The 2016 election cycle is shaping up to be a rough one for the GOP, especially in North Carolina. In all likelihood, the Republicans will nominate an unelectable candidate for president, and here in the Old North State, they’re blowing up their state party. After choosing their first African-American Chairman last year, they’re now trying to oust him in the middle of a cycle when they’re also trying to re-elect a governor and U. S. Senator. It doesn’t bode well for the Party That Once Was Lincoln’s.

The rift in North Carolina mirrors what’s happening nationally. Grassroots Republicans made up of Tea Partiers and reactionary Trump supporters are demanding a greater voice and influence, supporting policies and tactics that have little chance of electoral success. The establishment is trying to hold onto their party and keep it close to the mainstream. They’re losing. Candidates like Donald Trump have little ideological orthodoxy while others like Ted Cruz are driving off the right side of the earth.

In North Carolina, Chair Hasan Harnett has been battling the establishment since he took over last year. Last week, Executive Director Dallas Woodhouse, who was hired by the Central Committee instead of Harnett, apparently shut down the Chairman’s email account. Harnett accused Woodhouse of racism. Woodhouse, in turn, declared that it was all a big misunderstanding and that he and Harnett have a great working relationship.

Well, that doesn’t ring true. This weekend, the Central Committee, Woodhouse’s masters, censured Harnett and passed a resolution of no confidence. The grassroots people will almost surely respond. If nothing else, the NCGOP convention in May should be fun to watch.

Really, though, the forces ripping the GOP apart today are the same ones that caused similar turmoil in the Democratic Party in the late 1960s and early 1970s. The party had an internal fight between the forces of reaction represented by George Wallace and the New Dealers represented by almost everyone else. Republicans invited the reactionary wing of the Democratic Party into the GOP and now they’ve taken over.

For years, the GOP establishment paid lip service to the racism, religious zealotry, and homophobia of the reactionaries but kept them pretty much at bay. Now, they’re driving the agenda. Combined with their Congressional obstructionism, the party could be in for a long night next November.

The lesson of this year is that both parties should reject those who want to discriminate against their fellow Americans. Wooing them with vague promises that can’t be kept might work for awhile, but eventually that strategy leads to division and loss. Democrats found that out in 1968 and 1972. Republicans are about to find it out this year.

Thomas Mills is the founder and publisher of PoliticsNC.com. Before beginning PoliticsNC, Thomas spent twenty years as a political and public affairs consultant. Learn more >