From the Las Vegas Sun: 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 party, open to registrants and, potentially, ballot
access.
The Modern Whig Party of Nevada,
as it is calling itself, essentially is one man: Jim Bacon, a
59-year-old software engineer who moved to Nevada from California in
2007.
He has made a sleek website, featuring chat boards and articles that
jovially poke fun at his organization with phrases such as “Gettin’
Whiggy With It.” He also has grand plans for the party’s expansion.
“I really think that the Whig philosophy is a natural fit with Nevada’s streak of libertarianism,” he said in an interview.
Turning the party into a significant political power may seem a
little ambitious for a guy who admits to having only about 50 names of
people who have expressed a passing interest in the Whig Party.
But Bacon is linked into a much broader national movement of Modern Whigs,
which claims to have chapters in all 50 states and the District of
Columbia, though it is not clear how many have official recognition from
their state governments.
“The Modern Whigs were started by active-duty servicemen in
Afghanistan and Iraq. For my own involvement, I basically was very
disappointed with the quality of candidates we had for Senate in 2010,”
Bacon said. “I looked at the Libertarians, but there are a number of
policy stances they have that I just can’t agree with. And then my
stepson said to me, ‘You’re just an old Whig!’ So I went digging,
brushed up on my history, and I realized that he was right.” http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2012/nov/24/rebirth-relic-whig-party-rises-again-nevada/
Hey, who knows, maybe they can make a comeback. It certainly a better option of what we have now, with both parties acting in their own interests and not the public's.
But we will see what happens if the Modern Whigs get into some power and money and see what their values become.
Here is their web sites: http://www.modernwhig.org/
And
http://www.whigsofnevada.org/
Good luck.
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