This is backstory. I'm Ed Ayers. Tens of thousands of Republican party delegates are converging

in Cleveland for the Republican National Convention. But many high-profile Republicans will be

setting this one out, including Trump's former rival, Jeb Bush. He told MSNBC that he can't

even bring himself to vote for Trump in November. Donald Trump is barely a Republican. He's certainly

not a conservative. Conservativism is temporarily dead. Trump's nomination represents a battle

for the heart and soul of the GOP. But then again, so did the nomination of Barry Goldwater in 1964.

Protesters show up carrying caskets around the Cal Palace in San Francisco that say,

RIP GOP. Today on backstory, we'll look at the GOP's origins and evolution from concerns over the

spread of slavery in the 1850s to the spread of communism a century later. The history of the Republican

Party today on backstory. Major funding for backstory is provided by the Shia Khan Foundation,

the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Joseph and Robert Cornell Memorial Foundation,

and the Arthur Vining Davis Foundations. From the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities,

this is backstory with the American History Guys.

Welcome to the show. I'm Brian Vallow and I'm here with Peter Onif.

Hey there, Brian. And Ed Ayers is with us. Hey Brian, Peter. Today's show is about the history

of the Republican Party. So we're going to start, well, we're at all started with the GOP's birthplace.

Hey Ed, I actually know where that is. And I have it from an authoritative source.

The Republican National Committee says that the first formal meeting of the new Republican Party

was held in Jackson, Michigan on July 6th, 1854. Well, there you have it. Straight from the

elephant's trunk. Actually, Peter, Brian, not everybody accepts the party line. It's true that

Jackson claims to be the first formal meeting of the party, but other towns, including Ripon,

Wisconsin, and Exeter, Dean Hampshire, claim to be where the idea and the name of the Republican

...