The Republicans

In the wake of an election seen by many as a triumphant victory for “moral values,” political commentator and one-time seminarian Bill Press launches a counteroffensive against the so-called religious right. For decades, Press argues, conservative preachers such as Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson, and James Dobson—joined by most Catholic bishops—have defined religion so narrowly that Democrats and liberals have been pushed outside the fold. According to their narrow gospel, God put George Bush in the White House to deal with gays, guns, and abortion—and those who don’t agree are on the sure road to hell. Bill Press says it’s time to take religion back: “Who gave this gang the inside track on religion, anyway? The way I read the Gospels, Jesus was as liberal as Paul Wellstone. He sure as hell wouldn’t have been a registered Republican. One other thing’s for sure: if Jesus ever came back to earth, there’s one gang he wouldn’t hang out with; and that’s this phony bunch of pious, puffed-up preachers who wear religion on their sleeves.” How the Republicans Stole Christmas is also Press’s fervent call to Democrats and liberals to reclaim religion and return it to its basic principles of social justice, charity, and tolerance. Press argues that the Right didn’t just steal religion, the Left let them have it, offering no resistance as conservatives dictated what’s right and what’s wrong. But on today’s social issues, according to Press, religious conservatives have gotten it all wrong. They have turned Jesus from a loving Messiah who championed the poor and dispossessed into a cold-blooded advocate for the rich and powerful. Press does not confine his criticisms to so-called Christian leaders; he uncovers the same wrong-headed tendencies in other faiths and among nonbelievers, who even today cling to the Old Testament as an appropriate code of behavior.

The book is a lucid and fast-paced overview of the Republican party from its beginnings in the 1850s through the 1994 congressional elections, which saw the Democratic domination of the House and Senate come to an abrupt end.

Lewis L. Gould's 2003 history of the Republican Party was a fast-paced account of Republican fortunes. The Republicans won praise for its even-handed, incisive analysis of Republican history, drawing on Gould's deep knowledge of the evolution of national political history and acute feel for the interplay of personalities and ideology. In this revised and updated edition, Gould extends this history, adding a new chapter on the George W. Bush presidency, the election of 2008, and the response of the Grand Old Party to Barack Obama. His narrative covers such contemporary figures as Newt Gingrich, Sarah Palin, and John McCain, as well as forgotten Republican leaders including James G. Blaine, Mark Hanna, Wendell Willkie, and Robert A. Taft. Contending that the historic Republican skepticism about the legitimacy of the Democratic Party has shaped American politics since the Civil War, Gould argues that the persistent flaw in the relations between the two parties has led the nation to the current crisis of stalemate and partisan bitterness. No other account of Republican history is as up-to-date, crammed with fascinating information, and ready to serve as an informed guide to today's partisan warfare. Lay readers and political junkies alike seeking the best book on Republican history will find what they are looking for in Gould's comprehensive volume.

This highly readable narrative history of the Republican Party profiles the G.O.P. from its emergence as an antislavery party during the 1850s to its current place as champion of political conservatism.

This is the first book that explains the Tea Party’s successful “primary” campaign against Republicans in Name Only (RINOs). Grassroots Tea Party activists adopted this strategy in 2009 shortly after the movement emerged. The first successful campaign occurred in upstate New York where the Tea Party defeated Dede Scozzafava, a RINO running for congress in a Republican primary that only elected Republicans to office during the previous 100 years. Armed with success, they defeated “conservative” Utah Senator Bob Bennett an eighteen-year veteran and then proceeded to defeat the popular Republican (RINO) governor of Florida Charlie Crist and elected the virtually unknown Tea Party candidate, Marco Rubio. This placed all Republicans on notice that if they do not follow conservative fiscal policies, they could be “primaried.” The Tea Party’s goal is to take control of the Republican Party and return it to its original, fiscal conservatism.

Traces the origins of the Republican Party, discussing key figures, conventions, platforms, and its organization.

Few scholars have paid close attention to the factors internal to the Republican Party that helped the Right to consolidate its power within the party between the 1960s and the 1980s. Plugging the gap in party literature, The Rise of the Republican Right: From Goldwater to Reagan provides a comprehensive account of the rise of the Republican Right in the years between Barry Goldwater’s 1964 presidential defeat and the election of Ronald Reagan as president in 1980. Specifically, it offers a historical-institutional analysis of the organizational factors internal to the Republican Party that helped the conservative Right maintain, and then expand its ascendant position within the GOP in the critical years between Goldwater and Reagan. Brian M. Conley demonstrates how the growth of the Right during this period was aided by a desire on the part of many Republican leaders to rebound from electoral defeat by rebuilding the party organizationally, rather than reforming it politically, through the introduction of a more "service" -oriented party structure. The Rise of the Republican Right will interest academics, party scholars, and researchers eager to gain a more nuanced understanding of the factors that helped the Right become a dominant force within the Republican Party.