. Conversely, the least-Trumpy Republicans, such as Mitch McConnell and Mitt Romney, have the most hawkish views on Russia. The rapid growth of Trump's once-unique pro-Russia stance is a gravitational function of his personality cult.
Contemporary debate is fueled on one side by immigration restrictionists, led by President Donald Trump and other elected republicans, whose rhetorical and policy assaults on undocumented Latin American immigrants, Muslim refugees, and family-based immigration energized their conservative base.
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: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)Rep. Mike Castle (R-Del.), a longtime member and former co-chairman of the Tuesday Group, said lawmakers launched the PAC to help vulnerable centrists as well as liberal-leaning Republicans running for open congressional seats.
Meadows is one of the more active members of the House Freedom Caucus, an invitation-only group of about forty right-wing conservatives that formed at the beginning of this year.
Rep. Mary Miller, a member of the far-right Freedom Caucus, said Trump has vowed to campaign for her ahead of her primary against GOP Rep. Rodney Davis.