Currrent events drives the questions we ask of the past

As I think about the state of party politics in America I am preparing my final lecture for my U.S. History I course. The two-party system of the 1850's devolved into a competion between sectional parties, as southern Whigs and southern Democrats began to seek common goals. In the north, the pattern was replicated, as northern Whigs and northern Democrats did the same. The outcome was not pretty. I will ask my students today to consider if we can find any similarity in the modern GOP's headlong dash to regional specialization. They may villify Pennsylvania's Arlen Specter, but is history on the march?