Welcome to the Investors Trading Academy talking glossary of financial terms and events.
Our word of the day is “a Republican”
The Republican Party was founded in 1854 by antislavery expansion activists and modernizers, it rose to prominence with the election of Abraham Lincoln, the first Republican president. The party presided over the American Civil War and Reconstruction and was harried by internal factions and scandals towards the end of the 19th century. Today, the Republican Party supports a probusiness platform, with further foundations in economic libertarianism and a brand of social conservatism increasingly based on the viewpoints of the Religious Right.
While there may be several differences in opinion between individual Democrats and Republicans on certain issues, what follows is a generalization of their stand on several of these issues. A Democrat is typically known as a supporter of a broader range of social services in America than those advocated by Republicans. Republican philosophy is based on a limited influence of government and a dominant foreign policy.
Republicans are considered on the "right" end of the political spectrum while Democrats are on the "left." The far right generally is proreligion, antibureaucracy, promilitary, probusiness and propersonal responsibility.
Republicans, are usually considered conservative (fiscally as well as socially), maybe a little pious, probusiness and against the bureaucracy often associated with big government. They see big governments as wasteful and an obstacle to getting things done. Their approach is Darwinian in that the strong shall survive, cream rises to the top, etc.

By Barry Norman, Investors Trading Academy ITA