Back to Basics for the Republican Party (Paperback)

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Editorial Reviews

Review

I have experienced firsthand an insightful, well-written, eye-opening recreation of the history of the Republican Party... -- Robert Drymalski, Chicago IL

Michael Zak's Back to Basics for the Republican Party is an insightful and astute look into our nation's political history. -- Seth Gershberg, Chicago IL

Michael Zak's book underscores the importance of really knowing your history. -- Michael Krady, Chicago IL

Product Description

Back to Basics for the Republican Party is a history of the party with special emphasis on its origins and development through the Reconstruction era. The book also tells the story of the Democratic Party as well as of the Whig, Greenback, and other parties. The narrative concludes during President Clinton's second term.

Sample paragraphs: "The Republican Party is the Party of Lincoln." Though Republican candidates may say this occasionally during campaign season, we forget just as soon as they do. What does "Party of Lincoln" actually mean? And more importantly, what should it mean, for us Republicans and the country we love?

How many Americans know why the Republican Party began or what its original purpose was? Not many! How many Americans know, for example, that the 1964 Civil Rights Act and the 1965 Voting Rights Act were reforms that the Republican Party struggled for in vain during the Reconstruction era a hundred years earlier? Fewer still. The 13th amendment banning slavery, the 14th amendment extending the Bill of Rights to the states, and the 15th amendment according voting rights to blacks -- all three were enacted by the much-maligned Radical Republicans in the face of fierce Democrat opposition. How many Americans know that? Again, very few.

Now whose fault is it that so much past glory of the Republican Party goes unnoticed today? Who should we blame? Ourselves, of course. How can we hope to convince voters to place their confidence in us when we lack confidence in our own heritage? And how can we Republicans battle Democrats effectively on economic, foreign policy, and other fronts when we act as if the world began the day we were born?

To retake the ideological high ground and fight off the socialism at the core of the Democratic Party we Republicans must embrace the GOP's original reform agenda that is at once pro-free market and pro-constitutional rights. The founders of our Party understood that to win and to deserve to win, there should be no separating the two. To understand this original vision of our Republican Party we look to the site of the 2000 Republican National Convention. Philadelphia is not only where the Constitution was written but where in 1856 the first Republican National Convention met in order to save it, for their generation unto ours.

Throughout Back to Basics for the Republican Party, we will run through our fingers the links in the chain of events between then and now. Placing events in context means reaching back to the drafting of the Constitution to describe the point of view of patriots in the 1850s who were alarmed that the slave system was extending itself northward, threatening the free market system we still cherish today.

Shocked by the Kansas-Nebraska Act, most northerners were outraged at slavery, the South, and the Democratic Party. They realized that soon territories as far north as Minnesota could enter the Union as slave states, transforming the nation's dominant economic and social system from free market to slavery. Amid the intense reaction, so-called "anti-Nebraska" groups sprang up all across the North in early 1854 to oppose the extension of slavery into the northern territories. In hundreds of town meetings and demonstrations, Whigs, Free Soil party members, and dissident Democrats united with a single purpose: "Enough concessions to the Slavocrats! We draw the line right here. NO SLAVERY IN THE TERRITORIES." Over the next few months these groups would coalesce into our Republican Party.

The common perception that Democrats are somehow less respectful of the Constitution, that they often revel in stretching and twisting it to suit their purposes, is valid. The misty origins of the Democratic Party lie, as we shall see, in the movement to oppose ratification of the Constitution, while most people who advocated ratification formed the Federalist Party, ancestor of our Republican Party. Democrats spent decades before and after the Civil War yammering about states rights, a doctrine they invented to preserve slavery, and used later to defend racial discrimination. In contrast, the theme of the first Republican administration was Lincoln's struggle to "preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States".

Today's Republican Party places itself at an immense disadvantage. Rather than express clearly what we should be for -- the free market society we Republicans won the Civil War to preserve -- on too many issues, too often our Party's policy is merely that we are against whatever Democrats are for, or perhaps we want less of it than they do. Our Party is an athlete who has lost his balance -- we are in good shape, with plenty of drive, but until we regain our footing we are going nowhere."

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Product Details

• Paperback: 229 pages
• Publisher: Michael Zak; 1st edition (May 22, 2000)
• ISBN-10: 0970006306
• ISBN-13: 978-0970006301
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 6 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (62 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,550,123 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fills a void, August 11, 2000

By	Aaron Z. Gadouas "azgadouas" (Chicago, Illinois USA) - See all my reviews

"Back to Basics for the Republican Party" is a timely manifesto and historical overview of the ideas that define the Republican Party. As we feel inundated these days with media sound bites and empty symbolism in politics, it is easy to lose sight of the underlying organizing principals on which political parties are formed and how the parties differ from each other. The author agrues that most Republicans misunderstand or are out of touch with the party's founding ideals and therefore are not successful in promoting the party to a wider audience. He takes us through a tour of what began as "The Party of Lincoln", emphasizing individual freedom under the rule of law. The immediate political outcome was the abolition of slavery and its enforcement by war. The tour concludes by demonstrating how those underlying principals have evolved today--namely, an abhorrence of tyranny worldwide and a continuing vigorous effort to decentralize government by bringing it closer to the people.

The author brings to life the personalities, both old and modern, who shaped the Republican Party. Both history book and political essay, "Back to Basics for the Republican Party" weaves together an impressive amount of facts and anecdotes that will make you think about Republican ideals in new and interesting ways. It is a well-written, lively, and lucid contribution that will be of interest to anyone who wants to better understand the Republican Party and its roots. The book is also peppered with witticisms and "zingers" that will make you cheer or shake your head depending on where you stand.

15 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Concise and Compelling -- Buy this Book, October 22, 2000

By	Bruce Rheinstein (Woodbridge, VA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

As the two major American political parties seek to define themselves going into the twenty-first century, it is inevitable that they will look to the past to find what it is that sets them apart from each other. Back to Basics is an important book, not only because it seeks to tie the Republicans to their roots as the Party of Lincoln, but also because it establishes an important link to the much-maligned and misunderstood Radical Republicans.

For too long, the history of the Civil War and of Reconstruction has been written by those more sympathetic to the Confederacy and to Andrew Johnson than to the Republican Party that freed the slaves and established an era of racial equality in the South that would not be matched for a century.

If I have a complaint about the book it is that Michael Zak does not give the second Republican President, Ulysses S. Grant, enough credit. More than any other American President, it was Grant who worked to establish and preserve civil rights for the newly freed slaves. It was Grant who established international arbitration as an alternative to war with the Treaty of Washington. It was Grant who vetoed the 1874 inflation bill and made the Republicans the party of hard money. And it was Grant who warned against allowing religious institutions to co-opt the fledgling systems of universal public education. The illegal acts uncovered in the Credit Mobilier scandal, mentioned by Mr. Zak, actually occurred in 1867-68 under the Democratic Administration that preceded Grant and were uncovered under Grant's Administration.

But this is a quibble. If you are a Republican, or are interested in the Republican Party, buy this book. In fact, this book should be mandatory reading for Republican activists. Agree or disagree with his interpretations, and I largely agree with them, Mr. Zak's writing style is concise and compelling, and his history of the Republican Party is unmatched.

11 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars If You're a Republican, Democrat or Independent, Read This!, October 11, 2003

By	Michael Miller (Aiken, SC United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Back to Basics for the Republican Party, Third Edition (Paperback)

Just as Ann Coulter destroyed the myth of Joseph McCarthy, Michael Zak finally sets the record straight on the roots of the Republican Party. Far too often today, the descendants of slavery see the Republican Party as a racist, exclusive club for whites. Hopefully many of them will see this book, and finally learn that it was Republicans who led the fight against slavery from its outset. It was Republicans who passed the 13th , 14th and 15th Amendments as well as the civil rights acts during and after Reconstruction. Zak does not hide the skeletons either. He points out Republican corruption and incompetence, but most importantly points out the tragic mistakes that virtually handed the Democrats almost the entire African American voting block in this country. Where we as a party go from here depends heavily on our understanding of history and the extent of determination to once again become the party of inclusiveness. This does not require compromising those principles that made us the Grand Old Party, and the guarantors of freedom. We have a long way to go, and are sometimes unsure of the right direction, but just maybe Michael Zak and his excellent book will help us recalibrate our compass.