American Freedom Party

American Freedom Party
Chairperson William D. Johnson
Founded 2010
Headquarters Westminster, California, United States
Ideology Paleoconservatism
White nationalism
Third Position
Political position Fiscal: Third Position
Social: Far-right
International affiliation None
Seats in the Senate None
Seats in the House None
Website
american3rdposition.com

The American Freedom Party (formerly the American Third Position Party or A3P) is a third position American political party that promotes white nationalism.[1][2][3][4] In November 2009 it filed papers to get on a ballot in California, and was launched in January 2010.[5] According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, it was created to channel the right-wing populist resentment engendered by the financial crisis of 2007–2010 and the policies of the Obama administration.[6]

Leadership

The party chairman is Los Angeles attorney William Daniel Johnson. Long Beach State University professor of psychology Kevin B. MacDonald has been named one of the eight party Directors, and is also a principal contributor to The Occidental Quarterly[7][8] where he has contributed articles claiming that a suite of traits that he attributes to Jews, including higher-than-average verbal intelligence and ethnocentricism, have eugenically and culturally evolved to enhance the ability of Jews to out-compete non-Jews for resources. MacDonald believes this advantage has been used by a number of Jews to advance Jewish group interests and end potential antisemitism by either deliberately or inadvertently undermining the power and self-confidence of the European-derived majorities in the Western world.[9][10][11]

A 2006 article in The Nation magazine reports that MacDonald's 2004 Understanding Jewish Influence: A Study in Ethnic Activism "has turned MacDonald into a celebrity within white nationalist and neo-Nazi circles."[12] Writing in the Journal of Church and State, Professor George Michael noted that MacDonald's work "has been well received by those in the racialist right, as it amounts to a theoretically sophisticated justification for anti-Semitism," and that on the far right MacDonald "has attained a near reverential status and is generally considered beyond reproach".[13]

Electoral activities

William Johnson, Chairman of A3P, speaking at a Tea Party rally.

New Hampshire state party chairman Ryan Murdough ran in the Republican primary for a seat representing the Eighth District of the Grafton County delegation to the New Hampshire House of Representatives,[14] but he was refused support by the Republican party, which called him a "despicable racist".[15] He placed fifth out of five candidates in the Republican primary, garnering 296 votes (11%).[16] Murdough was the National Political Director for the National Socialist American Labor Party, a party which espouses Nazi beliefs.[17]

In November 2009 the American Third Position Party filed papers with the office of the Secretary of State of California, hoping to become a fully ballot-accessible party by the time of the June 2010 California primary election.[18] However, the party failed to qualify and did not get on the 2010 ballot in California[19] or any other state.[20] The party received enough signatures to get Harry Bertram on the ballot for the 2011 West Virginia gubernatorial special election.[21] Bertram's campaign ran a television ad emphasizing his desire to advance the interests of white Americans. Bertram was soundly defeated in the election, coming in last place out of 5 candidates on the ballot and netting only 1,111 votes; less than 0.4 percent of the total.[22]

2012 presidential election

In January 2012, the American Third Position Party announced Merlin Miller as its presidential nominee for the 2012 presidential election. Virginia Abernethy was announced as his running mate.[23] According to an AmericanFreedomUnion.com posting, they obtained ballot access in Colorado, New Jersey, and Tennessee.[24]

2016 presidential election

Kenn Gividen was nominated by the party as its candidate for president and Bob Whitaker was nominated for vice president on March 2015.[25] Kenn resigned from the nomination on 26 July 2015 after holding the role for 4 months; Whitaker then stepped into the role as candidate for president.[26] Whitaker, best known for coining the phrase “White Genocide” to describe the declining percentage of whites in the United States, held the role for 9 months until he resigned from the nomination on 7 April 2016.[27]

Electoral results

Year Office Candidate On the ballot as Votes Position
2011 Governor of West Virginia Harry Bertram American Third Position 1,111 (0.37%)[28] 5/5
2012 West Virginia House of Delegates, District 51 Harry Bertram American Third Position 1,110 (0.88%)[29] 11/11
2012 President of the United States Merlin Miller & Virginia Abernethy American Third Position 2,703 (0.00%)[30] 18/27
2016 President of the United States TBD American Freedom Party TBD [31] TBD

2012 hacking incident

In early February 2012 members of the hacker group Anonymous released statements claiming to have hacked the website of the party and various forums and email accounts connected with the group, including that of Jamie Kelso, the website's operator.[32][33] The front page of the party's website was defaced with #OpBlitzkrieg (the designated name used in January 2012 for a series of Anonymous cyber-attacks on German Neo-Nazi websites) and private information about the organization's members was released.[34]

Name change

On February 1, 2013, the party's website carried an announcement that the party was changing its name to "American Freedom Party", although the values and mission would remain unchanged.

References

  1. ↑ "Ron Paul campaign denies white supremacist ties alleged by Anonymous". Yahoo! News. February 3, 2012. Retrieved February 18, 2012.
  2. ↑ Larry Keller. "New White Supremacist Party has Mass Electoral Ambitions". Southern Poverty Law Center. Retrieved February 3, 2012.
  3. ↑ Alison Knezevich (June 15, 2011). "Labor changing mind on Tomblin?". The Charleston Gazette.
  4. ↑ Sanya Khetani (February 1, 2012). "Anonymous Has Revealed The British National Party's Links To An American White Supremacist Group". Business Insider. Retrieved February 18, 2012.
  5. ↑ "American Third Position". Web.archive.org. Archived from the original on January 23, 2010. Retrieved 2016-01-30.
  6. ↑ Southern Poverty Law Center (Spring 2010). "Prof Has New Job Running Racist Political Party: Academic Anti-Semitism". Archived from the original on April 24, 2010. Retrieved April 28, 2010.
  7. ↑ "Controversial CSULB professor MacDonald is director of new political party". Presstelegram.com. Retrieved 2016-01-30.
  8. ↑ Arellano, Gustavo (2010-01-21). "Long Beach State Professor Kevin MacDonald Helps Mainstream a New White Supremacist Political Party". OC Weekly. Retrieved 2016-01-30.
  9. ↑ MacDonald, Kevin. "Understanding Jewish Influence I: Background Traits For Jewish Activism" (PDF). Toqonline.com. Retrieved 2016-01-30.
  10. ↑
  11. ↑ Kevin MacDonald:Understanding Jewish Influence III: Neoconservatism as a Jewish Movement. TOQonline.com. Retrieved on October 25, 2011.
  12. ↑ The Nation Archived February 9, 2010, at the Wayback Machine.
  13. ↑ George Michael. "Professor Kevin MacDonald's Critique of Judaism: Legitimate Scholarship or the Intelleetualization of Anti-Semitism?" (PDF). Kevinmacdonald.net. Retrieved 2016-01-30.
  14. ↑ Ray Duckler (July 11, 2010). "Candidate: Keep state's complexion white". Concord Monitor. Archived from the original on July 16, 2010. Retrieved July 17, 2010.
  15. ↑ "John DiStaso's Granite Status: State GOP rejects Ashland NH House candidate as 'despicable racist'". New Hampshire Union-Leader. July 7, 2010. Archived from the original on June 20, 2013.
  16. ↑ "REPUBLICAN : STATE REPRESENTATIVES : GRAFTON COUNTY" (PDF). Sos.nh.gov. Retrieved 2016-01-30.
  17. ↑ "The National Socialist American Labor Party". N.S.A.L.P. Archived from the original on January 8, 2011. Retrieved February 22, 2013.
  18. ↑ Office of the California Secretary of State, "County Clerk/Registrar of Voters (CC/ROV) Memorandum #09175," by Deirdre Avent (November 13, 2009 - retrieved on January 13, 2010).
  19. ↑ "Qualified Political Parties for the General Election". 2010. Archived from the original on September 15, 2010. Retrieved September 28, 2010.
  20. ↑ "American Third Position Web Page Most-Visited of Any U.S. Political Party". Retrieved January 29, 2016.
  21. ↑ Sos.wv.gov Archived July 21, 2011, at the Wayback Machine.
  22. ↑ "News from The Associated Press". Hosted.ap.org. 2011-10-05. Retrieved 2016-01-30.
  23. ↑ American3rdposition.com Archived January 11, 2012, at the Wayback Machine.
  24. ↑ "American Eagle Party Ready to Soar". AmericanFreedomUnion.com. Retrieved January 29, 2016.
  25. ↑ Ziggler, Jed (2015-03-23). "Kenn Gividen & Bob Whitaker to Run for President & Vice President for the American Freedom Party". Independent Political Report. Retrieved 2016-04-13.
  26. ↑ "Kenn Gividen Steps Down as American Freedom Party Presidential Nominee, Bob Whitaker to Take His Place at the Top of the Ticket", Independent Political Report. July 26, 2015.
  27. ↑ "Bob Whitaker Resigns from American Freedom Party Presidential Ticket". Independent Political Report. April 7, 2016. Retrieved April 7, 2016.
  28. ↑ "WV SOS - Elections - Election Results - Online Data Services". Apps.sos.wv.gov. 2011-10-04. Retrieved 2016-01-30.
  29. ↑ West Virginia gubernatorial special election, 2011#cite note-25 West Virginia SOS Elections, accessed November 10, 2012.
  30. ↑ "2012 Presidential General Election Results" (PDF). Uselectionatlas.org. Retrieved 2016-01-30.
  31. ↑ "2012 Presidential General Election Results" (PDF). Uselectionatlas.org. Retrieved 2016-01-30.
  32. ↑ Gianluca Mezzofiore (February 1, 2012). "Ron Paul, the American Third Position Party and Stormfront". International Business Times. Retrieved February 4, 2012.
  33. ↑ "Ron Paul campaign denies white supremacist ties alleged by Anonymous". Retrieved February 4, 2012.
  34. ↑ "'ANONYMOUS' hits White Supremacist sites". Intelwire. February 1, 2012. Retrieved February 4, 2012.

External links

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