Introducing: The Modern Whig Leader

Throughout the years, many people have asked us about the meaning of the four stars on our famous — well, let’s say it’s at least recognizable — Whig owl. Some assumed it was just a kind of bunting, but the stars do in fact represent something. Three of them are the three branches of government: judicial, executive and legislative.

The fourth star is the press, often referred to as the Fourth Estate (the phrase was most likely coined by Edmund Burke, who stands at the beginning of our philosophical line). In our day and age, the press is often maligned, and often for good reason. We’re certainly not being well-served at the moment.

 But despite the foibles and oddities of cable news and the fractured business environment of the news industry, we still rely on the press for our information. We cannot know, nor can we understand, what is happening in our communities, our country or the world without the press, let alone begin to know or understand why. The press is as vital to the functioning of our democratic republic as government itself.

In that spirit, the Modern Whig Institute has created what is essentially our “house newspaper” — the Modern Whig Leader.

The mission of the Leader is a simple one: civic journalism. As always in the Whig world, our primary focus is on service, and our primary purposes are improvement, progress and the defense of our most cherished principles. The Leader hasn’t been created to play the game of clicks and eyeballs, although we most certainly hope to find an audience. And as always, we don’t court controversy for controversy’s sake.  

Rather, we mean to carry on the tradition established by Adolph Ochs at the New York Times in 1896: to cover the events of the world “without fear or favor.”

To be clear: our business is not the daily coverage of the news, and everything we offer will unabashedly come from a Whig point of view. We’re proud of our philosophy, we believe we have something important to say, and we’re certain we have something valuable to offer our fellow citizens and the world at large.

In these pages, we’ll take the next step and apply the Whig worldview to the analysis of events. We’ll also offer some policy proposals, maybe a few snarky comments from time to time (bursting bags of hot air is a longstanding Whig tradition), some deeper research and a few other things.

In short, quality content for thinking people.

We also expect the Leader, and the Institute, to evolve continuously. This first post is by way of an introduction, and to serve a secondary purpose of testing the framework we’ve built. The website is brand new, and we’ve only completed the first phase of its development, so we want to make sure we’re on the right track. We’re also at the end of Phase I of the Institute’s own relaunch.

So, there’s much more to come, and we can’t say today what all of it will be or when all of it will happen. That’s part of the fun. We’re on an adventure, and we can’t possibly know where we’ll go, what we’ll see or where it will take us.

And that brings us to our last item for this introductory post. We hope and expect our civic life to be more than complaints and negativity. We believe in the American can-do spirit, our native optimism and energy. We believe in a joyous America. We make no bones about doing our part to promote the kind of positive energy which made America great to begin with.

Because, make no mistake, we are great. Exceptional, in fact, even if we — or at least some of us — can’t, or won’t, recognize it. And while great does not now, and cannot ever, mean perfect, it’s a (pardon the pun) great starting point.

In that spirit, we hope you will join us by becoming a member. While the content of the Leader is free to the public, only members can participate in the Roundtables or comment on the articles we post. Members will also get the publications in our Pamphlet Program (which comes in Phase II) at no charge, and deep discounts on merchandise and published books (Phase III) when we get to that point.

More importantly, members support us in our central mission of civic research and education (the Whig Academy is under development as we speak) as well as our civic journalism.

But as always, the main value in the Whig world is in the service.

With that in mind, on behalf of the Institute, our members and supporters, and everyone in the wider Whig movement, let me say thank you. We hope you will join us, and we look forward to fulfilling our commitment to authentic public service, even as we insist on that same authenticity in those we elect to govern us.

Kevin J. Rogers is the executive director of the Modern Whig Institute. He can be reached at director@modernwhiginstitute.org

The Modern Whig Institute is a 501(c)(3) civic research and education foundation dedicated to promoting the fundamental American principles of representative government, ordered liberty, capitalism, due process and the rule of law.