Alternative Right, Neo-Confederate, Right Wing Politics

The White Genocide Hustle: The American Freedom Party Runs Bob Whitaker for President

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The American Freedom Party made recent news rounds by funding robocalls in Iowa urging Republican primary voters to support Donald Trump.  The calls, many of which were voiced by American Renaissance’s Jared Taylor, mentioned that the U.S. should be inviting in “white people” rather than Syrian refugees.  The party, which was formed as a political extension of the Golden State Skinheads, has shifted slightly as we head into the actual primary elections.  Now they are running their own candidate for office on a third-party bid.  This is not new for them as they ran former filmmaker Merlin Miller back in 2012, when they were going by the American Third Position Party.  Miller, who did not even know what “Third Position” actually meant, regularly embarrassed himself in interviews, having a difficult time keeping up with basic political questions.  He eventually went on international media outlets and declared that Israel was responsible for 9/11, which made the A3P even less relevant than it already was.

Now the AFP is attempting to provide a nationalist alternative to the two main parties by running Bob Whitaker, someone who is relatively well known for those who have been involved in far-right American politics over the decades.  Whitaker’s primary campaign tagline, similar to Trump’s “Make America Great Again,” is “Diversity is a Code Word for White Genocide.”  Though this is not the most catchy line for a bumper sticker, the AFP seems to want to get those who will be upset with Trump’s eventual loss to Ted Cruz and want to double down on their anti-immigrant racism.

Whitaker has had a career that has defined what it means to “Walk the Line” between Beltway conservative politics and the racist far-right.  These edges have been known for years by the institutions he has worked with, so it is not exactly a “well kept secret” to those who knew him.  At the University of Virginia he was denied his PhD in Economics after his work came in with questionable themes.  He went on to work at the National Review with what was later called an effort to turn former Barry Goldwater supporters into Ronald Reagan Republicans.  He was an early Reagan appointee, though only dealt with minor things like staffing clearances.  He eventually went off the deep end, descending into the world of paranoid racial conspiracy theories.

His tagline may seem a little strange, except for the fact it is what he is known for best today.  Called “the Mantra,” the tagline is a shorter version of his prose passage about diversity that is often repeated at length by fellow white nationalists, similar to David Lane’s “14 Words.”

The Mantra reads:

ASIA FOR THE ASIANS, AFRICA FOR THE AFRICANS, WHITE COUNTRIES FOR EVERYBODY!Everybody says there is this RACE problem. Everybody says this RACE problem will be solved when the third world pours into EVERY white country and ONLY into white countries.

The Netherlands and Belgium are just as crowded as Japan or Taiwan, but nobody says Japan or Taiwan will solve this RACE problem by bringing in millions of third worlders and quote assimilating unquote with them.
Everybody says the final solution to this RACE problem is for EVERY white country and ONLY white countries to “assimilate,” i.e., intermarry, with all those non-whites.
What if I said there was this RACE problem and this RACE problem would be solved only if hundreds of millions of non-blacks were brought into EVERY black country and ONLY into black countries?
How long would it take anyone to realize I’m not talking about a RACE problem. I am talking about the final solution to the BLACK problem?
And how long would it take any sane black man to notice this and what kind of psycho black man wouldn’t object to this?
But if I tell that obvious truth about the ongoing program of genocide against my race, the white race, Liberals and respectable conservatives agree that I am a naziwhowantstokillsixmillionjews.(SIC)
They say they are anti-racist. What they are is anti-white.
Anti-racist is a code word for anti-white.

Whitaker has not actually worked in politics since 1985, but since he is one of the few people in their camp with some political experience he stands out as an option for running for office.  His Platform is even simpler than most the AFP has put forward, though reflects their nativism and focus on immigration as key issues.  Anything beyond this seems to be ignored, and they often fill in the gaps with protectionist foreign policy and paleolibertarian economic ideas.

“At my inauguration, I will take the oath to uphold and defend the Constitution.”

The Preamble to the Constitution is the only statement of the purpose of the United States:

To “secure the blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our posterity.”

Having so sworn, I will, as Commander in Chief begin the orderly process of withdrawing all American forces from foreign soil.

The only purpose of the American armed forces is to protect American soil.

The Constitution instituted America as an independent nation. An independent nation does not enforce its notions, be they equality or anything else, on other independent nations.

To declare itself a “nation of immigrants” a country must demand sovereignty over every potential immigrant on earth.

We are a people with many political points of view. A government which uses force to collect taxes and then gives that money to groups or persons to promote their own political agenda are committing a criminal act.

It is the duty of the Executive Branch to prosecute such people.

And to receive the people’s funds.

Congress has become the means of doing what the people do not want done.

Technology has given us the means of going directly to the people and asking them what actions will fulfill the Preamble.

In his “Goals” section the only thing that is listed is “exposing white genocide,” which is introduced earlier by comparing the AFP to the “Prohibition Party” and himself to “Herbert Hoover.”  On their own track record, the AFP/Whitaker campaign lists its main success as creating “viral memes,” maintaining the trend from people like The Right Stuff of using internet trolling as their only political outlet.  This does beg the question as to why the AFP is even running a candidate since they do not have any explicit political program to propose and instead seem content to running a very primitive propaganda campaign.  They state that they are taking advantage of campaign laws that give them special allowances, even though they are likely to only be on the ballot in a handful of states at the most.

Federal campaign laws give us certain advantages in spreading our message. Media outlets are required to air our messages complete and unaltered, and they must give political candidates the lowest possible rates.
The Merlin Miller campaign had almost no reach, and was an almost complete tactical waste of time and money for the AFP.  Bob Whitaker seems even less able to speak to contemporary political issues, and his ability to write an internet meme seems to be mistaken for the ability to actually edge American racism into an organized form of nationalism.  Their website certainly celebrates every piece of media that Bob does get, including a short interview on CNN in June of 2015 and a couple billboards in Alabama and Arkansas that says the Mantra(but does not mention Whitaker and were not actually a part of the campaign.).  Most of the mentions were simply using the “Diversity is a codeword for White Genocide” or “Diversity=White Genocide” line in banner holds or written in public places with sidewalk chalk, which shows exactly the level of propaganda that the AFP is operating with.
The AFP has had little reach even within the white nationalist community.  In earlier years, something like Willis Carto’s Populist Party could get hundreds of thousands involved in both their white racialism and economic right populism.  The Council of Conservative Citizens, the League of the South, and various KKK and other regional rural racialist organizations may have rallied behind something like the AFP in previous generations.  Today, however, the racist right wants less and less connection to any of these propped up political parties.  Institutions like The National Policy Institute, as well as anti-system politics like National Anarchism and racist Heathenry, want to completely de-legitimize the American system of government as well as to reject many traditional American values.  The AFP has to play on the relationship between extreme patriotism and ultra-nationalism, which means making their own white nationalism an extension of a conservative “Americanist” analysis.  To do this you have to reinforce traditional American mythologies about “freedom,” “democracy,” and “the Constitution.”  Without this it lacks any cross-over, yet with it you lose the hip core of the Alt Right.
There will likely be many who will back Whitaker, such as the old core of the CofCC who is disaffected after the Dylan Roof fiasco basically demolished their organization.  Places that have relied heavily on the Mantra, like the podcast Horus The Avenger, will likely use his candidacy as a talking point for months.  Stormfront, and their podcast hosted by founder Don Black, will likely present him as a thoughtful and responsible candidate, but that also lends to their lack of an intellectual core.  It would be surprising then to see him survive more than a few months of this, but there are still donors who will keep the AFP afloat as they run straw candidates such as this.  If you are in the south or the midwest you may start to see some signs and bumper stickers, perhaps even a billboard.  Gun shows, right-wing events, Christian evangelical meet-ups, and militia meetings will all be prime areas for AFP engagement, so these can be areas that anti-racists can begin to counter organize, but it will be likely that Whitaker support will not become a mass mobilizing factor outside of trying to radicalize the edges of rural conservatism.  What is surprising is that they are not attempting to brand the party to pick up more on the militia supporters who have risen in ranks recently with the Bundy siege in Oregon.  It may also be a reminder that this brand of American nationalism is being pushed back to the recesses of the internet as Donald Trump slowly fades from view, but that does not mean the reactionary violence that fueled his meteoric rise has gone away for good.