Where Have All The Whigs Gone?
The nation was at war in a foreign land. The President was popular, so popular that
even the opposition found that they could not criticize him or his war without
being branded as unpatriotic. Of
course, there were always the rare exceptions.
One member of the Congress from the Midwest was vocal in his opposition
to the President and his war, demanding to see concrete proof of the so-called
provocation. This daring member, who
tragically died while in service to the public, was ostracized by members of
his own party, who thought it much more prudent and advantageous to embrace the
President and his war than to oppose it.
The daring Midwesterner?
No, not the late Sen. Paul Wellstone of Minnesota, but the late
Congressman Abraham Lincoln of Illinois.
The popular President was not George W. Bush, but James K. Polk, and his
war was the Mexican-American War. The
party in power was the Democratic Party, and the opposition was the Whig Party.
When President Polk asked for a Congressional blessing of
the war against the hated Mexicans, Lincoln introduced some resolutions that
earned him the derogatory nickname “Spot”.
You see, the justification for the war against the hated Mexicans was dubious
at best, as Polk and the Democrats claimed that American blood was shed on
American soil, although it was debatable as to who shot first and, most
importantly, whether the incident actually occurred on American soil. It was understood that Polk and the
Democrats were trying to bait Mexico into a war in order to gain possession of
New Mexico and California, which had mineral wealth, and, more importantly,
would provide new territories for the expansion of slavery and the preservation
of the free-state/slave-state balance in the Senate. (States were admitted in pairs, one free and one slave, in order
to preserve the balance, but there was more free territory than slave
territory, which would eventually upset the balance.) Thus, because of this ulterior motive, Lincoln had good reason to
doubt the validity of the “official” justification for the war, and asked that
the exact spot where American blood was shed on American soil be identified, so
as the eliminate all further doubts. Of
course, that spot was never identified; instead, Lincoln was ridiculed by not
only the Democrats but also his own party, the Whigs, as some sort of peacenik,
unpatriotic nut. (Sounds very familiar
to Wellstone, doesn’t it?)
We all know what happened next. Within twenty years, the Whig Party had ceased to exist, and Mr.
Lincoln had built a coalition of disgruntled Whigs and Democrats who were
opposed to the status quo (the Republican Party) and became arguably the
greatest President that this nation has ever known.
What happened to the Whigs to go from occupying the White
House to nonexistence in under ten years?
First and foremost was the “If you can’t beat them, join them”
mentality. The Whigs became so envious
of Democratic success that they decided that the best way to win elections was
to become more like the Democrats themselves.
However, by blurring the line between themselves and the Democrats the
Whigs ended up eliminating the line altogether. Where the Mexican War was concerned, the Whigs nominated one of
the heroes of the war, Zachary Taylor.
Some opposition. Without a real
ideological difference between the two parties, the copycat party ceased to be,
for when given a choice between a copycat and the real McCoy, a person is going
to choose the genuine article.
The second factor leading to the extinction of the Whigs was
the blandness and colorlessness of the Whig candidates. Can someone tell me Zachary Taylor’s claim
to fame as a President? (He died in
office after getting sick from eating too many iced cherries on a hot July
4.) What about his successor, Millard
Fillmore? Franklin Pierce, the Democrat
who defeated Fillmore, will never stand out as one of the great Presidents, or
even a good one (he was mediocre, at best), but he had more charisma than Fillmore,
who had none. Because the Whig
candidates were so bad, even lousy Democrats like Pierce and Buchanan were able
to get elected, because they were not as bad.
Sadly, the Democrats are quickly becoming the Whigs of the
early twenty-first century, and are an endangered, especially in Texas. The Democrats not only did not win any
statewide office, with one exception, they lost resoundingly. In Dallas County, of the twenty-five plus
countywide races, the Democrats won only one, and that Democrat was actually a
turn-coat Republican.
I have been asked repeatedly why a lifelong Democrat would
defect to a third party with little chance of ever winning. The election of 2002 is why; I predicted
this outcome to Democrats I know more than a year ago. The Democrats, with the notable exception of
the late Paul Wellstone, have lost their voice. They are intent on being Republicans. How many Democrats have come out against attacking Iraq? Very few.
How many stood up and said that El Commidante’s economic policies are
bad for Americans? Very few. Shrub wants a tax cut, and the Democrats
roll over. Shrub wants to take away our
civil liberties, and the Democrats ask, “How many?” Shrub wants to invade a sovereign nation, and the Democrats have
giving it their blessing. Let’s just
throw out the two party system altogether and coronate the occupant of the
White House as King, Lord High Protector, and Ruler. Let’s forget about standing up for the people against the tyranny
of the government.
The Democrats are so pathetic that their candidates here in
Texas actually ran ads touting their loyalty to the Usurper in the White
House. Even though he is of a different
political ideology!! It’s groveling for
votes, and it is shameful. And it
didn’t work. After all, the voters are
not stupid—if they want a Republican, they will actually vote for a Republican,
not a Democrat who wants to be a Republican.
Here is a warning to those of my former political persuasion
– if you all do not change your ways, in ten years there will be as many
Democrats as there are Whigs – none.
The Democratic Party better change things, and change things quickly, or
it will cease to exist. First and
foremost, the Democrats need to find their voice. There is nothing at all unpatriotic about standing up to the
tyranny of the government. Period. The Patriots did not think of themselves as
unpatriotic standing up to Parliament; in fact, they considered it unpatriotic
to not make their voices heard. The
Confederates did not consider themselves unpatriotic for standing up against
what they perceived to be the tyranny of the national government, even though
the chances of success were remote at best.
The Civil War was a bloody event, hopefully one that will never be
repeated, but it was a necessary evil to deliver the country from the
Democratic hegemony that had settled in.
If the Whigs hadn’t been such cowards, and would have stood up to the
Democrats, the Civil War might not have ever occurred, and tens of thousands of
lives would have been spared. There was
a reason why Lincoln was detested by both Northerners and Southerners alike,
for he was one of the solitary voices willing to stand up against the hegemony
of both sides.
The second thing the Democrats need if they are to survive
are good, likable candidates. Even if I
had not defected, I still would not have voted for many of the Democratic
candidates, because they were just bad, period. Because the Democratic candidates for Senator and Governor were
so bad, it negatively affected the candidate for Lieutenant Governor, a good
candidate, because people were turned off of the Democratic Party en
masse. As I have tried to impress on my
fellow Libertarians, it’s better to have no candidate than a bad one, as bad
ones bring the whole party down.
I do not like the idea of a one-party state, which the
United States is quickly devolving into.
Remember, such bastions of liberty as China and Cuba are one-party
states. One party states are dangerous,
and begat totalitarianism. Hopefully, the
Democrats can come to their senses before it’s too late, as I do not see
another Mr. Lincoln, a person who can create a successful party out of nothing,
on the horizon.
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