Captain Houseboat: There are five (5) sentences in your post, above.. They need to be scored for accuracy. I will handle that.
Sentence No. 1 - Just plain wrong. Wildly so, and you compound your problem by making your statement so absolute. ("[A] total lie." LOL.)
Sentence No. 2 - Correct. This was the most accurate, and best, sentence in your post.
Sentence No. 3 - Perhaps correct, but the party platform of the Republican Party was, at its founding, about a whole lot more then anti-abolitionism. I have included some information below to educate you on that.
Sentence No. 4 - Partisan, ludicrous, and laughable. It says more about you than anything, and not in a good way.
Sentence No. 5 - See my comment regarding Sentence No. 4.
Here is some information concerning the establishment and early public policy views of the Republican Party. Read and learn:
Yes, the Republican Party was considered highly progressive when it was founded in 1854. Formed by anti-slavery activists, it championed modernizing reforms, individual liberty, and the total abolition of slavery.
Their early progressive and reformist platform included:
- Abolitionism: The party's core mission was to stop the westward expansion of slavery and eventually abolish it.
- Economic Mobility: They championed "free soil, free labor, and free men," arguing that ordinary workers should reap the benefits of their own labor without having to compete with unpaid slave labor.
- Infrastructure and Education: Republicans passed sweeping modernization laws during the Civil War era, including the Homestead Act to give land to settlers and the Morrill Act to fund public universities.
- Federal Power: They utilized a strong federal government to enforce equal rights, fund the transcontinental railroad, and create the nation's first income tax.
Over the decades—particularly following the industrial revolution and the New Deal—the ideologies of the two major parties underwent a major realignment. The Republican Party gradually transitioned into a center-right and conservative political organization, while the Democratic Party absorbed many progressive ideologies.