(Originally published on Votesane.com)

The Republican Party was born in 1854 from the ashes of the Whig Party, which disintegrated over the issue of slavery.

Over the course of its more than 150 years in existence, the Grand Old Party has seen its fair share of insurrections and civil wars.

In 1908, Teddy Roosevelt, unhappy with his successor’s insufficient commitment to reform, bolted the party and ran against Mr. Taft on the Bull Moose ticket. Bob LaFollette, the Wisconsin progressive, rebelled against the autocratic rule of Speaker Joe Cannon, but couldn’t stop Calvin Coolidge from winning the White House in the 1920’s. Tom Dewey battled it out with Mr. Republican, the conservative Robert Taft, in the 1940’s, Eisenhower Republicans had nothing but disdain for the McCarthy brigades in 50’s, Goldwater’s conservatives targeted the Rockefeller Republicans in 60’s, and Ross Perot split conservatives when he ran against George Bush in the 1980’s.

And now the GOP is confronted with the energy and anger of the Tea Party in 2010. The Tea Party was born by a comment made by CNBC Rick Santelli, who complained loudly on air about the efforts of the Obama Administration to bail out bad actors who wouldn’t pay their mortgages. From that comment spread an inspired movement of citizens who were sick and tired of being taxed to pay for bigger and more wasteful government.  Read more...