Republican Party

The Republican Party was an major American political party in the Old United States. With varying economic views ranging from classical liberalism to corporatist progressivism, and liberal social views (although not to the degree of the WCP), the party emerged in the 1850s from the anti-slavery movement, taking the Presidency for the first time in 1860 under Abraham Lincoln. With it's strong Loyalist stance during the Slavers' War, and being primarily responsible for abolishing slavery after the War, the party became the dominant political party for the majority of the Second Republic. It would maintain it's status as the "party of government" until the 1932 presidential election was won by the ascendant Workers' Communist Party, resulting in the MacArthur Putsch, and ultimately the establishment of the United Republics. The Republicans splintered over the course of the Civil War, with Business Republicans supporting the Putsch, progressives cautiously aligning with the Provisional Government in Chicago and conservatives proclaiming neutrality. The progressive remnant would merge with anti-Putsch Democrats to form the Democratic-Republican Party, while Business Republicans would join MacArthur in exile, and their conservative base would fold into the True Democrats.

History
The Republican Party formed in 1854 in opposition to the Kansas-Nebraska act and the continued expansion of slavery within the First Republic, mobilizing a varied base of free African-Americans and Northern farmers, proletarians and bourgeoisie alike. It's ranks would be bolstered by the Northern wing of the collapsed Whigs, along with former members of the Free Soil Party. Though the Party gained no traction in the South, it would quickly obtain majorities in almost all Northern state governments, allowing it to win the 1860 presidential election with Abraham Lincoln as it's candidate. With it's opponent, the Democratic Party championing the Second Confederation during the Slavers' War, and it's role in the abolition of slavery and Reconstruction after the war, the Republican party would come to dominate the national political scene in the Second Republic as the party of the urban bourgeoisie.

In the early 1900s, the Republican Party was divided into a conservative, pro-business wing and a progressive, corporatist wing that sought to meditate the class struggle upon the failure of attempts to bust the growing trusts that dominated the country, along with a small populist faction that would align with the Social Democratic Party of America during it's brief existence. It would elect most of the Presidents of the Second Republic, although it would still lock horns with their rivals in the Democrats for control over the legislative branch. The controversial Presidency of Charles Fairbanks would see progressive Republicans and Democrats alike clash with what was perceived to be an overreaching executive, resulting in the passage of the 18th Amendment, marking the beginnings of Parliamentary government within the United States. Despite this, the Republicans continued to dominate American politics.

The Republicans functioned as the junior partner of the National Unity Government during the Great War, and with it's Democratic partners, sought to crush the growing Socialist Labor Party, which had achieved de facto leadership of opposition to the war. The resulting escalation of the class war within the United States, and the resulting chaos of the Bienno Rosso almost destroyed the country. Disgusted by the actions of his party, progressive Republican Leonard Wood, Secretary of War under the National Unity Government, resigned his position and sought to take control of the Republican Party. Wood sought to curb the excesses of unregulated capitalism, while at the same time curbing the growth of the Workers' Party of America. Wood would be elected President of the United States in 1920, for the first time putting the Progressive Republicans in the saddle, enacting a wide sweeping, progressive agenda that dismantled Jim Crow in the South and briefly slowed the growth of the WPA. Wood would also form a coalition with the newly formed Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party, allowing him to crack the previously solidly Democratic South. Wood would be reelected in 1924 before being assassinated three years into his second term in 1927.

Wood's VP, Herbert Hoover, would continue his work and navigate the July Crisis after Wood's death, clinching the nomination for the 1928 election and winning a narrow victory over the WPA's candidate. While Hoover managed to moderate between the Business and Progressive Republicans, the party would drift to the right without Wood's firm hand, alienating the black bourgeoisie who had voted for the party since it's birth, and straining the Alignment with the DFLP. The Great Depression would strike two years into Hoover's term, and due to ineffectual management of the crisis on his part, would see the WCP surge in support and saw the DFLP defect to coalition with the WCP, the resulting Popular Front winning the 1932 presidential election. The reactionary conspiracy known as the MacArthur Putsch originated within the conservative wing of the party and intimidated Hoover into green-lighting the coup. Much like the Democrats, the Republican Party would be shattered during the Civil War. Business Republicans supported the Putsch and the National Salvation Front, while progressives would either align cautiously with the Provisional Government in Chicago, or in the case of state governments in the American Southwest, proclaim their neutrality in the conflict.

With Red victory in the Civil War and the establishment of the United Republics, the party's partitioning would be formalized: the Progressive Republicans would seize control of the remaining party apparatus, and merging with the progressive Democrats who did the same to form the Democratic-Republican Party, while pro-Putsch elements would join MacArthur in exile. The conservative voting base of the party, who opposed the Putsch but also the results of the Red May Revolution, would fold into the counterrevolutionary True Democrats.