GOP

Posted by Dummy on September 08, 2001

In Reply to: GOP posted by Tomar on February 23, 2000

Grand old party? that's what it stands for? I have been racking my brains trying to find out what it stands for, for the last 6 months. To afraid to ask anybody, because I thought I was the only person in the world who didn't know. Now tonight, I sit here telling myself that I am going to find out what it stands for no matter what. Then I find out it stand for grand old party?

I must say I am deeply dissapointed, what a bunch of crap. grand old party, Now that's lame.

Oh well thanks for answering my question. grand old party, what a let down!
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: : : : : : Why does "GOP" refer to the Republican Party?

: : : : : It stands for Grand Old Party, a bit of self-congratulation.

: : : : "G.O.P. The Grand Old Party got that name around 1880, and the expression was used derisively at first. It's unclear just who originally taunted the Republicans with that label, but it made its first appearance in print in the Louisville Courier Journal (a Kentucky newspaper) in 1887. Later on, of course, the Republicans adopted the label as their own." From the Morris Dictionary of Word and Phrase Origins by William and Mary Morris (HarperCollinsPublishers, New York, 1977).

: : : : But my question is, why was it originally used derisively?

: : : Probably sarcastically, mockingly.

: : The party was founded in 1856 (in Ripon, Wisconsin) so it wasn't Old in any sense when it acquired the nickname. And (aside from Lincoln and Teddy Roosevelt) it has rarely been Grand.

: Well, I don't think the "Old" was ever intended to mean "Elderly," more like, "Good Old Boys."