# Why is the Republican party called the GOP? And why the elephant?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-the-republican-party-called-the-gop-and-why-the-elephant/819464>\
**Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\
**Created:** [August 12, 2018, 7:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-the-republican-party-called-the-gop-and-why-the-elephant/819464 "2018-08-12T07:01:52Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\
**Post date:** [August 14, 2018, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-the-republican-party-called-the-gop-and-why-the-elephant/819464/21 "2018-08-14T17:01:06Z")

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> [@robby](#):
>
> Nitipick: Goldwater ran against LBJ in **1964**.
> 
> In the next election cycle, LBJ withdrew his bid for re-election in March 1968 prior to the Democratic Convention because of his unpopularity due to the continued escalation of the Vietnam War. The Democratic nominee for the 1968 election was incumbent Vice President Hubert Humphrey, who ultimately ran against (and lost to) Richard Nixon (the Republican nominee).

You are, of course, correct.

It’s not obvious from the length of that post, but it was originally much longer. I decided to edit it down and I now see that when I did so I ended up collapsing two elections together.

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**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\
**Post date:** [August 14, 2018, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-the-republican-party-called-the-gop-and-why-the-elephant/819464/22 "2018-08-14T17:13:50Z")

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> [@senoy](#):
>
> It’s also worth asking how the Democrats became so liberal.

It’s pretty obvious; when the conservative Democrats switched to the Republican party, it shifted the ideological center of each party even if nobody changed their individual ideology. A party made up of moderates and liberals is going to be further to the left on average than a party made up of conservatives, moderates, and liberals. And a party which gets a big influx of conservatives is obviously going to be further to the right on average.

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**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\
**Post date:** [August 14, 2018, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-the-republican-party-called-the-gop-and-why-the-elephant/819464/23 "2018-08-14T19:18:01Z")

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On the RFK Tapes podcast there was an episode in which they said that the LAPD hated Kennedy and that their then-current euphemism for the “N-word” was “Democrats.”

So racial resentment had turned conservative white people against the Democratic Party hard as early as 1968 at least.

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