The Whig Party Appears

So, let's just start this off by saying that I didn't even know there WAS a modern American Whig party when I started calling myself a “neo-Whig”. Then, as I mentioned on a recent show, I read where Keith Olbermann labeled himself as “probably a Whig” in an magazine interview. And now, lo and behold, I get a “friends request” on the show's MySpace account for an entity calling itself “The American Whig Party”.

Well, I checked out the info on their site, and they sure do sound a lot like the Whig principles from the middle 19th Century updated for the modern world. I stole the following statement of principles directly off of their site (figuring they wouldn't mind the pub...)

1. No imperial presidency: Congress makes the laws, The Supreme Court interprets the
constitutionality of the laws, and The President administers the Nation.
2. It is the responsibility of Congress to declare wars. When Congress lacks the confidence to
declare a war, we should not engage in warfare. America should use military force without a
declaration of war under extreme or urgent conditions only.
3. It is the responsibility of the government to equitably balance the needs of the public with the
rights of the individual.
4. It is the responsibility of government to protect the civil liberties of its citizens.
5. The government is responsible To care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his
widow, and his orphan.
6. As a great nation, America must respect its neighbors and demonstrate world leadership by
example. The government is obliged to respect the treaties and contracts to which it is a party.
7. Government is responsible for protecting the environment and assuring a stable economy.
8. It is the responsibility of the government to manage the publics resources, to maximize the
public good, and to do so with little intrusion into private affairs.
9. Government is accountable to the people for how it administers the public resources.

Their influences were listed as :

Thomas Jefferson
Theodore Roosevelt
Franklin D Roosevelt
Henry Clay
Daniel Webster
Abraham Lincoln

Well...I don't know anything more than what was listed there. But, I sure think I would vote for these guys over Dems or Repubs. What do all of you think?
I will say that there does seem to be a natural vacuum as far as political parties that could attract the mainstream enough to get elected and yet not be so mainstream as to be the Democrats and Republicans. Who knows? As the older folks who grew up in a rigid duopoly give way to younger voters more cynical about the viability of the system new voting shifts become possible.