The new Whig party!

[Wrote this a couple weeks ago and just realized I forgot to post it.]

Third parties in America are truly hopeless regardless of how many people claim to want another option or register as "independent."  The nature of our electoral game makes it almost impossible for them to achieve electoral success.  (There's a reasonable explanation of "Duverge's Law" at wikipedia).  Nonetheless, I was quite intrigued by this article in Slate about a modern Whig party– mostly because I'm a sucker for the history of 19th Century American political parties.  I actually wrote a paper in graduate school about Abraham Lincoln's (rather late) decision to finally leave the Whig party and become a Republican.  I don't think this new Whig party is going anywhere, but I think I'll pull for them just a little bit.

 

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