Constitutional Minute—Episode 2, History of the Republican Party

The first republican form of government was recorded in the Biblical book of Exodus, chapter 18.

Moses’ father-in-law, Jethro, observed how Moses sat from early morning to late at night to represent the Hebrew people before God. Basically, Jethro said to Moses, “If you keep up this pace, you are going to wear out yourself and the people.”

Jethro instructed Moses to organize representative groups of tens that would, in turn, form representations of hundreds and thousands of people. Each ten people had a representative, much like our Texas legislature and Congress. Each of those ten representatives could express their needs to a higher level of representation.

The word republic derives from the Latin phrase rēs pūblica, the people’s thing, “We the People,” in the preamble to the Constitution.

From the beginning, the Republican Party was founded on the value of all human life. Human slavery was the primary dispute between the northern anti-slavery voters and southern voters who wanted to preserve human slavery. More American fighting men died in the Civil War than the sum of all American dead from all other wars, from the Revolutionary War to Afghanistan.

Republican lawmakers proposed the 13^th and 14^th Amendments to secure the everyday freedoms enshrined in our nation’s founding documents for all persons. The equal protection of the laws clause in the 14^th Amendment, Section 1 summarizes the goal of the Civil War and the subsequent Civil Rights laws.

A Gallup poll reports a record 32% of all U.S. voters will only vote for pro-life candidates. Pro-Life is a dominant factor in conservative states like Texas.

There arose a persistent lie that the Democratic and Republican parties swapped values. No, the parties did not switch principles or positions. The Republican Party supports the Rule of Law, equal opportunity, and the sanctity of human life. As Will Rogers would say, “A Democrat lie that gets around the world before the truth gets its shoes on.”

Winston Churchill said, “The truth is incontrovertible. Malice may attack it, ignorance may deride it, but in the end, there it is.”

Jesus famously said, “You shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free.”