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Republican Party (United States)
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The Republican Party, commonly referred to as the GOP, is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, the other being its historic rival, the Democratic Party. The party is named after republicanism, the dominant value during the American Revolution and it was founded by anti-slavery activists, modernists, ex-Whigs, and ex-Free Soilers in 1854. The Republicans dominated politics nationally and in the majority of northern States for most of the period between 1860 and 1932, there have been 19 Republican presidents, the most from any one party. The Republican Partys current ideology is American conservatism, which contrasts with the Democrats more progressive platform, further, its platform involves support for free market capitalism, free enterprise, fiscal conservatism, a strong national defense, deregulation, and restrictions on labor unions. In addition to advocating for economic policies, the Republican Party is socially conservative. As of 2017, the GOP is documented as being at its strongest position politically since 1928, in addition to holding the Presidency, the Republicans control the 115th United States Congress, having majorities in both the House of Representatives and the Senate. The party also holds a majority of governorships and state legislatures, the main cause was opposition to the Kansas–Nebraska Act, which repealed the Missouri Compromise by which slavery was kept out of Kansas. The Northern Republicans saw the expansion of slavery as a great evil, the first public meeting of the general anti-Nebraska movement where the name Republican was suggested for a new anti-slavery party was held on March 20,1854, in a schoolhouse in Ripon, Wisconsin. The name was chosen to pay homage to Thomas Jeffersons Republican Party. The first official party convention was held on July 6,1854, in Jackson and it oversaw the preserving of the union, the end of slavery, and the provision of equal rights to all men in the American Civil War and Reconstruction, 1861–1877. The Republicans initial base was in the Northeast and the upper Midwest, with the realignment of parties and voters in the Third Party System, the strong run of John C. Fremont in the 1856 United States presidential election demonstrated it dominated most northern states, early Republican ideology was reflected in the 1856 slogan free labor, free land, free men, which had been coined by Salmon P. Chase, a Senator from Ohio. Free labor referred to the Republican opposition to labor and belief in independent artisans. Free land referred to Republican opposition to the system whereby slaveowners could buy up all the good farm land. The Party strove to contain the expansion of slavery, which would cause the collapse of the slave power, Lincoln, representing the fast-growing western states, won the Republican nomination in 1860 and subsequently won the presidency. The party took on the mission of preserving the Union, and destroying slavery during the American Civil War, in the election of 1864, it united with War Democrats to nominate Lincoln on the National Union Party ticket. The partys success created factionalism within the party in the 1870s and those who felt that Reconstruction had been accomplished and was continued mostly to promote the large-scale corruption tolerated by President Ulysses S. Grant ran Horace Greeley for the presidency. The Stalwarts defended Grant and the system, the Half-Breeds led by Chester A. Arthur pushed for reform of the civil service in 1883
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State legislature (United States)
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A state legislature in the United States is the legislative body of any of the 50 U. S. states. The formal name varies from state to state, in 25 states, the legislature is simply called the Legislature, or the State Legislature, while in 19 states, the legislature is called the General Assembly. In Massachusetts and New Hampshire, the legislature is called the General Court, while North Dakota, every state except Nebraska has a bicameral legislature, meaning that the legislature consists of two separate legislative chambers or houses. In each case the smaller chamber is called the Senate and is referred to as the upper house. This chamber typically, but not always, has the power to confirm appointments made by the governor. Members of the chamber represent more citizens and usually serve for longer terms than members of the larger chamber. In 41 states, the chamber is called the House of Representatives. Five states designate the larger chamber the Assembly and three states call it the House of Delegates, members of the larger chamber usually serve for terms of two years. The larger chamber customarily has the power to initiate taxing legislation. In 1964, the United States Supreme Court announced the one man, one vote standard, Nebraska originally had a bicameral legislature like the other states, but the lower house was abolished following a referendum, effective with the 1936 elections. The remaining unicameral legislature is called the Nebraska Legislature, but its members continue to be called senators, as a legislative branch of government, a legislature generally performs state duties for a state in the same way that the United States Congress performs national duties at the national level. During a legislative session, the legislature considers matters introduced by its members or submitted by the governor, businesses and other special interest organizations often lobby the legislature to obtain beneficial legislation, defeat unfavorably perceived measures, or influence other legislative action. A legislature also approves the operating and capital budgets, which may begin as a legislative proposal or a submission by the governor. Under the terms of Article V of the U. S, under Article II, state legislatures choose the manner of appointing the states presidential electors. Formerly, state legislatures appointed the U. S, Senators from their respective states until the ratification of the 17th Amendment in 1913 required the direct election of Senators by the states voters. Generally, the bodies and their committees use either Masons Manual of Legislative Procedure or an amended form thereof. During official meetings, a parliamentarian is available to ensure that legislation. The lawmaking process begins with the introduction of a bill in either the House of Representatives or the Senate, bills may be introduced in either house, sometimes with the exception of bills increasing or decreasing revenue, which must originate in the House of Representatives
3.
United States
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Forty-eight of the fifty states and the federal district are contiguous and located in North America between Canada and Mexico. The state of Alaska is in the northwest corner of North America, bordered by Canada to the east, the state of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific Ocean. The U. S. territories are scattered about the Pacific Ocean, the geography, climate and wildlife of the country are extremely diverse. At 3.8 million square miles and with over 324 million people, the United States is the worlds third- or fourth-largest country by area, third-largest by land area. It is one of the worlds most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, paleo-Indians migrated from Asia to the North American mainland at least 15,000 years ago. European colonization began in the 16th century, the United States emerged from 13 British colonies along the East Coast. Numerous disputes between Great Britain and the following the Seven Years War led to the American Revolution. On July 4,1776, during the course of the American Revolutionary War, the war ended in 1783 with recognition of the independence of the United States by Great Britain, representing the first successful war of independence against a European power. The current constitution was adopted in 1788, after the Articles of Confederation, the first ten amendments, collectively named the Bill of Rights, were ratified in 1791 and designed to guarantee many fundamental civil liberties. During the second half of the 19th century, the American Civil War led to the end of slavery in the country. By the end of century, the United States extended into the Pacific Ocean. The Spanish–American War and World War I confirmed the status as a global military power. The end of the Cold War and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 left the United States as the sole superpower. The U. S. is a member of the United Nations, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Organization of American States. The United States is a developed country, with the worlds largest economy by nominal GDP. It ranks highly in several measures of performance, including average wage, human development, per capita GDP. While the U. S. economy is considered post-industrial, characterized by the dominance of services and knowledge economy, the United States is a prominent political and cultural force internationally, and a leader in scientific research and technological innovations. In 1507, the German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller produced a map on which he named the lands of the Western Hemisphere America after the Italian explorer and cartographer Amerigo Vespucci
4.
United States dollar
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The United States dollar is the official currency of the United States and its insular territories per the United States Constitution. It is divided into 100 smaller cent units, the circulating paper money consists of Federal Reserve Notes that are denominated in United States dollars. The U. S. dollar was originally commodity money of silver as enacted by the Coinage Act of 1792 which determined the dollar to be 371 4/16 grain pure or 416 grain standard silver, the currency most used in international transactions, it is the worlds primary reserve currency. Several countries use it as their currency, and in many others it is the de facto currency. Besides the United States, it is used as the sole currency in two British Overseas Territories in the Caribbean, the British Virgin Islands and Turks and Caicos Islands. A few countries use the Federal Reserve Notes for paper money, while the country mints its own coins, or also accepts U. S. coins that can be used as payment in U. S. dollars. After Nixon shock of 1971, USD became fiat currency, Article I, Section 8 of the U. S. Constitution provides that the Congress has the power To coin money, laws implementing this power are currently codified at 31 U. S. C. Section 5112 prescribes the forms in which the United States dollars should be issued and these coins are both designated in Section 5112 as legal tender in payment of debts. The Sacagawea dollar is one example of the copper alloy dollar, the pure silver dollar is known as the American Silver Eagle. Section 5112 also provides for the minting and issuance of other coins and these other coins are more fully described in Coins of the United States dollar. The Constitution provides that a regular Statement and Account of the Receipts and that provision of the Constitution is made specific by Section 331 of Title 31 of the United States Code. The sums of money reported in the Statements are currently being expressed in U. S. dollars, the U. S. dollar may therefore be described as the unit of account of the United States. The word dollar is one of the words in the first paragraph of Section 9 of Article I of the Constitution, there, dollars is a reference to the Spanish milled dollar, a coin that had a monetary value of 8 Spanish units of currency, or reales. In 1792 the U. S. Congress passed a Coinage Act, Section 20 of the act provided, That the money of account of the United States shall be expressed in dollars, or units. And that all accounts in the offices and all proceedings in the courts of the United States shall be kept and had in conformity to this regulation. In other words, this act designated the United States dollar as the unit of currency of the United States, unlike the Spanish milled dollar the U. S. dollar is based upon a decimal system of values. Both one-dollar coins and notes are produced today, although the form is significantly more common
5.
Democratic Party (United States)
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The Democratic Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The Democrats dominant worldview was once socially conservative and fiscally classical liberalism, while, especially in the rural South, since Franklin D. Roosevelt and his New Deal coalition in the 1930s, the Democratic Party has also promoted a social-liberal platform, supporting social justice. Today, the House Democratic caucus is composed mostly of progressives and centrists, the partys philosophy of modern liberalism advocates social and economic equality, along with the welfare state. It seeks to provide government intervention and regulation in the economy, the party has united with smaller left-wing regional parties throughout the country, such as the Farmer–Labor Party in Minnesota and the Nonpartisan League in North Dakota. Well into the 20th century, the party had conservative pro-business, the New Deal Coalition of 1932–1964 attracted strong support from voters of recent European extraction—many of whom were Catholics based in the cities. After Franklin D. Roosevelts New Deal of the 1930s, the pro-business wing withered outside the South, after the racial turmoil of the 1960s, most southern whites and many northern Catholics moved into the Republican Party at the presidential level. The once-powerful labor union element became smaller and less supportive after the 1970s, white Evangelicals and Southerners became heavily Republican at the state and local level in the 1990s. However, African Americans became a major Democratic element after 1964, after 2000, Hispanic and Latino Americans, Asian Americans, the LGBT community, single women and professional women moved towards the party as well. The Northeast and the West Coast became Democratic strongholds by 1990 after the Republicans stopped appealing to socially liberal voters there, overall, the Democratic Party has retained a membership lead over its major rival the Republican Party. The most recent was the 44th president Barack Obama, who held the office from 2009 to 2017, in the 115th Congress, following the 2016 elections, Democrats are the opposition party, holding a minority of seats in both the House of Representatives and the Senate. The party also holds a minority of governorships, and state legislatures, though they do control the mayoralty of cities such as New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston, and Washington, D. C. The Democratic Party traces its origins to the inspiration of the Democratic-Republican Party, founded by Thomas Jefferson, James Madison and that party also inspired the Whigs and modern Republicans. Organizationally, the modern Democratic Party truly arose in the 1830s, since the nomination of William Jennings Bryan in 1896, the party has generally positioned itself to the left of the Republican Party on economic issues. They have been liberal on civil rights issues since 1948. On foreign policy both parties changed position several times and that party, the Democratic-Republican Party, came to power in the election of 1800. After the War of 1812 the Federalists virtually disappeared and the national political party left was the Democratic-Republicans. The Democratic-Republican party still had its own factions, however. As Norton explains the transformation in 1828, Jacksonians believed the peoples will had finally prevailed, through a lavishly financed coalition of state parties, political leaders, and newspaper editors, a popular movement had elected the president
6.
Ed Gillespie
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Gillespie, along with Democrat Jack Quinn, founded Quinn Gillespie & Associates, a bipartisan lobbying firm. Gillespie is also the founder of Ed Gillespie Strategies, a consulting firm that provides high-level advice to companies and CEOs, coalitions. In January 2014, Gillespie announced he was running for Virginias U. S. Senate seat held by Mark Warner, in the 2014 general election, Gillespie ended up narrowly losing to Warner. In October 2015, Gillespie announced his plans to run for Governor of Virginia in 2017, Gillespie was born August 1,1961, in the Mount Holly Township, and raised in the Browns Mills section of Pemberton Township, New Jersey. He is the son of Conny and Sean Patrick Gillespie, an immigrant from Ireland who grew up in North Philadelphia and he is a graduate of The Catholic University of America in Washington, D. C and Pemberton Township High School. While at CUA he began his career on Capitol Hill as a Senate parking lot attendant and he is married to Cathy Gillespie and has three children, John, Carrie, and Mollie. Gillespie, raised in a Democratic family, began his career as intern for Andy Ireland. In 1984, Ireland joined the Republican party with Gillespie following, saying, I liked President Reagans approach to governing and he then worked as telephone solicitor for the Republican National Committee in 1985. He then worked for a decade as a top aide to former House Majority Leader Dick Armey, and was a principal drafter of the GOPs 1994 Contract With America. In 1996 he served as director for the RNC, and in 1997 he joined the lobbying firm, Barbour, Griffith & Rogers. In 1999, Gillespie worked as the Press Secretary for the Presidential campaign of John Kasich until his withdrawal from the race and he also played an aggressive role as spokesman for the Bush campaign during the vote recount in Florida. In 2002, he was a strategist for Elizabeth Doles 2002 Senate campaign, by the end of 2002 Quinn Gillespie & Associates had received $27.4 million in lobbying fees. In 2003, Gillespie was selected as Chairman of the RNC, serving in that role through the 2004 elections that saw President Bush win re-election and Republicans retain control of the House and his book Winning Right was released in September 2006. Gillespie served as Chairman of the Republican Party of Virginia from December 2006 to June 2007, in the 2006 Virginia Senate elections he served as spokesman for defeated Virginia Senator George Allen. He had been tapped by Allen as an adviser for a possible presidential run in 2008 before that loss. In February 2009, Virginia Attorney General Bob McDonnell announced that Gillespie would serve as General Chairman of his campaign for Governor, Gillespie has served as an adviser to American Crossroads. When Karl Rove also departed in August, the Washington Post described Gillespie as stepping up to do part of Karl Roves job in the White House. When critics assailed Bush for overstating ties between al-Qaeda and the group called al-Qaeda in Iraq, Gillespie organized a Bush speech to make his case, the whole idea is to take these things on before they become conventional wisdom, said White House communications director Kevin Sullivan
7.
Mike Hubbard (politician)
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Mike Hubbard is a convicted felon who was a Republican former member of the Alabama House of Representatives, representing the 79th district in Lee County. He was first elected in 1998 and previously served as Speaker of the Alabama House of Representatives, before that, he was House Minority Leader six years and was twice chairman of the Alabama Republican Party. On June 10,2016, he was guilty of violating 12 of 23 ethics charges. He had earlier championed Ethics Law changes in Alabama, and was convicted of violating the laws he helped pass, as the Alabama GOP chairman, he created and headed Campaign 2010, the most comprehensive fund-raising and coordinated campaign plan in the Partys history. Hubbard is a broadcaster and businessman in Auburn, Alabama and his company, Auburn Network, owns and operates four radio stations in the Auburn/Opelika market and publishes a quarterly magazine, East Alabama Living. It also operates an advertising agency, Network Creative Media and his company sold the multi-media rights to Auburn University athletics to International Sports Properties in 2003, which merged with IMGs college sports marketing/broadcasting group in 2010. Hubbard was senior class president in his Hartwell, Georgia high school, during high school, Hubbard beat Ralph E. Reed, Jr. to become the Georgia state champion in the Voice of Democracy speech contest. Hubbard went to the University of Georgia on a journalism scholarship, after graduating, Hubbard got a job in the Auburn University athletic department and led a successful public relations campaign for Bo Jackson’s 1985 Heisman. Hubbard left Auburn and started a new company, which then won exclusive broadcast rights for all Auburn Tigers sports, prior to forming Auburn Network in 1994, he served as general manager of Host Communications, and associate sports information director for Auburn University. In 1996, Patrick Nix, recommended that Hubbard apply his public relations expertise to Bob Riley’s congressional campaign. Riley won and, in gratitude, invited Hubbard to attend the ceremony in the Alabama State Capitol. In 1998, Bill Canary provided polling during Hubbards first election campaign, Hubbard won, taking a seat in the Alabama House of Representatives representing much of Lee County, Alabama. In 2002, Riley won the Alabama gubernatorial election, and gave Hubbard the leadership of the Alabama Republican Party, Hubbard would later name his youngest son Riley. As leader of the states Republican party, Hubbard became a member of the Republican National Committee, federal prosecutors had been securing felony convictions against leaders of the Alabama Democratic Party at all levels, from Mayor Larry Langford to Governor Don Siegelman. Republicans won in a landslide, with Robert J. Bentley succeeding Governor Riley, the law was later declared unconstitutional by federal courts. Hubbard also passed a voter ID law, and then shut down drivers license offices in the state’s poorest counties. In 2012, he authored a book about the 2010 Republican takeover in Alabama entitled Storming The State House, Hubbard paid David Azbell $96,000 in public funds to help write the book. Instead of reconciling the texts of the measures, Hubbard sent it to a subcommittee
8.
Jack Abramoff
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Jack Allan Abramoff is a former American lobbyist, businessman, movie producer and writer. Representative Bob Ney, and nine other lobbyists and Congressional aides, from 1994 to 2001 he was a top lobbyist for the firm of Preston Gates & Ellis, and then for Greenberg Traurig until March 2004. He served 43 months before being released on December 3,2010, Jack Abramoff was born in Atlantic City, New Jersey, into a Jewish family. His parents were Jane and Franklin Abramoff, who was president of the Franchises unit of Diners Club credit card company, Abramoffs family moved to Beverly Hills, California, when he was ten, and there he attended Beverly Hills High School. In high school, he played football and became a weight-lifting champion, after seeing the film version of Fiddler on the Roof at age twelve, Abramoff decided to practice Orthodox Judaism. He graduated with a B. A. in English in 1981, taking six years to finish his degree, according to Nina Easton, Abramoff gained much of his credibility in the conservative movement through his father, Franklin Abramoff. As president of Diners Club International, Abramoffs father worked closely with Alfred S. Bloomingdale, after graduating from Brandeis, Abramoff ran for election as chairman of the College Republican National Committee. After a campaign which cost over $11,000 and was managed by Grover Norquist, Abramoff won the election after the chief competitor, Abramoff changed the direction of the committee and made it more activist and conservative than ever before, notes the CRNC. It is not our job to seek peaceful coexistence with the Left and our job is to remove them from power permanently. Norquist served as director of the committee under Abramoff. He later recruited Ralph Reed, a president of the University of Georgia College Republicans chapter. According to Reeds book Active Faith, Reed also introduced Abramoff to his future wife, as chair of the CRNC, Ambramoff addressed the 1984 Republican National Convention in Dallas, Texas. Some of those relationships were at the core of the federal investigation, at the CRNC, Abramoff, Norquist and Reed formed what was known as the Abramoff-Norquist-Reed triumvirate. After Abramoffs election, the trio purged dissidents and re-wrote the CRNCs bylaws to consolidate their control over the organization, according to Eastons Gang of Five, Reed was the hatchet man and carried out Abramoff-Norquist orders with ruthless efficiency, not bothering to hide his fingerprints. In 1985, Abramoff joined Citizens for America, a group that helped Oliver North build support for the Nicaraguan Contras. Citizens for America staged a meeting of anti-Communist rebel leaders known as the Democratic International in Jamba. This conference included leaders of the Mujahedeen from Afghanistan, UNITA from Angola, the Contras, out of this largely ceremonial conference came the International Freedom Foundation. Abramoff helped to organize, and also attended the conference, Abramoffs membership ended on a sour note when Citizens for Americas sponsor Lewis Lehrman, a former New York gubernatorial candidate, concluded that Abramoff had spent his money carelessly
9.
United States elections, 2014
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The 2014 United States elections were held on Tuesday, November 4,2014, in the middle of Democratic President Barack Obamas second term. This midterm election became the most expensive in history, with total spending reaching $3.7 billion, the elections saw sweeping gains by the Republican Party in the Senate, House, and in numerous gubernatorial, state, and local races. The Republicans gained control of the Senate for the first time since 2006, the Republicans also gained two seats in governors races. Moreover, Republicans gained their largest majority in the House since 1928, the largest majority in Congress overall since 1928, political scientist Gary C. Jacobson argues that the voters treated the election as a referendum on the economy and especially on Obama’s presidency. The result was the most partisan, nationalized, and president-centered midterm election in at least 60 years, the 2014 election lacked a dominant national theme, with no single issue rising above all others. Some of the issues of the election included income inequality, the effects of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. Another potentially important issue, net neutrality, received attention during the campaign. According to political commentator Stuart Rothenberg prior to the election, foreign policy crises in the Middle East, Ukraine, the states with the highest turnout that had no Senate or gubernatorial race that year were North Dakota and Washington state. The states with the lowest turnout were Indiana, Texas, Utah, Tennessee, New York, Mississippi, Oklahoma, New Jersey and West Virginia and Nevada. Indiana and Utah had no Senate or gubernatorial elections and the others all had races for at least one of the posts, according to CNN Young Americans aged between 18-29 accounted for 13%, down from 19% in the presidential election two years before. With a final total of 247 seats in the House and 54 seats in the Senate, all 33 seats in Senate Class II were up for election. Additionally, three elections were held to fill vacancies in Class III. The race in Louisiana headed to a run-off on December 6,2014, all 435 voting seats in the United States House of Representatives were up for election. Elections were held to select the delegates for the District of Columbia, the only seat in the House not up for election was the Resident Commissioner of Puerto Rico, who serves a four-year term. The Republican party won 247 seats and the Democratic Party,188 seats, thus, the Republicans gained their largest majority in the House since 1928. On March 11, there was an election for Floridas 13th congressional district. Elections were held for the governorships of 36 U. S. states, the Republican Party won 24 of the 36 state governorships, with the Democratic Party losing a total of three seats, and an independent candidate winning one. This marked the first time an incumbent Governor running for re-election in Pennsylvania lost in the modern era, the final total, as a result, was 31 Republican governors,18 Democratic governors, and one Independent governor
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History of the United States Republican Party
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The Republican Party, also commonly called the GOP, is one of the worlds oldest extant political parties. It is the second oldest existing political party in the United States after its primary rival, the Democratic Party. The Party had almost no presence in the Southern United States, with its election of Abraham Lincoln in 1860, and its success in guiding the Union to victory and abolishing slavery, the party came to dominate the national political scene until 1932. The Republican Party was based on northern white Protestants, businessmen, small business owners, professionals, factory workers, farmers and it was pro-business, supporting banks, the gold standard, railroads, and high tariffs to protect factory workers and grow industry faster. Under William McKinley and Theodore Roosevelt, it emphasized a foreign policy. The GOP lost its majorities during the Great Depression, instead, the Democrats under Franklin D. Roosevelt formed a winning New Deal coalition, which was dominant from 1932 through 1964. That coalition collapsed in the mid-1960s, partly because of white Southern Democrats disaffection with passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Republicans won five of the six presidential elections from 1968 to 1988, with Ronald Reagan as the partys iconic conservative hero. The GOP expanded its base throughout the South after 1968, largely due to its strength among socially conservative white Evangelical Protestants and traditionalist Roman Catholics. The Republican Partys transforming leader by 1980 was Reagan, whose conservative policies called for reduced government spending and regulation, lower taxes, and his influence upon the party persists, as nearly every GOP speaker still reveres him. This includes current US President Donald Trump, who utilized his own version of Reagans Make America Great Again slogan during the 2016 US Election. Social scientists Theodore Caplow et al. argue, The Republican party, nationally, moved from right-center toward the center in the 1940s and 1950s, then moved right again in the 1970s and 1980s. The Republican party began as a coalition of anti-slavery Conscience Whigs and Free Soil Democrats opposed to the Kansas–Nebraska Act and 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 Democrats, in the North, the old Whig Party was almost defunct. The opponents were motivated and began forming a new party. The new party went well beyond the issue of slavery in the territories and it envisioned modernizing the United States—emphasizing giving free western land to farmers as opposed to letting slave owners buy up the best lands, expanded banking, more railroads, and factories. They vigorously argued that free labor was superior to slavery. The Republicans absorbed the traditions of its members, most of whom had been Whigs. Many Democrats who joined were rewarded with governorships, or seats in the U. S. Senate, or House of Representatives
11.
Political party strength in U.S. states
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Conversely, the New England states of Vermont, Maine, and New Hampshire were dominated by the Republican Party, as were some Midwestern states like Iowa and North Dakota. However, in the 1970s and 1980s, the increasingly conservative Republican Party gradually overtook the Democrats in the southeast, the Democrats support in the formerly Solid South had been eroded during the vast cultural, political and economic upheaval that surrounded the 1960s. Currently, the majority of the number of seats held in the state legislatures has been switching between the two parties every few years. As of the U. S. However, an earlier 2013 Gallup survey found that 42% of Americans identified as political independents, a record high. The latter result is more in line with Gallup polling in 2010 that found that 31% of Americans identified as Democrats, 29% as Republicans, nevertheless, more American independents leaned to the Republican Party when compared to the Democratic Party. Combining leaners with each partys core identifiers, the parties ended up tied at 45 percent in 2011. Previously, Gallup observed that the greatest movement away from the Democratic Party came between 2009 and 2010, when the number of states with a Democratic advantage fell from 34 to 23. At the time, Gallup concluded that President Obama faces a much less favorable environment as he seeks a second term in office than he did when he was elected president, there have been less significant partisan shifts among the U. S. states since 2011. Another metric to measure how much a state leans towards one party or the other is the Cook Partisan Voting Index. PVIs for the states over the period 1994–2014 can be used to show the trends of U. S. states towards, or away from, the following table shows all the U. S. states and to what party their state governors belong. Also indicated is the majority party of the legislatures upper and lower houses as well as U. S. Senate representation. Nebraskas legislature is unicameral, i. e. it has one legislative house and is officially non-partisan. The simplest measure of the party strength in a voting population is the breakdown-by-party totals from its voter registration figures. The partisan breakdown demographics provided in the table are obtained from that states party registration figures where indicated. Only Wyoming has a majority of registered voters identifying themselves as Republicans, for those states that do not allow for registration by party, Gallups annual polling of voter party identification by state is the next best metric of party strength in the U. S. states. The partisan figures in the table below for the 22 states that dont register voters by party come from Gallups 2014 polling of voter party identification by state, independent usually caucusing with different party. While the Nebraska Legislature is technically non-partisan the majority of the Senators are Republican, indicated partisan breakdown numbers are from the registration-by-party figures from that states registered voter statistics. Indicated partisan breakdown numbers are from the Party Identification by State figures for 2014 from Gallup polling, the Washington State and New York State Senates currently operate under a coalition between majority Republicans and independent Democrats
12.
Republican Governors Association
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The Republican Governors Association is a Washington, D. C. -based 527 organization founded in 1963, consisting of U. S. state and territorial Republican governors. In 2017 the RGA chairman is Governor Scott Walker of Wisconsin and its Democratic Party counterpart is the Democratic Governors Association. The RGA is not directly affiliated with the non-partisan National Governors Association, in addition to governors of U. S. states, the RGA also offers membership to Republican governors of U. S. territories. In the 18 months ending June 30,2010, the RGA raised $58 million, RGA Official Website Contributors and Expenditures at OpenSecrets. org
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RealClearPolitics
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RealClearPolitics is a Chicago-based political news and polling data aggregator formed in 2000 by former options trader John McIntyre and former advertising agency account executive Tom Bevan. The site features selected political news stories and op-eds from various publications in addition to commentary from its own contributors. Though their own political views lean conservative, the sites founders say their goal is to give readers ideological diversity in its commentary section, RCP has expanded to include a number of sister sites. Politico founder Jim VandeHei has called the site an essential stop for anyone interested in politics, the site is especially noted for its aggregation of polling data during election seasons, which is frequently cited by various media organizations that cover political issues. The web site was founded in 2000 by McIntyre, a trader at the Chicago Board Options Exchange, and Bevan. McIntyre explained it really wasnt any more complicated than there should be a place online that pulled together all this quality information and they call what they do intelligent aggregation. The site has grown in election-season spurts since it first went online and it has expanded from a two-man operation to a full-time staff of more than two-dozen employees overseeing the companys mainstay, RealClearPolitics, as well as ten smaller sites. In an interview with the Chicago Tribune, McIntyre said, Were trying to pull together the best political stories, op-eds, news analyses, the proliferation of content is enormous. Part of what were trying to do is distill it in a clear and he told the Chicago Sun-Times that RealClearPolitics strives to feature serious intellectual pieces and that theyre not looking for the over-the-top, vitriolic, red-meat craziness on either side. Patrick Stack of Time magazine has described the commentary section as right-leaning. The site has been described as being run by conservatives, in 2009 RealClearPolitics was described as a weblog in the conservative pantheon by Richard Davis. In an interview with the conservative magazine Human Events, McIntyre described the philosophy behind the Web site as based on freedom, said Bevan, We think debate on the issues is a very important thing. We post a variety of opinions and he further stated, we have a frustration all conservatives have, which is the bias in media against conservatives, religious conservatives, Christian conservatives. In a 2001 article for Princeton Alumni Weekly, which noted that The articles selected invariably demonstrate McIntyre and Bevans political bent, updated continuously, RealClearPolitics websites aggregate content from a wide range of sources, sources that run the gamut of locations and political persuasions. McIntyres purported objective is to give readers ideological diversity, were trying to stay immersed in the nations political bloodstream at all times. That way, we can show you every small, little twist and turn, forbes Media LLC bought a 51% equity interest in the site in 2007. On May 19,2015, it was announced that RealClearInvestors, RealClearInvestors and Crest Media own RealClearPolitics. RealClearPolitics also owns RealClearMarkets, RealClearWorld, and RealClearSports, RealClearMarkets and RealClearSports were launched in November 2007
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Internet Assigned Numbers Authority
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Following ICANNs transition to a global multistakeholder governance model, the IANA functions were transferred to Public Technical Identifiers, an affiliate of ICANN. In addition, five regional Internet registries delegate number resources to their customers, local Internet registries, Internet service providers, a local Internet registry is an organization that assigns parts of its allocation from a regional Internet registry to other customers. Most local Internet registries are also Internet service providers, IANA is broadly responsible for the allocation of globally unique names and numbers that are used in Internet protocols that are published as Request for Comments documents. These documents describe methods, behaviors, research, or innovations applicable to the working of the Internet, IANA maintains a close liaison with the Internet Engineering Task Force and RFC Editorial team in fulfilling this function. IANA is responsible for assignment of Internet numbers which are numerical identifier assigned to an Internet resource or used in the protocols of the Internet Protocol Suite. Examples include IP addresses and autonomous system numbers, IANA delegates allocations of IP address blocks to regional Internet registries. Each RIR allocates addresses for a different area of the world, collectively the RIRs have created the Number Resource Organization formed as a body to represent their collective interests and ensure that policy statements are coordinated globally. The RIRs divide their allocated address pools into smaller blocks and delegate them to Internet service providers, since the exhaustion of the Internet Protocol Version 4 address space, no further IPv4 address space is allocated by IANA. IANA administers the data in the root nameservers, which form the top of the hierarchical Domain name system tree and this task involves liaising with top-level domain operators, the root nameserver operators, and ICANNs policy making apparatus. IANA administers many parameters of IETF protocols, examples include the names of uniform resource identifier schemes and character encodings recommended for use on the Internet. This task is performed under the oversight of the Internet Architecture Board, on March 26,1972, Vint Cerf and Jon Postel at UCLA called for establishing a socket number catalog in RFC322. Network administrators were asked to submit a note or place a call, describing the function. This catalog was published as RFC433 in December 1972. In it Postel first proposed a registry of assignments of port numbers to network services, calling himself the czar of socket numbers. The first reference to the name IANA in the RFC series is in RFC1083, published in December,1988 by Postel at USC-ISI, there was widespread dissatisfaction with this concentration of power in one company, and people looked to IANA for a solution. Postel wrote up a draft on IANA and the creation of new top level domains and he was trying to institutionalize IANA. In retrospect, this would have been valuable, since he died about two years later. Jon Postel managed the IANA function from its inception on the ARPANET until his death in October 1998, by his almost 30 years of selfless service, Postel created his de facto authority to manage key parts of the Internet infrastructure
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Twitter
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Twitter is an online news and social networking service where users post and interact with messages, tweets, restricted to 140 characters. Registered users can post tweets, but those who are unregistered can only read them, users access Twitter through its website interface, SMS or a mobile device app. Twitter Inc. is based in San Francisco, California, United States, Twitter was created in March 2006 by Jack Dorsey, Noah Glass, Biz Stone, and Evan Williams and launched in July. The service rapidly gained worldwide popularity, in 2012, more than 100 million users posted 340 million tweets a day, and the service handled an average of 1.6 billion search queries per day. In 2013, it was one of the ten most-visited websites and has described as the SMS of the Internet. As of 2016, Twitter had more than 319 million monthly active users. On the day of the 2016 U. S. presidential election, Twitter proved to be the largest source of breaking news, Twitters origins lie in a daylong brainstorming session held by board members of the podcasting company Odeo. Jack Dorsey, then a student at New York University. The original project name for the service was twttr, an idea that Williams later ascribed to Noah Glass, inspired by Flickr. The developers initially considered 10958 as a code, but later changed it to 40404 for ease of use. Work on the project started on March 21,2006, when Dorsey published the first Twitter message at 9,50 PM Pacific Standard Time, Dorsey has explained the origin of the Twitter title. we came across the word twitter, and it was just perfect. The definition was a short burst of inconsequential information, and chirps from birds, and thats exactly what the product was. The first Twitter prototype, developed by Dorsey and contractor Florian Weber, was used as a service for Odeo employees. Williams fired Glass, who was silent about his part in Twitters startup until 2011, Twitter spun off into its own company in April 2007. Williams provided insight into the ambiguity that defined this early period in a 2013 interview, With Twitter and they called it a social network, they called it microblogging, but it was hard to define, because it didnt replace anything. There was this path of discovery with something like that, where over time you figure out what it is, Twitter actually changed from what we thought it was in the beginning, which we described as status updates and a social utility. It is that, in part, but the insight we eventually came to was Twitter was really more of an information network than it is a social network, the tipping point for Twitters popularity was the 2007 South by Southwest Interactive conference. During the event, Twitter usage increased from 20,000 tweets per day to 60,000, the Twitter people cleverly placed two 60-inch plasma screens in the conference hallways, exclusively streaming Twitter messages, remarked Newsweeks Steven Levy
