[Norm Lenhart]

Agree. This CAN be done. All I see is a history of “We Can’t” from many corners. Self fulfilling prophecy.

Repubs did it to the Whigs. It has happened time and again across history. We just lack the will.

[muawiyah]

The Republicans collected up salvageable Whig party elements at the state and local levels after the Whigs collapsed as a national party. They didn't DO IT TO the Whigs ~ the Republicans resolved the Whig distress with abolition by melding the surviving Whigs to the Abolitionists!

Lincoln himself was a Whig railroad lawyer. Just in case you wondered how it was as President during a great Civil War he still had time to worry about a Transcontinental Railroad ~ that was a piece of cake for him ~ he knew the answers and the issues cold.