The American Freedom Party (formerly the American Third Position Party or A3P) is a

political party in the United States American electoral politics have been dominated by two major political parties since shortly after the founding of the republic of the United States of America. Since the 1850s, the two have been the Democratic Party and the Republican Party� ...

that promotes

white nationalism White nationalism is a type of racial nationalism or pan-nationalism which espouses the belief that white people are a raceHeidi Beirich and Kevin Hicks. "Chapter 7: White nationalism in America". In Perry, Barbara. ''Hate Crimes''. Greenwood ...

. In November 2009, it filed papers to be on a ballot in California, and was launched in January 2010. According to the

Southern Poverty Law Center The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) is an American 501(c)(3) nonprofit legal advocacy organization specializing in civil rights and public interest litigation. Based in Montgomery, Alabama, it is known for its legal cases against white ...

, it was created to channel the

right-wing populist Right-wing populism, also called national populism and right-wing nationalism, is a political ideology that combines right-wing politics and populist rhetoric and themes. Its rhetoric employs anti-elitist sentiments, opposition to the Establi ...

resentment engendered by the

financial crisis of 2007–2010 Finance is the study and discipline of money, currency and capital assets. It is related to, but not synonymous with economics, the study of production, distribution, and consumption of money, assets, goods and services (the discipline of fi ...

and the policies of the

Obama administration Barack Obama's tenure as the 44th president of the United States began with his first inauguration on January 20, 2009, and ended on January 20, 2017. A Democrat from Illinois, Obama took office following a decisive victory over Republican ...

Leadership

The party chairman is Los Angeles attorney

William Daniel Johnson William Daniel Johnson (born 1954) is an American white nationalist, attorney, and the chairman of the American Freedom Party. Background Johnson graduated from Brigham Young University where he majored in Japanese and later served as a Mormo ...

Kevin B. MacDonald Kevin B. MacDonald (born January 24, 1944) is an American antisemitic conspiracy theorist, white supremacist, and retired professor of evolutionary psychology at California State University, Long Beach (CSULB). In 2008, the CSULB academic sen ...

, a retired evolutionary psychology academic at

California State University, Long Beach California State University, Long Beach (CSULB) is a public research university in Long Beach, California. The 322-acre campus is the second largest of the 23-school California State University system (CSU) and one of the largest universities ...

, has been named one of the eight party directors. MacDonald is also a principal contributor to ''

The Occidental Quarterly ''The Occidental Quarterly'' is an American white nationalist magazine published by the Charles Martel Society. Its stated purpose is to defend "the cultural, ethnic, and racial interests of Western European peoples" and examine "contemporary po ...

'' where his articles have claimed that traits that he attributes to

Jew Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""T ...

s, including higher-than-average verbal intelligence and

ethnocentricism Ethnocentrism in social science and anthropology—as well as in colloquial English discourse—means to apply one's own culture or ethnicity as a frame of reference to judge other cultures, practices, behaviors, beliefs, and people, instead o ...

, 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 Jews to advance their group interests and end potential

antisemitism Antisemitism (also spelled anti-semitism or anti-Semitism) is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who holds such positions is called an antisemite. Antisemitism is considered to be a form of racism. Antis ...

by either deliberately or inadvertently undermining the power and self-confidence of the European-derived majorities in the

Western world The Western world, also known as the West, primarily refers to the various nations and states in the regions of Europe, North America, and Oceania.

.*Kevin MacDonald:
Understanding Jewish Influence II: Zionism and the Internal Dynamics of Judaism
'. TOQonline.com. Retrieved on October 25, 2011.Kevin MacDonald:
Understanding Jewish Influence III: Neoconservatism as a Jewish Movement
'. TOQonline.com. Retrieved on October 25, 2011. A 2006 article in ''

The Nation ''The Nation'' is an American liberal biweekly magazine that covers political and cultural news, opinion, and analysis. It was founded on July 6, 1865, as a successor to William Lloyd Garrison's '' The Liberator'', an abolitionist newspaper t ...

'' magazine by

Max Blumenthal Max Blumenthal (born December 18, 1977) is an American journalist, author and blogger who is the editor of ''The Grayzone'' website, which is known for spreading conspiracy theories and engaging in denial of atrocities committed by dictatorial ...

reported that MacDonald's 2004 ''Understanding Jewish Influence: A Study in Ethnic Activism'' (originally published in the ''Occidental Quarterly'') "has turned MacDonald into a celebrity within white nationalist and neo-Nazi circles." Writing in the ''

Journal of Church and State The ''Journal of Church and State'' is a quarterly peer-reviewed academic journal of religious studies and political science,Walter A. Elwell''Evangelical Dictionary of Theology'' Baker Academic, 2001, p. 254 covering issues related to the First ...

,'' Professor

George Michael George Michael (born Georgios Kyriacos Panayiotou; 25 June 1963 – 25 December 2016) was an English singer and songwriter. He is considered one of the most significant cultural icons of the MTV generation and is one of the best-selling music ...

wrote 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".

Electoral activities

New Hampshire state party chairman Ryan Murdough ran in the

Republican Republican can refer to: Political ideology * An advocate of a republic, a type of government that is not a monarchy or dictatorship, and is usually associated with the rule of law. ** Republicanism, the ideology in support of republics or agains ...

primary for a seat representing the Eighth District of the

Grafton County Grafton County is a county in the U.S. state of New Hampshire. As of the 2020 census, the population was 91,118. Its county seat is North Haverhill, a village within the town of Haverhill. Until 1972, the county courthouse and other office ...

delegation to the

New Hampshire House of Representatives The New Hampshire House of Representatives is the lower house in the New Hampshire General Court, the bicameral legislature of the state of New Hampshire. The House of Representatives consists of 400 members coming from 204 legislative district ...

, but he was refused support by the Republican party, which called him a "despicable racist". He placed fifth out of five candidates in the Republican primary, garnering 296 votes (11%). Murdough was the National Political Director for the National Socialist American Labor Party, a party which espouses

Nazi Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in ...

beliefs. In November 2009, the American Third Position Party filed papers with the office of the

Secretary of State of California The secretary of state of California is the chief clerk of the U.S. state of California, overseeing a department of 500 people. The secretary of state is elected for four year terms, like the state's other constitutional officers; the officeh ...

, with the intention of becoming a fully ballot-accessible party by the time of the June 2010 California

primary election Primary elections, or direct primary are a voting process by which voters can indicate their preference for their party's candidate, or a candidate in general, in an upcoming general election, local election, or by-election. Depending on the ...

. However, the party failed to qualify and was not entered on the 2010 ballot in California or any other state. The party received enough signatures to get Harry Bertram on the ballot for the

2011 West Virginia gubernatorial special election The 2011 West Virginia gubernatorial election was a special election held on October 4, 2011 to fill the office of the West Virginia Governor. The office became vacant upon the resignation of Governor Joe Manchin, who was elected to fill the sea ...

. 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.

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 Virginia Deane Abernethy (born 1934) is an American anthropologist and activist. She is professor emerita of psychiatry at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine. She has published research on population demography and immigration. She ran fo ...

was announced as his running mate. According to an AmericanFreedomUnion.com posting, they obtained

ballot access Elections in the United States refers to the rules and procedures regulating the conditions under which a candidate, political party, or ballot measure is entitled to appear on voters' ballots. As the nation's election process is decentralized b ...

in Colorado, New Jersey, and Tennessee.

2016 presidential election

Kenn Gividen was nominated by the party as its candidate for president and Bob Whitaker was nominated for vice president in March 2015. Gividen resigned from the nomination on July 26, 2015, after holding the role for 4 months; Whitaker then stepped into the role as candidate for president. Whitaker, whose favored term "

White Genocide The white genocide, white extinction, or white replacement conspiracy theory is a white supremacist conspiracy theory which states that there is a deliberate plot, often blamed on Jews, to promote miscegenation, interracial marriage, mass non- ...

" was blocked by the AFP leadership, gave up the nomination on April 7, 2016, in protest over the party's growing support for

Donald Trump Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who served as the 45th president of the United States from 2017 to 2021. Trump graduated from the Wharton School of the University of P ...

and the toning down of its use of language.

Electoral results

History

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.

2012 hacking incident

In early February 2012, members of the hacker group

Anonymous Anonymous may refer to: * Anonymity, the state of an individual's identity, or personally identifiable information, being publicly unknown ** Anonymous work, a work of art or literature that has an unnamed or unknown creator or author * Anony ...

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. 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.

References

External links

Official website
{{Authority control 2010 establishments in the United States Alt-right organizations Far-right political parties in the United States Identity politics in the United States Nationalist parties in the United States Organizations that oppose LGBT rights in the United States Paleoconservative parties in the United States Political parties established in 2010 Political parties in the United States Politics and race Right-wing populist parties Third Position Westminster, California White nationalism in California White nationalist parties