Sunday, November 14, 2004

2005 Republican Freedom Calendar

In commemoration of the 150th Anniversary of the Republican Party, the Republican Policy Committee has produced the 2005 Republican Freedom Calendar, to put some of the many important Republican achievements in advancing civil rights before today's students, families, and citizens from all walks of life who wish to be better informed about our national heritage.

The history of our party is as remarkable as it is untold. And it is under-appreciated for that reason. In 1854, anti-slavery activists organized themselves into a new political party, the Republican Party, which would eventually become the mightiest force for individual liberty in the history of the world. Within just a few years, Republicans would control both Houses of Congress, a majority of U.S. state governorships and legislatures, and the White House.

The Republican Party became the most effective political organization in the history of the world in advancing the cause of freedom by staying true to its founding principles. The mission that President Lincoln described for our party, “to lift the artificial weights from all shoulders and clear the paths of laudable pursuit for all,” remains our central focus today.

We started our party with the express intent of protecting the American people from the Democrats’ pro-slavery policies that expressly made people inferior to the state. Today, the animating spirit of the Republican Party is exactly the same as it was then: free people, free minds, free markets, free expression, and unlimited individual opportunity.

Grand Old Partisan

Recasting Republicans as the Party of Civil Rights - LA Times

Republicans...insist their true history has been obscured -- an argument encapsulated by a slogan on their new calendar.

"Celebrating a century and a half of civil rights achievement by the Party of Lincoln," proclaims its cover, which features a large image of the 16th president.

Each date contains a blurb linking the GOP to advances in civil rights. On March 18, for instance, the calendar notes that in 1877, Republican President Rutherford B. Hayes appointed the abolitionist Douglass to be a U.S. marshal.