Can Whigs Make a Come Back?

Last May, the Wall Street Journal and NBC conducted a poll and found that 31% of citizens were dissatisfied with the "two party system" in the U.S. This week the Wall Street Journal reported on a new party that is trying to eke out a place in U.S. politics and appeal to the "radical center." The party has taken the name "The Modern Whigs", in an attempt to claim the mantel of the radical American patriots and Whigs, who they claim were fundamental to the American Revolution.

The party initially adopted a philosophy that was fiscally conservative and socially liberal, but have already shifted their ideology such that they seek to endorse only "rational." "non-ideological" and "non-partisan" positions - and seek to create a "generation of statesman leaders." These are lofty goals and ones that I doubt are actually attainable, not least because politics  in my view is inherently about disagreement and thus inevitably leads citizens to opposing views on many issues. Of course I am not suggesting that we should be "blind" partisans and merely follow a party position without reflection, but rather that in many cases their are genuine and reasonable differences of opinion about possible courses of action and that there is often no way to determine a unique best policy or outcome.

That said the Modern Whig Party may appeal to centrist voters, especially if it can surmount some of the common impediments to third party sucess that it is already encountering. The party will have difficulty qualifying for a position on the ballot in many states as that requires significant party registrations or signatures - in California the WSJ reports that party has 100 registered voters, but would need 90,000 or 900,000 signatures to qualify for a place on the ballot.

Beyond this significant impediment, the Modern Whigs will no doubt have difficulty raising funds to advertise and promote the party to the public. And believe it or not,  even as a small centrist party, they are already having problems with internal faction. The Florida Whigs, have split from the Modern Whigs as they feel they are too much like Democrats, while the Modern Whigs view the Florida Whigs as closet Republicans. Funny how the major parties in the U.S. can even penetrate the politics of an emerging alernative, an initiative launched by service members who were tired of too much partisanship!