It's bad enough that the citizens of Mesa have had to put up with Arizona's #1 bigot, Senator Russell Pearce, for more than a decade. Happily, he is facing a November 8 recall, an election that's been mired in the Tea Party's lies, deceptions, illegal activities, and sham candidates. It's also bad enough that Senator Pearce's pal, J.D. Ready, a member of the National Socialist Party and unapologetic racist, ran for the Mesa City Council in 2006 with Pearce's endorsement. And came in second!
We find out today that Ralph Brandt will run for the Mesa City Council next year as a member of the American Third Position Party. That's not some third-position yoga exercise; no, the ATP is an avowed white supremacist organization.
Its mission statement says, in part, "The American Third Position Party believes that government policy in the United States discriminates against White Americans, the majority population, and that White Americans need their own political party to fight this discrimination."
"Our party represents the ethnic interests of White people," Brandt told The Mesa Republic Tuesday. "I personally believe that White people are getting the short end of the stick." Arizona Republic
The Southern Poverty Law Center has more than enough garbage on ATP, if you're inclined to wade through it. If not, here are a few snippets, beginning with the group's young history:
In May 2009, a racist skinhead group named Freedom 14 created the Golden State Party (GSP) in order to establish what was meant to be a respectable white nationalist political party. SPLC
Oh, I see, a "respectable" supremacist group. Clean, starched brown shirts I guess. That "Freedom 14," says SLPC, is code for 14 words from Mein Kampf that "are a rallying cry for neo-Nazis and white supremacists in the United States."
On Oct. 15, 2009, they held a meeting to form a party with a new name and new leadership. They elected racist corporate lawyer William Daniel Johnson as chairman of the newly renamed political party, American Third Position. SLPC
New name! Branding I guess. Johnson, you may recall, wrote a book calling for the deportation of anyone whose body contains even a smidgeon of non-white blood.
As early as 1985, Johnson proposed a constitutional amendment that would revoke the American citizenship of every non-White inhabitant of the United States... He also favored deporting ethnic minorities, including American Indians. Arizona Republic
Indigenous Peoples: You may have been here for 10,000 years, you may have taken care of the earth a whole lot better than the Europeans who invaded and destroyed your world, but pack your bags. Because the white man, according to ATP, is "getting the short end of the stick." Not you, who experienced genocide and the theft of your land, whose current unemployment rates are quadruple the national average, whose diabetes and suicide rates are off the charts. No, it's the white guy who's disadvantaged.
Another of ATP's board members is Kevin McDonald, who
described Jews as "hostile toward American Christian culture" and claimed that they work aggressively to attack and subvert that culture. SPLC
McDonald is joined on the board by James Edwards, who hosts the "Political Cesspool" radio program out of Tennessee.
In the past, the Cesspool has hosted such racist and anti-Semitic guests as ex-Klan leader David Duke, pro-segregation professor Virginia Abernethy, Holocaust denier Willis Carto, and and Canadian neo-Nazi Paul Fromm. New Times
The Political Cesspool provided a platform for Arizona's leading SB 1070 advocates, like Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu. He did a lot of back-pedaling after his appearance on a white supremacist radio show became known here. Still, he was pretty chummy with the host, calling him a "great American."
The other ATP board members, contacts, and consultants reads like a Who's Who of white supremacists who have been around since the early '80s -- from David Duke to Stormfront. According to the SPLC website, one ATP goal is to run "high-level people" -- that is, white supremacists who don't seem too scary -- in campaigns in a number of states. They've already made nice with libertarians and Ron Paul supporters in California. Now it appears they're moving east, with Mesa as the first stop -- land of Russell Pearce. It comes as no surprise that ATP candidate Ralph Brandt is a big fan of Pearce.
I made the mistake of tip-toeing into the comment section at the Arizona Republic website. It only took me two comments to find this:
We have La Raza, we have the New Black Panther Party, and we used to have the Ku Klux Klan. Some how the KKK were supressed for advocating the same thing as the other two, why is that?
Ah, no. The KKK wasn't suppressed for "advocating the same thing" as La Raza. Lynchings, remember?