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A favorite of
headline writers, GOP dates back to the 1870s and '80s.
The abbreviation was cited in a New York Herald story on
October 15, 1884;
"' The G.O.P. Doomed,' shouted the Boston Post.... The
Grand Old Party is in
condition to inquire...."
But what GOP stands for has changed with the times. In
1875 there was a
citation in the Congressional Record referring to "this
gallant old party,"
and , according to Harper's Weekly, in the Cincinnati
Commercial in 1876 to
"Grand Old Party."
Perhaps the use of "the G.O.M." for Britain's Prime
Minister William E. Gladstone
in 1882 as " the Grand Old Man" stimulated the use of
GOP in the United States soon after.
In early motorcar days, GOP took on the term "get out
and push." During the
1964 presidential campaign, "Go-Party" was used briefly,
and during the Nixon
Administration, frequent references to the "generation
of peace" had happy overtones.
In line with moves in the '70s to modernize the party,
Republican leaders took to
referring to the "grand old party," harkening back to a
1971 speech by President Nixon
at the dedication of the Eisenhower Republican Center in
Washington, D.C.
Indeed, the "grand old party" is an ironic term, since
the Democrat Party was
organized some 22 years earlier in 1832.
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