The protracted death of the Grand Old Party

Nowhere is it written that major political parties will live forever. In fact, over the course of the first 100 years of our country's history, Americans saw the rise and fall of numerous nationally powerful political parties. The Federalists and Democratic-Republicans ruled the day in the late 18th and early 19th century. By the 1850's it was the Whig Party and the Democratic Party battling for national political supremacy. The Whigs would ultimately be destroyed in 1856 by the question of whether to allow the expansion of slavery into the territories of the West. That gave rise to the Republican Party and henceforth the major two-party system that has dominated American politics for the past 153 years.

We are witnessing today, however, an unmistakable emergence of deep fissures within the Republican Party. These are serious indications of a momentous, generational shift underway in the American political landscape not seen in almost a century. It begs the question, are we watching the beginning of the end of the Republican Party--the long, slow death of the GOP?

The name of the aggressive and virulent upstart Party that is trying to push its Republican patriarch into an early grave is unclear--call it a re-energized national Conservative Party, a Social-Conservative Party or maybe even the "Tea Party" (the revolutionary-era moniker it seems to prefer). While the label may be in question, its faces are not. This is the Party of Sarah Palin, Rush Limbaugh, Dick Cheney, Dick Armey, Glenn Beck, Grover Norquist, Michelle Bachmann and Mike Huckabee (just to name a few--yes, I left out Chuck Norris). They have launched a nationwide political insurrection--on the ground and in the airwaves--that is inflicting serious injury to the party of Lincoln, Reagan and George H.W. Bush.

Don't believe me? Just look at what is taking place today in New York's 23rd Congressional District. What should have been a low-visibility, off-cycle special election to fill a vacant Congressional seat has erupted into full-fledged Republican civil warfare--with serious national implications for the future of the GOP.

Apoplectic that local Republican Party leaders had nominated as their candidate a socially-moderate state legislator by the name of Dede Scozzafava (she supports abortion rights, gay rights and has ties to organized labor), local Conservatives revolted and ran a candidate of their own--Doug Hoffman. Sensing the moment and the terrain were ripe to make their stand, the national Tea Party masters declared open warfare on Scozzafava, if only to use her as a proxy in what looks more like an insurrection against the pillars of the Republican Party.

The Tea Party has filtered millions of dollars in donations to the Hoffman campaign through organizations like the Club for Growth. Glenn Beck has hosted Doug Hoffman live in the studio.