The Republican Party of United States is a party based on the principles of individualism and liberty. Unfortunately, in modern times with things like the neo-conservative movement, the Republican Party has gotten a lot of flack, and maybe even rightfully so. However, this party was never intended to be the party of war, racism, and hate. It's important to know the history of the party before one dismisses it as such.

The Republicans you see today aren't the people the party founders would call republicans. The modern GOP party contradicts its own founding ideas. The social issues such as: marriage equality, abortion, drug use, and foreign policy no longer align with the conservative ideal. They do, however, align with the neo-conservative ideal.

A majority of the GOP candidates running in 2016 are neo-conservative.
Neo-cons are "god fearing, gun toting, 'republican'" if you will. This isn't what conservatism is. Conservatism, by definition, is:

a political philosophy emphasizing the need for the principles of natural law and transcendent moral order, tradition, and hierarchy. This definition isn't consistent with the neo-con ideology.

But in case that isn't enough, conservatism in principle is: a political ideology that values the freedom of individuals. Including the freedom of religion, speech, press, assembly, and markets. As well as limited government.

Now, does this sound like what George Bush, John McCain, Mitt Romney, or Donald Trump preach? I would firmly say no.

The Republican Party was established by Abraham Lincoln during the wake of the Civil War. Lincoln thought it was time for a new party to rise; a party appropriate for freed slaves. The original republicans were those who freed slaves from oppression of individualism.

After the founding of the party, this trend continued. When President Ulysses S. Grant took office as a republican he was an outspoken advocate for not only the abolishment of slavery, but also, he was the first American policy-maker to propose civil rights for the freed slaves.

Republican president Rutherford Hayes signed the 15th Amendment into law, which states: "The federal and state governments are prohibited from denying a citizen the right to vote based on that citizen's race, color, or previous condition of servitude."

Further along Presidents Chester Arthur and James Garfield were opposed to excessive military action. War was to be used as a last result under their command. They preached diplomacy in the age of expansion, especially in the Mexican-American war. Arthur once said, "The friendship of the united states and Mexico has been constantly maintained."

Later on, President Theodore Roosevelt took office as the first environmental activist to hold the presidency of the U.S. "The conservation of natural resources is the problem. Unless we solve that, the problem will avail us little to solve all others." He said this in 1901 as a proud republican. This isn't something Bush would say about the environment, he called global warming a myth.

Finally, there was President Calvin Coolidge, who supported the Suffragette movement for women's right to vote, and even gay marriage. In 1919 republican Coolidge wanted these liberties granted, as it was the Republican philosophy.

What changed? Where did these principles go? Well, when Ronald Reagan took office in 1981 he began the neo-con movement; this destroyed the Republican ideology.

Now we have a party bearing a false image of conservatism, in a time when we need the old ideas more than ever. The republican party hasn't won the popular vote in a presidential election since 1996, that says something. If the party wants to become relevant again it must change its ways, or else we're doomed to the ash heap of history.