Re: RE: RE: Political ads with phone numbers

[Dave Faneuf <tklaundry@juno.com>]

On Tue, 5 Nov 2002 00:33:54 -0500 "A. Joseph Ross"
<lawyer@attorneyross.com> writes:
> On 5 Nov 2002 at 3:19, tklaundry@juno.com wrote:
> 
> > Remember, at one time the GOP was the "minor" third party. df
> 
> Actually, it wasn't.  At the time, the Whig party had pretty much 
> collapsed, and there was 
> just the Democrats and a few minor parties.  The Republican Party 
> was founded as a new 
> second party by a group which included a lot of former Whigs, and it 
> was the second party 
> by the very next national election.

Which means at the time of it's creation it was a "third" party.  Members
of the Whig party had become disenfranchised over a couple of issues,
IIRC a Federal Banking System was the main issue.  They broke away from
the Whigs to form the Republican Party (why they are called the GOP
escapes me).  Their success IMO was allowed because political involvement
by the common voter was limited at the time.    But regardless, at one
point in their history they were the "third" party the fact they were
successful in becoming a major party in a few years is a tribute to the
party leaders, but doesn't change their origins.
df