Red alert for GOP or code blue for Democrats?

UNLESS you were around sometime in the middle of the 19th Century, you probably have not heard of the Whig Party, which alongside the Democratic Party was not unlike today's Republican Party, one of the two major political parties at that time.

In fact, four presidents were affiliated with the Whig Party for at least part of their terms, while major public figures like Henry Clay and Daniel Webster served as its leaders. Its agenda helped shape the national political discourse, until the eve of the Civil War when the debate over slavery split the party between its northern and southern factions, leading gradually to its collapse as an independent and significant political force.

It is true that the electoral system created by America's Founding Fathers has ensured that the nation would not experience the same kind of political upheaval that devastated Europe. But even a stable two-party system may not survive powerful social changes and subsequent crises. And a political party that fails to respond to these developments and to adjust to them (as was the case with the Whig Party) is bound to fade away and die sooner or later. Hence in 1850 the Whigs still controlled the White House; in 1856 the party was dissolved.