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redstatebluegirl

(12,264 posts)
Tue Oct 8, 2013, 11:48 AM Oct 2013

"The Rise and Fall of the American Whig Party" by Michael Holt

is a must read right now. I know it is a hefty book, I found it this summer in a used bookstore, but it is like reading what is happening today. Today's Republican party is going to be taken down by the same forces that destroyed the Whig party, chapter 14 is a very telling chapter if you can't handle the whole thing.

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"The Rise and Fall of the American Whig Party" by Michael Holt (Original Post) redstatebluegirl Oct 2013 OP
for those of us without the book jollyreaper2112 Oct 2013 #1
Yes in a nutshell this is the case. redstatebluegirl Oct 2013 #2
Haha jollyreaper2112 Oct 2013 #3

jollyreaper2112

(1,941 posts)
1. for those of us without the book
Tue Oct 8, 2013, 11:55 AM
Oct 2013

Cliff notes? My recollection is that they weren't anti-slave enough and so you saw a mass exodus of abolitionists as they formed the new Republican party. The Whigs withered into irrelevance shortly thereafter.

redstatebluegirl

(12,264 posts)
2. Yes in a nutshell this is the case.
Tue Oct 8, 2013, 12:02 PM
Oct 2013

This book is an academic work so it is a little wordy, but they talk about the divisions in the party related to slavery. The southern Whigs were not going quietly and the infighting got totally out of hand. Much of the book is anecdotal, so the stories from diaries and papers tell the story.

As I got to chapter 14 this morning, I kept seeing the similarities. How they tried to use the media of the day but it just made them look worse and pushed the two sides further apart. The electorate were getting tired of the fighting and were leaving in droves.

Not much in terms of cliff notes but this is the jest of it.

jollyreaper2112

(1,941 posts)
3. Haha
Tue Oct 8, 2013, 12:23 PM
Oct 2013

Jest. I saw what you did there.

The myopia we have is assuming past performance is a future guarantee.

The republicans have survived scandals that should have sunk the party. I don't think they're going anywhere. But even the oldest institutions can fall and there's nothing so surprising as when the oldest tree falls.

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