A wee-bit-o-Whiggery to ponder on !
January 19th, 2010 | 
Author: Part of our job as modern Whigs , is to help illustrate how the current political paradigms ( models of the way things are done) are vacant, and have become utterly ineffective. Bad framing ( the way a problem or issue is viewed), we might call it. Yet, most of us don’t seem to get it, and we all need to come together and GET IT , NOW!
Here is your Whiggery exercise for the day, the day after MLK day. Plug into Dr. King’s broad , open minded spirit, and focus your thoughts on this… Headline from today’s CNBC online Obama’s ‘Green Energy’ Effort Won’t Create Jobs Quickly
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Ok, forget about what you think of the President, lets remove him from the equation for a second ( ” Excuse me Sir, it’ll help clarify, you’ll see!)
You should be made aware that a basic core modern Whig tenet is the linkage between national security and domestic energy policy. Which is why we caught the headline in the first place. Now, I didn’t say economy, I said national security. Truth be known the way we envision alternative energy today, and its today’s forecasted vision, NOT future reality, there is only modest economic gain predicted from “green” technologies. Yet, if we factor in the $$$$$ we spend to protect the Middle Eastern oil fields, the numbers do something KA’ RAZY , and it is about economics finally.
Ok, now let’s parse out the headline…. WHIGGERY!!!!
1. ” The Obama adminsitration might be tempted” Stop. Tempted?? What does that imply. Remember this is NOT about Barack Obama, its about the paradigm, the model and its “frames”. Tempted? What does that say to motives, long range vision?
2. “To wage a two front war”. Stop. Wage a war. ??? To a Veteran, WAR means you go in and kick someone’s arse who deserves it. It is the last mechanism available to us to protect our freedoms, as in self defense, and defense of a higher law.
But a Policy war? You mean like the “war on drugs”, or the “war on crime”, or the “war on poverty”. You mean like the Vietnam war, where even though OSS professional soldiers told us we couldn’t hold the turf, or win the war, ( in 1958- 1962) we sent our sons in anyway?
Does “war” mean failure to these people?
Well, does it? Because every time we frame something as a “war”, WE LOSE! Ok, my rant as a mission directed Vet alpha male aside, why do we use the word “war” to mean what it doesnt mean? How long have we been at “war” again? Did the People choose these “wars” or are we being “framed”? Again and again. Is there a reason “they” want us “at war” all the time!? I mean, you have to ask the question, don’t you?
Last 3, and I’ll leave you with this one, the most relevant parse of all… “but such a strategy will mean committing to a long campaign”. Stop.
We will skip the wannabe warrior/possibly demogogue stuff implicit in the word ”campaign” and look at the whole phrase. What might strike you as ironic, if you are a parent raising a family, or running a business, or saving for your future, ie., engaging in any form of long term planning, all day, every day, at many different levels, is the phrase ” will mean committing”. Is there a choice on that long committment? We don’t have that option as parents, or CEO’s, or even as individuals. But somehow, to someone we’ve entrusted with “leadership” of the collective, that’s an option!?
SAY WHAT!?!? YA NUTS??!
Well, sad fact is, we have been “nuts” to allow this to carry on. Now, nothing here talks to President Obama’s plans, or to the man himself. What we’ve done is to take a headline, a linguistic representation of many facets of a “system”, and dissaggregate it to analyze what the language tells us. So when a Mod Whig tells you her party is all about process and method, not ideology or philosophy, maybe by carefully parsing the headlines like a good intellignce analyst with no blinders on, you can start to dig where that Whig is coming from.
Its not on the surface you have to look for the soultions, its down low, beneath it all, behind the words, where truth and reality lie. And it’s sure not where ‘they’ tell you it is, now is it?
As Dr. King shows us every year, we have miles to go before we sleep.
Ah, yes, the magic known as Whiggery. Not magic at all, it’s like a new pair of glasses, dreadfully overdue glasses.
Now, do your homework and GET ‘EM ON!!!!!
Gene Chaas, NY Chair, MWP Exec Comm.
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Mod Whig Thoughts on Dr. King.
It is a day for all modern Whigs to take pause and reflect on the life of a great American, Martin Luther King, Jr. He is our American version of Ghandi, both peaceful revolutionaries devoted to unalienable human rights. God treasure your soul Dr. King.
It is fitting for modern Whigs to honor Dr. King’s life as we share many common threads with his life’s work, not least of which is that as slavery destroyed the Whigs of old, so did the struggle for true emancipation tragically end Dr. King’s human life.
Personally, I have used Dr. King’s day of honor as a matter of personal reflection. Do I have freedom, true freedom? Freedom from dependencies, freedom from others’ negative opinions and expectations? While we all as citizens value freedom, and live in one of the most free and open societies, are we truly free yet? From judgment, from prejudice? From usurpers of power? From poverty? One of the reasons I am honored to write this as a modern Whig party officer, is that last year, Dr. King influenced me to step up, take a chance, feel like a grain of sand against a mighty ocean, but stand certain, in the awareness that a true authentic cause, one that can benefit all citizens, is a certainty, only a matter of perseverance and commitment. Adversity is only a positive signal, to redouble your efforts. To drive on.
The good doctor is a model for us all, regardless of background, as citizens around a common ideal. Common ground = common good.
The Modern Whig Party was rekindled by Veterans returning from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan in 2007, initially as a Veterans’ advocacy group. It soon blossomed into a full bore political movement with the stated goal of returning control of the Republic back to its rightful heirs, the citizens. ALL CITIZENS, united on common ground, looking forward into the future, and not backwards in the piles of broken promises of ideology or reform. Our national tenets of socially progressive, yet fiscally conservative policies, of placing methodology above ideology, and re-involving citizens in the political process through self discovery have hit a common cord among Americans from all walks of life. We have been called “ the fastest growing mainstream political movement” and begin 2010 with modern Whig organizations started in over half the states in the Union, and interest in our solutions-based socio-political model growing faster than ever.
Why are we here? We Whigs, that is? One of the driving forces behind the vision of those servicemen, sitting around their tents while not on patrol in Iraq, was the lack of long-range vision, and ineffective policies of our national government. Policies mired in ideological discussions, pork barrel concessions, and expensive implementation that hardly ever produce the desired result.
In 1967, Dr. King’s brain trust issued a statement called The Freedom Budget. In 1967, the Freedom Budget may have been relevant to the disenfranchised, the poor, to Black Americans. Its been over forty years since then, with both main corporate parties at the helm at times. Yet, in forty years, all that has happened to Dr. King’s Freedom Budget is that it no longer solely pertains to the disenfranchised or the poor, but to a greater number of middle Americans, from all walks of life, than ever before. Dr. King’s mission is not over. In fact, its become not a mission of Black Americans, but of middle Americans, of all colors and creeds, just as this Republic was meant to be.
We modern Whigs leave you with one of Dr. King’s greatest works, The Freedom Budget.
1. To provide full employment for all who are willing and able to work, including those who need education or training to make them willing and able.
2. To assure decent and adequate wages to all who work.
3. To assure a decent living standard to those who cannot or should not work.
4. To wipe out slum ghettos and provide decent homes for all Americans.
5. To provide decent medical care and adequate educational opportunities to all Americans, at a cost they can afford.
6. To purify our air and water and develop our transportation and natural resources on a scale suitable to our growing needs.
7. To unite sustained full employment with sustained full production and high economic growth.
God Bless you Dr. King. We’re not done yet; WE’RE ON IT SIR!
Gene Chaas
New York Chairperson
Executive Committee
Modern Whig Party.
www.modernwhig.org
To “Wright” The Republic
“WRIGHT” The REPUBLIC
Across communities, towns and state borders all over the country, Whigs are diligently organizing. What drives us? What motivates us to take time away from families, our hobbies, and sometimes even our jobs to volunteer in what many would believe to be an insurmountable task? What gives? Are Whigs nuts? (as my wife and sons look askance at me )
To the contrary. We see with clear vision precisely what needs to be done. It may not be obvious; it clearly hasn’t been in as long as we can remember. Many have tried. ALL have failed. Give that mission to a core group of Veterans and see what they come up with. Failure is NOT an option.
We set out with some broad tenets, steeped in historical Whig values, of individualism, a gentle hand of government, care for our own communities above the outside world.
We attract like minded citizens who “ get it”. And set out to ferment a quiet revolution of methodology over ideology, of setting out to eliminate many of the ills of today’s governance, partisan bickering, poorly constructed public policy, and most importantly, the virtual disenfranchisement of the average American from the process.
What is our strategic mission? To “wright” the Republic. No more. No less.
Wright. Not the “right” you think of when you hear the word wright in the context of politics.
EXACTLY! Part of our mission as modern Whigs is to expose Americans to a new reality, to a new truth born of two opposing truths that have lost their relevance. Whigs endeavor to break all those old synapses, and introduce new ones, a new way for citizens to view their government, as an extension of their community. Wright.
Wright, as in the craftsmen of old that took raw metal, wood and other materials and crafted tools useful and helpful to the human condition. Craftsmen which you called upon to repair tools and implements that were no longer capable of getting the job done. Wright.
Wright, which sounds like right, as in inalienable human rights, something one is entitled to. We, as citizens, are all entitled to the right of good representation. That is the way modern Whigs are “right”. We believe in the right of all citizens to good representation. We “left” the other “right” behind. Our “right” means the rights bestowed upon us ALL as citizens. The “right” that we all have been granted by our Constitution and Bill of Rights, in the great vision of the mind group called our Founding Fathers.
A basic principle of the human condition, picked up in 9th grade Theology class ( many, MANY moons ago) at McQuaid Jesuit High School in Rochester NY, taught by none other than Father O’Malley, of The Exorcist fame, you cannot have freedom without responsibility. First derivative of that: to maintain your rights, you have to guard them with your activity.
We modern Whigs believe that these rights, which we were told were ours to lose , are indeed near lost. Whether you are rich, or poor, or in the middle, governance has failed us all. Part of the answer lies in that we are trapped, all of us, in a bad, outmoded paradigm, or way of looking at our political selves and how we interact with our political institutions. They have gone beyond our reasonable control, and no one, until now, has been able to find the right levers to pull.
The “wright” levers are the modern Whig levers.
Let us come together and “wright” this Republic for the next ten generations of Americans to flourish in.
The fine line of being “too intellectual” By Mike Lebowitz, Chairman MWP
The following is commentary and not the official viewpoint of the Modern Whig Party, the Whig National Committee or the Whig Party of New York State Committee.
During the 1952 presidential election, Dwight D. Eisenhower defeated Adlai Stevenson in part because Stevenson was labeled as “too intellectual.” It always struck me as odd as to what exactly is wrong with being “too intellectual” for the White House. The only other real intellectual of the Stevenson mold to win the presidency was Woodrow Wilson back in 1912, who prior to politics presided over Princeton University.
Now, we once again have a Stevenson intellectual. Barack Obama is cast as extremely thoughtful and deliberative, just as Stevenson was. Unfortunately, I am now seeing the problem with having an ultra intellectual in the oval office. Case in point is Afghanistan. The past few days have been absolutely brutal as October becomes by far the deadliest month since the 2001 invasion. Prior to the recent death toll, we saw the brazen assault of the isolated Army outpost in eastern Afghanistan, among other attacks. Meanwhile, Obama has been prudent and thoughtful. Those are all good enough, but one important word is missing. That word is action. I’ll also throw in decisiveness. This lack of conviction and decisiveness has effectively neutered any benefits we could gain from Obama’s intellectualism. And that in and of itself should bring even Obama’s most ardent supporters and Nobel committee members to the realization that he is not a savior, but rather a mere mortal like the rest of us. One could say that the inverse of Obama was George W. Bush, a man of action and conviction but most certainly not blessed with outward intellectualism. Perhaps the same can be said about John McCain. Or Eisenhower for that matter. This isn’t a knock on any of these men, but rather a statement of acceptance that leaders will have their strengths and weaknesses, with intellectualism not lording above all else.
One might wonder how different the world would be if Stevenson had defeated Eisenhower. Would we view the 1950s differently? Would the Soviet Union have followed its same trajectory or would its collapse have been delayed or even prevented? Or perhaps more relevant, can an intellectual such as Obama acknowledge the fine line between being “too intellectual” and “effective” in the scope of the current political system and geopolitical dynamic.
In the end, it might all come down to who Obama will trust to help him along. We apparently can rule out Stanley McChrystal and the “generals on the ground.” If we forgo cynicism for a moment and assume Obama is not making political calculations through political advisors, then perhaps his inaction and waffling on Afghanistan is due to the fact that he is either seeking counsel from other people who may be “too intellectual” or is himself “too intellectual” to condescend to take the advice of others in the know. Even Woodrow Wilson, for all his shortcomings, had a man of action in Herbert Hoover to assist during World War I. Hoover, being sharp and aggressive, almost single-handedly converted the domestic economy through the Food Administration to support the war abroad. Of course Hoover is now best known for his term as president where he proved to be neither intellectual or decisive.
The bottom line is that there is a difference between being “smart” and “too intellectual.” Perhaps the strongest leader — even one who may not be the most popular — is a man or woman who is “smart” but also “decisive.” Abraham Lincoln comes to mind. So do Franklin Roosevelt, Teddy Roosevelt, James K. Polk and Harry Truman. We also can place Eisenhower in that category. But unless Obama gets a grip on this soon, we may finally get a glimpse of what a Stevenson presidency would have looked like.
Posted by ModernWhig at 12:22 PM
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Political Uncertainty Puts Freeze on Small Business
As the headline reads from today’s Wall Street Journal.
An excerpt :
“The economy remains unsteady 22 months after the recession began, with banks restricting credit and consumers hunkering down. For these small businesses, and many others across the country, there’s an additional dark cloud: uncertainty created by Washington’s bid to reorganize a wide swath of the U.S. economy.”
Full article here: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125659324579108943.html
Small business is the employment backbone of America, even though large corporations get most of the press.
Our elected representatives are , as is habit now, running their own agenda and not the peoples. Its stops here, with the Whigs and other progressive grass roots movements which have formed recently so the people’s voice can be heard above the din of corporate politics.
Welcome to the Whigs!
Post 9/11 veterans revive historic party to bring common sense back to New York
New York, NY — Revived by veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan, the Modern Whig Party has quickly attracted thousands of members to go along with 26 state chapters. This movement values common sense, rational solutions ahead of ideology and partisan bickering.
The latest rounds of scandal and unproductive partisan bickering in New York is just another acknowledgment that a mainstream organization touting common sense and rational solutions is needed. The post 9/11 veterans that founded the Modern Whig Party set out to build a political movement that places common sense ahead of ideology. The nationwide campaign strategy relates to quality rather than quantity so that national resources and focus is on the most viable candidates rather than merely trotting out as many people as possible just to lose. So far, the realistic, gradual and methodical approach has garnered a solid membership base as well as mainstream attention nationally.
About the Modern Whig Party
Established in 1833, the Whig Party has a long history of carrying the mantle of America’s middle-of-the-road political ideologies. Revived by Iraq and Afghanistan veterans in 2008 as the Modern Whig Party, this grassroots organization stands for common sense legislation; advocating for such issues as fiscal responsibility, strong national defense, energy independence, and social acceptance and scientific advancement. We see the value of independent thinking and the danger of being limited to one distinct ideology. For more information visit: www.modernwhig.org
During the organization phase of this movement, the Modern Whig Party already is recognized as the fastest-growing mainstream political movement in the country. Thousands of moderate Republicans and Democrats have signed on. With an executive committee and national headquarters in Washington, DC, the Modern Whig Party is recapturing the longtime ideals of Jeferson and Lincoln as they build toward being a true party for the rest of us.
Gene Chaas, NY Chair/ National Exec Committee: chairman@nywhig.org
The WHIGS are Back - We Need YOU!!
The Whig Party of New York is a chapter of the Modern Whig Party which was founded by veterans of the war in Iraq and Afghanistan in 2007. Whigs are one of America’s oldest mainstream political parties, the party of four U.S. Presidents including Abraham Lincoln and New York - born Millard Fillmore who was the last sitting Whig President. Modern Whigs represent citizens from all walks of life that cherry pick between traditional Democratic and Republican ideals in what has been called the Modern Whig Philosphy. Whigs support the general tenets of fiscal responsibility, bold social progression, educational/scientific advancement and strong national defense. Whigs are here to change the way government business is done; to move past petty party bickering and persue rational, common sense non-ideological policy solutions.
Why is the resurgence of Whigs planned to be any more successful than previous efforts to dislodge the two party duopoly? We believe that there are two primary reasons why the Modern Whig Party will succeed where the others have failed. One, we are thoroughly grounded in common sense, rational solutions to real problems and are deeply committed to ending the self serving divisions, partisan bickering and ideologies that have plagued our political system for years. We are not a third party, we are THE MIDDLE PARTY, representing middle America. The second reason is timing. Timing is everything in politics and NOW people are ready for the answer folks to come along with common sense solutions. People are beginning to finally wake up and see that our political system is failing its citizens and serving itself. It is up to us – We the People, to use a hackneyed term, to come up with solutions. No one else is going to do it for us! Gandhi once said that we need to be the change we want to see in the world.
The New York Whig Party is comprised of people from all walks of life and all political ideas who are committed to finding common sense solutions to public policy issues, to becoming the go-to Answer Folks. We are former Republicans, Democrats, Independents of all kinds, Decline to State and folks who haven’t registered or voted in years. We are energized by our collective efforts and we see that maybe, with millions of citizens sharing the same collective vision, we can, and will in unison , regain effective representation at all levels of government . We hope that YOU will look at our website, see what we have to say and consider joining the Modern Whig Party in the effort to reclaim America.
Gene Chaas is our State Chairperson Pro Tem and lives with his family in Upstate New York. You can reach him via e-mail at
newyork@modernwhig.org or 716-207-8904
William Cerf is our Metro New York Coordinator. He is a restauranteur from New York City and currently lives in the Flatbush/Ditmas Park section of Brooklyn, NY. You can reach him at
nymetro@nywhig.org
Phone: 718-928-3860
We hope to hear from you and have you participate in one of our Webinars, which will be announced soon on this website.