Thanks for the invite! I’ve got a prior engagement.
Here’s a question I would have. Let’s say this is the very beginning of a groundswell of conservative activism, perhaps similar to how the Whig party spun off the Republican party. What is the plan to plant the seed, grow it, let it thrive? What would you take as the signs that this is actually happening?
The chances are zero, there are already about 50 “third parties”, Alan Keyes ran in two of them PLUS the GOP in 2008.
The pre civil war origins of the republican party does not reflect anything useful for today when parties measure their age by centuries and we have total democracy with everyone over 18 voting and 54% of voters being female.
The republicans simply replaced the Whigs, even 2 years after they first met, John Fremont came in second in the 1856 presidential race, the “know Nothings” “third party” came in a distant third with 8 electoral votes.
The Whigs were pre civil war America, the party only lasted 22 years itself (1833 to 1856). The Republicans held their first convention on July 6, 1854 and four months later held 19% of the Congress and 25% of the Senate, six years later they held the majority in the Congress, the majority in the Senate, and they had the Presidency. The Republicans were never really a third party at all.
Here is an article by the historian (among other things) Michael Medved that I think you will find useful.