This week’s Republican National Convention in Milwaukee is its 42nd since the party was established in 1854.
The convention is occurring at a powerful moment for the GOP after former President Donald Trump narrowly survived an attempted assassination on July 13.
Former President Trump was formally nominated, along with fellow populist Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio), on July 15, by a galvanized and united party.
But while the GOP is today in many ways the party of Trump-style populism, that wasn’t always the case.
At its founding, the GOP favored a strong and dominant central government and an expansive interpretation of the Constitution—very different from today’s GOP, which favors a weaker and more constitutionally limited federal government that emphasizes states’ rights….