The New Whig, Chapter 1

I just spent a few hours writing the first draft of the first chapter to a political book I've been contemplating for quite some time.

I said when I quit the Libertarian Party that I'd have to think about what I am, now that I'm not a Libertarian. I've thought. Although this year I'm going to vote in the Democratic primary and support Obama and other Democratic candidates over Republicans come November, I'm definitely not a Democrat.

I've thought, and read, and thought, and I've decided: I am a Whig.

Not the 19th Century, Millard Fillmore, Henry Clay Whigs. I mean the 18th Century political movement which included virtually all our Founding Fathers. I mean the ideals they agreed upon during the Revolutionary period, which became so universal in the US afterwards that they were taken for granted and forgotten about as the Fathers split into competing political parties.

If you'd like to read the first draft of the first chapter- more than 7,000 words, taking me about five hours to do- here it is. I'll go back and fill in with more (and more accurate) quotations, deeper cites, and a full bibliography later, but this sets down my basic ideas. This is at the heart of what I believe...

... and I really do not think that I'm alone.

I do think, though, that no political party currently in national politics, not even the Libertarians, agrees with what I believe.