The Republican Party Essay -- American Government, Politics

This research paper aims to expose the Republican Party's transition from having a pro-minority reputation to currently having a reputation of being "against" racial minorities. In order to properly investigate this contrast, the emergence of the Republican Party and how it gained a negative reputation towards minorities will be researched. This paper utilizes statistics on racial minority support of the Republican Party and voting patterns, scholarly contributions that explain the agenda of the publican Party, and historical evidence documenting the emergence of the Republican Party. This information will be used to convince readers that the Republican Party is not aligned with its current reputation of having prejudice towards racial minorities and will instead prove that it obtains ideals that greatly benefit minorities. Introduction 1854 marked the beginning of an age where the Republican Party would soon play a major role in freeing slaves in America due to the Emancipation Proclamation of 1863. 1964 marked a time in which the Republican Party failed to support civil rights through not publicly supporting the Civil Rights Act of 1964. America's most recent 2008 presidential election marked a time in which the Republican Party fought to gain the support of various racial minority groups but failed due to Barack Obama's strong proposals aimed towards the desires of the working class and racial minority groups. How did the Republican Party's reputation transition from being anti-slavery to discouraging civil rights? How can the Republican Party continue to fail in gaining the trust of minorities though its foundational ideals greatly benefit racial minority groups? These are all questions that will be answered in this researc... ...that do not visibly favor the requests of racial minorities. He asserts that parties need to instead focus on the foundations of democracy in order to better relate to minorities to subsequently create authentic appeal (327-9). Cox (1997) agrees and seeks to persuade Americans that the electoral process is flawed in the sense that votes are not truly providing Americans with the ability to see positive and sustainable change. In order to "make votes count," racial minorities need to present debate topics and pressure parties to replicate the desires of the majority so that when a politician is running for office they can clearly indicate the desired changes proposed (272-5). These scholars affirm that the Republican Party's inability to bring sustainable change to racial minorities through proper representation prolongs the reputation of being racially prejudiced.