The Center Cannot HoldMost historians agree that, by the end of the 1960s, the conservative branch of the Republican Party had largely taken control of party direction. The "Reagan Revolution" of 1980 secured the GOP for conservatives, and while the events of the 2008 election may prompt considerable soul searching, the party of Lincoln has maintained an undeniably conservative ideological orientation for almost 30 years. Too often, scholars have regarded the process of