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the S&P 500 biggest post-election day spike ever, follow all the big changes and what they mean for you.

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Support for the Republican Party has dropped to an all-time low of 18% of the electorate.

There have been warnings from Republican leaders that the party might not survive.

It's present wrangling.

It seems hard to believe now.

But in the mid-1970s, the Republican Party looked on the verge of self-destruction.

Warren Moore analysts are predicting the Republicans will go the way of the Whigs.

It sounds like an epic misfire of prognostication.

But even the party's head, Republican National Chairwoman Mary Louise Smith echoed the predictions of doom.

Unless you and I get together and work for this party, we may have no party at all.

One problem was Watergate. The scandal had pushed away many voters who'd cast ballots for Republicans just a couple years before.

But the bigger problem was who remained. In particular, one vocal faction that had long been a minority, conservatives.

As I mentioned last episode, both major parties traditionally had included voters from across the ideological spectrum.

Partisanship had been messy and muddled rather than drawn along clear lines.

Establishment Republican leaders called for a return to that paradigm.

The party with the smaller numbers can't win by division. You win by addition.

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