In 1992 there was an "America First" party that bucked mainstream politics by calling for the reimposition of tariffs, eliminating income taxes, eliminating foreign aid, stopping immigration, restoring our balance of trade with other nations, returning education to the states, and banning abortion. - ThreadSky

sethcotlar.bsky.social • 2 days ago

In 1992 there was an "America First" party that bucked mainstream politics by calling for the reimposition of tariffs, eliminating income taxes, eliminating foreign aid, stopping immigration, restoring our balance of trade with other nations, returning education to the states, and banning abortion.

Comments

dlseltzer.bsky.social•2 days ago

I think there's some cross-pollination for that America First with the Bundy father and sons and the Independent American Party of Nevada, too. I lived in Reno in the 1980s and 90s, so a lot of this resonates with things we were seeing in the far right allies of the Sagebrush Rebellion.

janettes-999.bsky.social•2 days ago

Those America First idiots are back! Frankly, they never left.

The truth is that went underground and were busy writing Project 2025 for decades.

ecocentric.bsky.social•2 days ago

It was just the kkk

danifromtheblock.bsky.social•2 days ago

Appropriately, Pat Buchanan won four primaries in 1996. This has always been the base of the base

corbyntravers.bsky.social•2 days ago

And the basest of the base....

blakeyblakey-1-9.bsky.social•2 days ago

Fascinating. Freedom of speech and freedom of association can really bite us in the ass when we homegrown terrorists are allowed to grow.

tessschmidt.bsky.social•1 day ago

Considering the entire current administration hasn't had an original thought since the 80s, this tracks.

laughingrat.bsky.social•2 days ago

📌

robairone.bsky.social•2 days ago

spinninonearth.bsky.social•2 days ago

As we all knew, Trump and the other loser white men did not invent Project 2025. They just copied and repackaged it.

fraidicat2.bsky.social•2 days ago

Yeah, that didn't age well either.

fuckswasticars.bsky.social•2 days ago

It's been a right wing slogan since the 1940s

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/America_First_Committee

winston-chucho.bsky.social•1 day ago

📌

goodgreatokayish.bsky.social•2 days ago

📌

samcoleridge.bsky.social•2 days ago

"Jurors, if you don't agree with the law, acquit the accused."

lolol

cats-n-apples.bsky.social•2 days ago

We used to call them the John Birch Society

kimoco.bsky.social•2 days ago

same as it ever was

losvangelis.bsky.social•2 days ago

And yet, in some crazy way, even this vile platform is more honest, intellectually consistent, and respectful of the humanity of its (extremely hateful) limited audience than modern MAGA/Project 2025. They don’t want term limits for MAGA judges. They don’t want to block foreclosures by MAGA banks.

zabethsue.bsky.social•2 days ago

David Stockman wrote a book that was published in 2012 or 2013 that recommended: abolishing deposit insurance, social insurance, bailouts, subsidies, income taxes & minimum wages. In place: super Glass-Steagall II and consumption taxes. Blueprint for Project 2025.

sethcotlar.bsky.social•2 days ago

As we see in this 1992 report on the Populist Party, it was a coalition of klansmen, neo-Nazis, Birchers, Posse Comitatus members, and Holocaust deniers that was largely organized by Hitler-admiring Willis Carto of the Liberty Lobby and fronted by people like David Duke and Bo Gritz.

bradleyrsimpson.bsky.social•1 day ago

When i was in eighth grade growing up in Las Vegas Nevada Our entire class was marched into an auditorium to listen to Bo Gritz tell us that the Reagan administration knew about US POW‘s still alive in Southeast Asia. Even then seemed like a lunatic Rambo.

optimist-press.bsky.social•2 days ago

"As the regime’s abuses pile up, those who support Trump and/or Musk will increasingly be viewed as little more than Nazi supplicants, slavish cowards and opportunistic sadists."

doubtisthewayout.bsky.social•2 days ago

I didn't even get to this part and was already expecting that

sethcotlar.bsky.social•2 days ago

One person who was excited about the Populist Party in 1992 was Walter Huss, the former chair of the OR GOP who'd soured on the GHWB GOP because he thought it had capitulated to "the New World Order" run (to his mind) by Communistic Jews, i.e. "globalists." https://sethcotlar.substack.com/p/walter-huss-knew-that-if-fascism

interconnector.bsky.social•2 days ago

Thanks for all the OR history, Seth. Good work!

sethcotlar.bsky.social•2 days ago

Apologies for the mistake in a previous post. That Center for Democratic Renewal report on the Populist Party was from 1984, not 1992. Leonard Zeskind, the author, was concerned that this party was a form of incipient, homegrown American fascism masquerading as "populism."

sethcotlar.bsky.social•2 days ago

The ~60% of Americans who live outside the MAGA bubble devote a lot of energy to figuring out the animating logic of what seems like the cockamamie, self-immolating policy agenda of Trump 2.0. Tracing that persuasion's genealogy might be of some help as we try to make sense of the senseless.

sethcotlar.bsky.social•2 days ago

What's happening "doesn't make sense" only if one's historical imagination lacks a category of "homegrown American fascism." Like most of my generation, I was socialized in the 80s and 90s to think that the US lacked such a political tradition. I was wrong. https://bsky.app/profile/sethcotlar.bsky.social/post/3llwgriikqc2c

sethcotlar.bsky.social•2 days ago

A distinguishing feature of this American fascist tradition is that it regards Americans who are different from them--along lines of race, sexuality, or religion--as "enemies" from whom "the real Americans" must be saved. They understood themselves to be literally "at war" with other Americans.

lpdoak.bsky.social•2 days ago

Hell look at the industrialists that went after FDR. Hell look at the politics of Fred C. Koch, father of the infamous Koch Bros.

tomatoesandmozz.bsky.social•1 day ago

😂 As though Americans read history….You’re funny.

tomatoesandmozz.bsky.social•1 day ago

Don’t get me wrong. I find your thread fascinating. I keep going back to it.

patrickneithard.bsky.social•2 days ago

📌 noted, for that book planned on the long history of the US right coming out

justjessicaok.bsky.social•2 days ago

Of note, the advisor to Buchanan in 1992 was Samual Francis, the person who some could say is responsible for the strategy that created maga from a “domestic ethic” ideology by defining the Middle American Radicals (MARs) captured with America First rhetoric.

icebeard.bsky.social•2 days ago

What was hostile about the takeover?

revontulet.bsky.social•2 days ago

I seem to remember the Oregon Citizens Alliance being annoyingly loud and hateful around this time as well.

sethcotlar.bsky.social•2 days ago

Many of the same people were involved in both the OCA and the Populist Party...the OCA was a marginally more "normie" organization because it didn't emphasize the more conspiratorial economic stuff about the national reserve and such.

revontulet.bsky.social•2 days ago

Turds of a feather

sfomel.bsky.social•2 days ago

One commentator in 1991 provided an astute political analysis: "It's anger. I mean, that's an anger vote… if David Duke runs, David Duke is going to get a lot of votes. Whether that be good or bad, David Duke is going to get a lot of votes."

robsmith.bsky.social•2 days ago

And though he wasn't as explicit in some of the more unsavory views, you have to include the 1992 Primary challenge of Pat Buchanan.

hodag1977.bsky.social•2 days ago

I don’t think there’s any question that our current Trumpism is an extension of the beliefs of these ultra-Right lunatics who have been lurking in the shadows for decades - God help us.

longislandtonv.bsky.social•2 days ago

📌

mhcca.bsky.social•2 days ago

📌

bordergroves.bsky.social•2 days ago

Then: radical fringe
Now: national policy

ryanabt.bsky.social•2 days ago

Are you familiar with my colleague @johnshuntington.bsky.social? Lots of similar thinking and analysis with different far-right groups.

sethcotlar.bsky.social•2 days ago

Yes, John and I go way back!

ryanabt.bsky.social•2 days ago

I assumed so but figured that just in case I’d make the connection. Who knows, he may have been how I found you back on the bird app.

ryanabt.bsky.social•2 days ago

Guess I could have checked follows. 🤣

folkefire.bsky.social•2 days ago

Returning edumacation to the states, that’s rich

6minutes.bsky.social•2 days ago

@thebeaverton.com how could you.

gshsjsj66.bsky.social•2 days ago

Hello friend Seth😢😥
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otterdisdain.bsky.social•2 days ago

📌

realrobellis.bsky.social•2 days ago

Pat Buchanan channeled this in his 1992 GOP convention speech.

corbyntravers.bsky.social•2 days ago

Not surprising given his books, such as 𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝐷𝑒𝑎𝑡ℎ 𝑜𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑊𝑒𝑠𝑡, published 10 years later.

ogmcduck.bsky.social•2 days ago

We've come so far as a nation in only 33 years

orobharris.bsky.social•2 days ago

Invite angry populists to your party to win elections. See what happens

n1chn4-v1dm4.bsky.social•2 days ago

Of course this nonsense was from Beaverton lmao what donks

winterscminter.bsky.social•2 days ago

Oh Lord. My Mom was a great fan of Bo Gritz. She spent much of her meager pension on him and various "patriot" businesses that endorsed him. She tried so hard to convert me to the cause it broke our relationship. I know, but still can't believe, this BS won!

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