Grand Obsolete Program
From their hatred I could not hide
They have forced me into this zoticide
IBTIZ (in before the idiot zot)
“... if Trump wins the GOP nomination, it will mean the end of the Republican Party.”
And this is a bad thing because....?
The Whig party died because it could not sufficiently differentiate itself from the Democrat party of the time. The Republican party was a truly radical party for its time, and it had staked out many positions diverging from the Whigs, but primarily having to do with something called “Free-Soilers”..
Whigs supported the Second Bank of the United States, a high tariff, distribution of land revenues to the states, relief legislation to mitigate the effects of the great depression that followed the financial panics of 1837 and 1839, and federal reapportionment of House seats.
The controversy over the Kansas-Nebraska Bill tore Whig party apart. The Whig party refused to take a stand for or against the Bill, and its members fled the party. Since the Kansas-Nebraska Bill was a Democratic-sponsored measure and it passed a Democratic congress and was signed by Democratic president, citizens viewed it as a pro-slavery bill. Northern free soilers, with no party to represent their anti-slavery views, formed the new Republican Party in 1854, a party determined to stop the Kansas-Nebraska Bill and end the geographic spread of slavery. The Republican Party opposed the extension of slavery into new territories. Most Republicans were not abolitionists. The party believed that Abolitionism was too radical. The Republicans favored the northern economic policies of protective tariffs, a strong national government, and the use of federal funds for internal improvements. Many Americans supported the Know-Nothing Party, concerned that the Know-Nothings might represent the only truly national party possible, largely united by a general fear of Catholic immigrants. But in the end, the issue over slavery proved stronger than fears over non-protestant immigrants, and southerners lined up behind the Democratic party and northerners behind the Republican party.