As is relatively obvious, I’m kinda a newbie around here, but I have lurked for a while to get the feel of the place, at least a little bit. Anyway, General Questions… All right, what I want to know is why the Republican Party is referred to as “The Grand Old Party” when, “Grand” notwithstanding, I was taught in more than one American History class that the Republican party started with the abolishonist movement. The Democratic Party, on the other hand, has been around since since good ol’ Thomas Jefferson. Granted, there have been some changes in the idealogy of the party, but the fact remains that the Repbublican party is the younger of the two. So why the “Old” appellation?
“Give a man a fire and he’s warm for a day, but set fire to him and he’s warm for the rest of his life.”
Well, a brief search of the web returned the following from the Republican national commitee web page…
A favorite of headline writers, GOP dates back to the 1870s and ‘80s. The abbreviation was cited in a New York Herald story on October 15, 1884; "’ The G.O.P. Doomed,’ shouted the Boston Post… The Grand Old Party is in condition to inquire…"
But what GOP stands for has changed with the times. In 1875 there was a citation in the Congressional Record referring to “this gallant old party,” and , according to Harper’s Weekly, in the Cincinnati Commercial in 1876 to “Grand Old Party.”
Perhaps the use of “the G.O.M.” for Britain’s Prime Minister William E. Gladstone in 1882 as " the Grand Old Man" stimulated the use of GOP in the United States soon after.
In early motorcar days, GOP took on the term “get out and push.” During the 1964 presidential campaign, “Go-Party” was used briefly, and during the Nixon Administration, frequent references to the “generation of peace” had happy overtones. In line with moves in the '70s to modernize the party, Republican leaders took to referring to the “grand old party,” harkening back to a 1971 speech by President Nixon at the dedication of the Eisenhower Republican Center in Washington, D.C.
Indeed, the “grand old party” is an ironic term, since the Democrat Party was organized some 22 years earlier in 1832.
Plus the GOP had a remarkable string of holding the Presidency: Lincoln, Johnson, Grant, Garfield, Arthur, Hayes. I believe the moniker was granted during these years.
“It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own interest.” - Adam Smith
You know, this has always been a pet peeve of mine (about which I complain regularly to my newspaper-editor buddy).
I would be willing to bet that if you took a poll, something like 75% of the newspaper-reading public doesn’t even know that “GOP” means “Republican.” So when a typical headile screams “GOP Backs Concentration Camps for Elderly,” a casual reader might wonder just what the evil GOP is, but then might happily vote Republican come November.
waterj2 nailed it. Between James Buchanan in 1856 and Woodrow Wilson in 1912, no Democrat besides Grover Cleveland was elected President. Admittely, Cleveland did it twice. By then, however, the Republican party was already considered both “grand” and “old.”
Lincoln’s successor, Andrew Johnson, was technically of the National Union Party, although he was formerly a Democrat. Not only was he not elected President, he came within one vote in the Senate of being impeached.
Actually, Johnson was impeached. He came within one vote of getting convicted. And he was basically a Democrat sympathetic to the post-bellum plight of the South.
I have always wondered whether the GOP was reinforced (both politically and lexically) by the presence of the GAR in the post-Civil War U.S.
The veterans Grand Army of the Republic were a potent political force that the post-WWII AmVets and Legionaires could only envy. They dominated the ranks of the Republican Party. And both groups had a three-letter abbreviation beginning “grand” (at least after “gallant” fell by the wayside).
