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DEL.ICIO.USA Whig revival?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Could the Whigs have a future in modern U.S. politics?
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By PinestrawGuy
April 20, 2006 08:21 PM | Link to this
As for limiting the power of the Federal Godhead, let’s WHIG OUT!!! Is there an issue to decide whether the Constitution reigns or a NEW council of men? Do we trust our Founders or our “Flounderers”?
By KB
April 20, 2006 09:36 PM | Link to this
Whigs could draw strong support from the centrists, Republicans and Democrats who are disenchanted with the extreme right and far left wing members of thier parties who are so entrenched in divisive rhetoric, and uncooperative partisan politics.
By RC
April 21, 2006 06:10 AM | Link to this
bring on the Muckrakers!!! Where’s Teddy when you need him???
By candide
April 21, 2006 08:35 AM | Link to this
As I recall the Whigs never had any real program apart from opposition ot Jacksonianism. What we need in this country is a Social Democrat Party, one which combines the best of capitalism with a social conscience. Unfortunately neither of our major parties offers that. One offers fascistic patriotism and exploitation, the other demagoguery and delusion.
By Van
April 21, 2006 08:45 AM | Link to this
The party may have a chance for a rebirth, but it all depends on what the candidate is like.
A great party with a sleaze ball as a candidate is doomed.
I would rather have honest men(or women) that stand by their principles and don’t shift with every new poll that comes out.
Too often we hear great things out of the mouths of politicians only to have them do otherwise once elected.
There is no way you can spend more than you take in and still cut taxes. Congress has promised to curb spending, but they always spend beyond their means.
We have become a society that trusts used car salemen more than our elected officials.
We have become an electorate that will believe anything out of the mouth of a nominee and praise them while they lie to our faces.
So, if the Whigs can place a well qualified person of integrity and BACKBONE, that will do what they say and say what they will do, I will be interested.
By Thomas
April 21, 2006 10:51 AM | Link to this
How about EITHER party represent the interests of working people instead of big business?
YES, I do think the oil industry should be tightly regulated. NO, I don’t think they should be allowed to produce record profits on the backs of seniors and poor Americans who can barely afford to pay rent.
YES, I do think believe access to good healthcare is a fundamental right, not a privilege. YES, I do believe our tax dollars should pay for it.
Go ahead…say that dirty word “socialist.”
By Van
April 21, 2006 11:14 AM | Link to this
Thomas, while I think you motives are of the highest kind, you must ask yourself, who will pay for these programs?
Tax big business? Fine, they pass their tax burden on to consumers - us. Tax the working folks, not popular but DC does it all the time.
We need more jobs, this means more people are paying taxes. As we have seen in the last year or two, the tax revenues are growing faster than predicted, all this because of a 4.8% unemployment. Most Economist call this full employment.
Big Business, the bane of the “progressive” is the engine that drives this country, creating jobs and providing people with the finances required to get ahead. Through my work for a big blue, I earn a decent pay and benefits, including healthcare.
While Candide may call for a Social Democrat, this is a bit redundant. The democrat party has for the last 60 years been taking the burden from the States to help the elderly, poor and infirmed. These tasks, in the old days, were done within the community.
The Government has taken these functions, added many levels of bureaucracy, passed a maze of laws and helped few and usually not enough.
Since the Federal Government produces no product to sell, no service to sell, it must take the working mans money to provide these “benefits” to those among us that need help.
Just as an example, my tax burden this year was greater than what I was paid during the entire 4 years I served in the military - true inflation has made the dollars today worth less - but it is just an example.
By Dan
April 21, 2006 01:32 PM | Link to this
Thomas the problem is all of those things sound good but as soon as you look into the details, they are implausble. First oil profits one the gross margin has not increased in years meaning they are cutting overhead and sales costs, furthermore when a gallon of gas that has to be found drilled shipped refined then redistributed and taxed at about 20% costs about the same as a gallon of milk which costs far less to produce, really shows the absurdity of that argument (we don’t even have to go into bottled water) The fact is, the efficiency is what allows seniors and the poor to drive cars and heat their homes If you believe access to good health care is a right (first of all you are in the correct country, no where in the world is health care more accesible) But if you truly believe it is a right, you necessarilyt have to believe that you have the right to a doctors time. If you take a small office and calculate the salary for a doctor 2 nurses, 2 clerical, rent insurance equipment etc. You will find that a half hour appt would be in the $400 dollar range, that is what an insurance company would have to pay for a low end ($150K) salaried doctor.
That means if you had 2 visits a year and ran a couple of tests you would be paying about $100 a month, that would mean no real medical problems, no profit for the insurance company. Meaning if you want to get it cheaper you are taking it from the doctors and nurses.
Kinda sucks when reality intrudes on socialism huh.
By Brian Curtis
April 21, 2006 02:39 PM | Link to this
And yet, other countries have national healthcare and haven’t collapsed into chaos and anarcy. Imagine that!
Some of them have even dared to put citizens ahead of corporate interests once in awhile… and while the WTO may speak harshly of them, it remains possible to do that in a democracy.
By charles
April 21, 2006 03:06 PM | Link to this
It would have to be better than what we got now.
I believe both parties adhere to the moto of ” lie, cheat, and steal” and they have gotten really good at living up to it too.
By Dan
April 21, 2006 03:24 PM | Link to this
No one said they would collapse into chaos The fact of the matter is they pay more for less health care in real cost. They wait months or years for procedures we have done in a week. The economies have unemployment and inflation rates twice what we have and generally speaking our lower class has more home amenitites than their middle class. The scenario I indicated above would be true in those societies as well and I since those economies are much less robust I suspect the cuts come from the wages of the doctors and nurses, resulting in a lower standard of care. And no charles it is not better than we have, ask the thousands of canadians, who come here for treatment they cant get in their country. It really is just simple math
By Garrett Reynolds
April 21, 2006 03:36 PM | Link to this
America could benefit from having another political party because it often appears that Republican policies and Democratic policies are two sides of the same sad coin. I doubt that Whigs are the answer, we need something more modern.
By Dan
April 21, 2006 03:41 PM | Link to this
I am with you Garrett, it will be a tough road though. A new party with power would create one thing the other two could agree on abolishing!!
By Van
April 21, 2006 03:59 PM | Link to this
Garrett and Dan,
Problem is we have a handful of parties as it is.A list of parties The other parties can not gather the votes or finances needed to make an impact, the closest was Ross Perot, he received 18.9% of the popular vote but alas, no electoral votes. This was on his own money.
If people want to have socialism, vote the DSA, or one of the several worker parties.
By Dan
April 21, 2006 04:11 PM | Link to this
I guess the real intent is we need another significant party. If another party either existing or new gained sufficient strength to compel real debate and actionable ideas it would be a good thing. Much like the business worlds rule of 3. Meaning you need at least 3 players in the mix to foster real competition and growth. I did like Perot simply for that reason, of course afterwards when he started ranting about UFOs and such I was kind of glad he didn’t get in.
By MarkMyWords
April 21, 2006 06:13 PM | Link to this
Finally…An Idea Who’s Time Has Come…Again!
In all honesty, this is not merely a great idea…it is imperative in these times becuase this nation is in no-mans land and staying here another 3 years under BushCo with no possibilities of a choice other than the two hopless and helpless parties we have will guarantee that nothing will change.
We need another Ross Perot type choice again.
By John Aliff
April 21, 2006 09:30 PM | Link to this
Ted Kennedy is trying yto recruit illegals as voters. The moiddkle class can’t win. lOOK AT lOW dOBBS, HE IS TELLING THE REAL STORY.
By John Aliff
April 21, 2006 09:35 PM | Link to this
Look at CNN’s Lou Dobbs, he is telling the real story. Ted Kennedy is selling the middle class for potential illegals votes. The great Ronald Reagan said that “More people mean more economic opportunity.” You wonder why the Repulicans were so slow to respond to this issue? The ideologues don’t think it is a real problem. Whigs arise!
By Jerry Wheeler
April 22, 2006 07:03 AM | Link to this
Today is Earth Day and Americans and mostly the American News Media has got to give ourselves a break. Yes to all the above regarding the killing of Nature. Yes we have done and yes we will continue to do it. But, if you listen to not only the Anti-American News Media but even our own Media you can’t help but believe we must be the worse people on this Earth. It just isn’t so! I am in Abu Dhabi, the UAE today and I work and fly all over the world, There is No Place Like Home. And, there are no greater people than the Middle American People. The ones working harder and harder ever day and not shooting their mouths off or trying to make the World Theirs according to Garp. Every single person I talk to around the world almost cry when they tell me how much they wish they could get to America. I met a wonderful Palistinia person here in Abu Dhabi a few days ago, they were born in Abu Dhabi, UAE and yet they have no Pass Port and she was one of millions of the same nationality who can not visit their own Country. It is amazing to see what is going on around the World and the human suffering. I absolutly thank God I was born American!
By Kay
April 22, 2006 11:57 AM | Link to this
Thanks AJC and John Aliff for the column. I’m not a youngster, but I just realized that all these years I’ve been looking for a Whig candidate to vote for. Bring ‘em on. My voting strategy up to now has been to vote (mostly) anti-incumbent.
By Charley van Rotterdam
April 30, 2006 03:11 AM | Link to this
I’d love to take credit for this but alas it needs to go to John Cleese of monty Pyton fame.
To the citizens of the United States of America. >
In light of your failure to elect a competent President of the USA and thus to govern yourselves, we hereby give notice of the revocation of your independence, effective today.
Her Sovereign Majesty Queen Elizabeth II resumes monarchical duties over all states, commonwealths and other territories. Except Utah, which she does not fancy.
Your new prime minister (The Right Honourable Tony Blair, MP for the 97.8% of you who have, until now, been unaware there’s a world outside your borders) will appoint a Minister for America. Congress and the Senate are disbanded. A questionnaire circulated next year will determine whether any of you noticed.
To aid your transition to a British Crown Dependency, the following rules are introduced with immediate effect:
Look up “revocation” in the Oxford English Dictionary. Check “aluminium” in the pronunciation guide. You will be amazed at just how wrongly you pronounce it. The letter ‘U’ will be reinstated in words such as ‘favour’ and ‘neighbour’. Likewise you will learn to spell ‘doughnut’ without skipping half the letters. Generally, you should raise your vocabulary to acceptable levels. Look up “vocabulary.” Using the same twenty seven words interspersed with filler noises such as “like” and “you know” is an unacceptable and inefficient form of communication. Look up “interspersed.” There will be no more ‘bleeps’ in the Jerry Springer show. If you’re not old enough to cope with bad language then you should not have chat shows.
There is no such thing as “U.S. English.” We’ll let Microsoft know on your behalf. The Microsoft spell-checker will be adjusted to take account of the reinstated letter ‘u’.
You should learn to distinguish English and Australian accents. It really isn’t that hard. English accents are not limited to cockney, upper-class twit or Mancunian (Daphne in Frasier). Scottish dramas such as ‘Taggart’ will no longer be broadcast with subtitles.You must learn that there is no such place as Devonshire in England. The name of the county is “Devon.” If you persist in calling it Devonshire, all American States will become “shires” e.g. Texasshire Floridashire, Louisianashire.
You should relearn your original national anthem, “God Save The Queen”, but only after fully carrying out task 1.
You should stop playing American “football.” There’s only one kind of football. What you call American “football” is not a very good game. The 2.1% of you aware there is a world outside your borders may have noticed no one else plays “American” football. You should instead play proper football. Initially, it would be best if you played with the girls. Those of you brave enough will, in time, be allowed to play rugby (which is similar to American “football”, but does not involve stopping for a rest every twenty seconds or wearing full kevlar body armour like nancies).
You should stop playing baseball. It’s not reasonable to host an event called the ‘World Series’ for a game which is not played outside of America. Instead of baseball, you will be allowed to play a girls’ game called “rounders,” which is baseball without fancy team stripe, oversized gloves, collector cards or hotdogs.
July 4th is no longer a public holiday. November 2nd will be a new national holiday. It will be called “Indecisive Day.”> 8. All American cars are hereby banned. They are crap and it is for your own good. When we show you German cars, you will understand what we mean. All road intersections will be replaced with roundabouts, and you will start driving on the left. At the same time, you will go metric without the benefit of conversion tables. Roundabouts and metrication will help you understand the British sense of humour.
Learn to make real chips. Those things you call French fries are not real chips. Fries aren’t French, they’re Belgian though 97.8% of you (including>the guy who discovered fries while in Europe) are not aware of a country called Belgium. Potato chips are properly called “crisps.” Real chips are thick cut and fried in animal fat. The traditional accompaniment to chips is beer which should be served warm and flat.
The cold tasteless stuff you call beer is actually lager. Only proper British Bitter will be referred to as “beer.” Substances once known as “American Beer” will henceforth be referred to as “Near-Frozen Gnat’s Urine,” except for the product of the American Budweiser company which will be called “Weak Near-Frozen Gnat’s Urine.” This will allow true Budweiser (as manufactured for the last 1000 years in Pilsen, Czech Republic) to be sold without risk of confusion.
The UK will harmonise petrol prices (or “Gasoline,” as you will be permitted to keep calling it) for those of the former USA, adopting UK petrol prices (roughly $6/US gallon, get used to it).
Learn to resolve personal issues without guns, lawyers or therapists. That you need many lawyers and therapists shows you’re not adult enough to be independent. If you’re not adult enough to sort things out without suing someone or speaking to a therapist, you’re not grown up enough to handle a gun.
John Cleese Basil Fawlty, Fawlty Towers, Torquay, Devon, England]