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By Karoun Demirjian (contact) 
Saturday, Nov. 24, 2012 | 2 a.m.
In fringe politics, throwbacks are in fashion. Libertarians gained strength in their call to return to original constitutional principles when Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul, a believer in the cause, championed it in the 2012 campaign. Tea Partyers have donned tricorn hats and called for revolutions like it’s 1776. Yet despite the surge of historical homage, no one in Nevada actually has tried to resuscitate a past political movement. Until now. As of Monday, the Whig Party — which fell into political extinction around the time of the Civil War — is back in Nevada, recognized as an official minor ...
I must admit that I winced a couple of times when reading my responses above, but I can not complain.
This only underscores something else I said, that my personal goal is to find better trained and qualified people who are attracted by the principles the Modern Whigs stand for and to hand over the reins as soon as possible.
You can find the core principles of the Modern Whig Party here: http://www.modernwhig.org/handbook/who-a...
A recent story about the national Party mentioned in passing that the way a policy stance was arrived at was just as important (and possibly more so) than the stance itself. That is a reasonable statement to make. Any final position on a given issue must be the result of rational argument stemming from premises based on the core principles.
Yes, there are rough edges right now as Ms. Demirjian points out, but that does not mean the Modern Whigs are wrong in making the effort to break the mold of two and only two major voices in politics today.
Jim Bacon
Chairman, Whig Party of Nevada
A special shout out to our LVS fellow commenter and friend Jim Bacon. Best wishes to you and the Modern Whig Party.
Natural law party, tea party, tequillia party, labor party, lots of Parties. I count 13 including the whig
http://nvsos.gov/index.aspx?page=114
http://nvsos.gov/Modules/ShowDocument.as...
Well, anything that can get RefNV to make a friendly post can't be all bad. A friendly post by Freeman is as rare as boftx praising the POTUS.
A rare event indeed.
On another but somewhat related topic. Is the Republican party going to continue their fight against the none of these candidates ballot option?? It was stayed, but I guess they can continue to fight the judge's ruling.
mred,
You might find it interesting that the bylaws for the Nevada Whig Party requires that "None of the above" appear on all nomination ballots and that if it should the first time, a second nomination ballot with new names must be presented. If it should win a second time then no candidate will be put forward for the office in question.
I would like to see "NOTA" have some real teeth in our State elections.
Seems this guy is a little out touch if he thinks Nevada still has a "Libertarian streak". That's a friggin' joke, thanks to his fellow Californian's Nevada is a liberal, big government Democrat Party stronghold. And even if he were able to get any real interest in his pursuit, I hope he has a thick skin. Because the Bolsheviks that run the Democrat Party don't take kindly to any attempts to horn into their rule. So, be expected to be tarred as an "exremist, racist, woman-hater" because these are the tools of their ugly trade when it comes power grabbing and retaining that power.
When Henry Clay spoke of the Whig political party, he stated, "Government is a trust, and the officers of the government are trustees. And both the trust and the trustees are created for the benefit of the people."
We don't have this today in American politics. Both the Democrats and Republicans have clearly breached the trust factors when looking at America as a whole.
Yes, finding this line of trust to provide for a diversified America would be quite difficult universally to find and walk; but it is not impossible by any means.
I've been ready to commit my political allegiance to the "Whig Party". However, I'm not so sure the Whig Party is ready for me. I can and probably would without intent, do them more harm than good. These Las Vegas Sun discussion rooms easily prove that I am not on good terms with either the majority of journalists, or commentators from both the Democratic or Republican Parties.
Jim Bacon makes a fine chairman for the Nevada Whigs. I personally believe if he ran for office, he would be an exceptionally fine representative for the People of Nevada. But, I respect his decision not to become a politician and remain as a Party administrator. Either way, Jim will do a fantastic job.
The Modern Whigs are GOP to the core. Against womens right to choose, against marriage equality and virtually all social issues are for a church state. I see nothing modern there. Just a bunch of rural gop that want to distance themselves from the looneys at the Tea party.
Whigs are religous righters. No thanks.
The last President of the Whig Party was Millard Fillmore who is consistently ranked historically with the bottom ten US Presidents. After the Whig Party ceased to exist, Fillmore joined the anti-immigrant, anti-Catholic American Party, the political organ of the Know-Nothing movement.
The Millard Fillmore Medal of Mediocrity Award is given each January around the time of Fillmore's birthday. It honors "mediocrity to combat the rising tide of overachievers."
So what is the purpose in using the name "Whig" if it does not have substantial connections to the previous Whig party - which is little more than a corrupted fossil in the archive of political parties?
(Mallard Fillmore is the comic strip by Bruce Tinsley)
IMO our government (congress) has decided it is going to cater to the rich (for donations) and to the ever increasing poor (for votes), and the folks left to support themselves and their families will be shat upon and handed the bills.
There is little semblance of fairness in policy coming from government at any level and those constantly being screwed (the majority) are getting very, very tired of it.
So talk of new parties or leaving the union or whatever will only continue to increase.
"Just a bunch of rural GOP that want to distance themselves from the looneys at the Tea party."
--------------------
Heh.. :-)
I'm happy to see another individual wanting to participate in democracy on another level. I too became disenfranchised from the Republican Party several years back, but I predict the Whigs will become just another home for the whack-nuts looking for heaven for the like-minded. We have A LOT of 'em here in Nevada, so the Whigs could thrive.
BChap said:
"I've been ready to commit my political allegiance to the "Whig Party". However, I'm not so sure the Whig Party is ready for me. I can and probably would without intent, do them more harm than good. "
I say:
Ummmmmmmmmmmm, yeppers, you are 100% correct.
So who says the media and reporters are not influenced by commentary?
Jim Bacon; for the Nevada Whig Party to become a formidable political party, it shall require a much larger membership than this party has now. This means that new membership to the party would have to come predominately from both present Democrats and Republicans. I have just too many politically irreconcilable differences with both Republicans and Democrats. I have to conclude that as the Nevada Whigs stand presently, this organization politically speaking is as close to pure as it will ever get. It is fair to say as the party grows, so will the levels of poisonous politics being played within its ranks.
The 4:11 PM post in this column proves my point of precisely these type individuals..
Bradley,
Everything has to start somewhere. This is a grassroots effort, or if you prefer, a bootstrap operation. (If our policy stances can be said to be "open source" we might as well keep the computer terms in play.)
I am not dismayed by the negative comments on this story. If nothing else they indicate that people are reading it, and there are other indicators that some, at least, are looking at it further.
The important thing is to take action in some fashion instead of merely complaining about and then accepting what one considers a sub-optimal situation.
On a side note, I want to point out that so far as I know the Whigs are the only party that allows both members and non-members alike to comment on the party website in response to policies and open forum discussions. Not even the Libertarians do that (as of the last time I checked.)
Jim
Who says "Old Hippies" and "Skinheads" can't find common ground ;-) ( only Jim will get that joke, folks ! )
Great article on the party there, Jim. Congrats! Now let's go produce a few candidates !
Nick wrote : The Modern Whigs are GOP to the core. Against womens right to choose, against marriage equality and virtually all social issues are for a church state. Whigs are religous righters.
um ... I count myself on the Whigs side. I'm not GOP, don't particularly like the GOP nor the Dems, am for women's rights (to choose or otherwise), for marriage (by any definition you want to call it), and for many social programs, and I'm not religious .... but, as Jim already mentioned, I'm for being responsible and being a good steward and doing what is practical, not what makes the masses overjoyed.
And guess what Nick, there are a lot of other folks just like me and just like Jim in Nevada, as well as in the lesser parts of these United States;-) Deal with it... times, they are a changing.
Sorry Jim, no thanks.
Any new party that is against our great PRESIDENT
OBAMA is no friend of mine or the majority of
Americans.
The DEMOCRATIC PARTY has all of your issues
covered and more.
DEMOCRATS FOREVER!!!
Jim Bacon; hopefully you are not taking my comments the wrong way. I think you are a fine representative for the Nevada Whig Party.
I just think the biggest problem Nevada Whigs will encounter is gaining membership in large numbers who truly care about country over anything else. I truly hope I am wrong.
Bradley,
No worries, I understood what you meant. I was referring to negative comments by others. That is the problem that any centrist or moderate party is going to face.
It is not in the nature of being a moderate to become especially active, and independents tend to not want to group up. The objective now is to encourage people to break out of the mindset that only the two current major parties are legitimate.
Again, for those reading, there are significant numbers of moderates in both the Democrats and Republicans who are not that far apart from each other. Combine them with the centrist independents, and there is the makings of a strong, pragmatic party like the Modern Whigs.
We don't want, or need, the extremes from any party, we do want and need the rational middle.
Dan,
I saw that post and had to laugh.
From our core beliefs: "5.Social Acceptance -When the government is compelled to legislate morality (laws), every citizen should be considered as equal. Our Constitution empowers us to be the vanguard of social acceptance, and here we should be leading the world BY EXAMPLE."
Again, from our stances: "While our members range from deeply religious to completely secular, we are realistic. .... The Constitution is steeped in natural law and guarantees freedom of religious expression and a secular government."
I doubt very much that the religious right-wing of the Republican Party would accept either of those statements in their entirety.
Rather than rely on some comments made here, I urge people to read our stances for themselves and then decide where the truth lies.
http://www.modernwhig.org/handbook/who-a...