DBWI: Republican Party survives

Agreed, the Progressive split in 1912 really hurt the party. By the time of the 30s the only chance they had was the OTL merger into the Democratic-Republican party, but we all know the truly unified D-R party of the 60s the Dems were really in charge. So maybe hurt the Democrats in a similar way to make the merge more equal, or have the Dems forced to cling to the Republicans.
 
The 'Democrats' got torn apart in the 50's and 60's just as badly if not worse than the Republicans in the 30's. Sure the 'Progressive' wings of both parties were in charge of the D-R party in the 60's but that just led to the 'reactionary' Libertarian Goldwater administration from 68-76 and then the very social conservative Regan administration from 76-84.

FDR and the Great Depression may have shattered the Republican Party beyond repair but Regan I think has shattered the Democrats beyond repair since the "Conservative Democrat Party / Dixiecrats" are really their own party with the Progressives completely inheriting the DR party and the Libertarians virtually unrecognizable from their founding principles (and IMO the true inheritors of the Republican Party as set forth by Taft)

That's part of the problem of today's three party system. Each party has really polarized itself away from the other two parties, the Reps were decent as a minority party but after FDR packed the SCOTUS (thank God that got repealed in 1969) and totally stacked the deck against them in other ways with his political partisan warfare the Dems became the ONLY party. This mashed together the most socially reactionary Dixiecrats with the most socially liberal New Englanders and the most fiscally conservative Plains staters with the most fiscally liberal Coastal states... I'm surprised they held that together through Adlai Stevenson's and Joseph P. Kennedy's administrations but I think all Americans have seen the result of the 1968 DNC in Chicago aka "The Riot"
 
Let's not forget the 1984 Presidential election was decided by Congress when no candidate reached 270 EVs. Luckily, the Progressives won control of the Senate in 1982 and elected Lawton Chiles as Vice President.

It was ironic that Libertarian Clint Eastwood won the majority of his home state's House delegation and the Presidency on the 4th ballot when Rep. Paul McCloskey (P-CA) switched his vote from Mark Hatfield (Eastwood did win a plurality in McCloskey's district)

There was a rumor that D-R Alexander Haig offered Rep. Dick Cheney (L-WY) Secretary of Defense in exchange for his vote. Luckily, that did not happen and McCloskey saved the day.
 
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