American Third Position Gets A Makeover Following Election Losses
What鈥檚 in a name? For the American Third Position (A3P), the only white nationalist political party in the United States, apparently some sleight of hand.
In February, A3P officials announced they were changing the group鈥檚 name to the American Freedom Party (AFP) after a 鈥渟trong鈥� finish in the 2012 presidential election. But what the group was not planning, despite all the fanfare surrounding its patriotic new logo of red, white and blue letters, was any change at all in its platform. It remains defined by unvarnished disdain for immigrants and its chairman鈥檚 longstanding desire to deport any American with a 鈥渄iscernable trace of Negro blood.鈥�
As the party said in a statement, 鈥淥nly the name is changing. 鈥� [T]he party鈥檚 passionate defense of freedom, as well as its platform, will remain the same.鈥�
What is apparently behind the name change is an effort to draw in future voters who either didn鈥檛 understand the 鈥渢hird position鈥� 鈥� a racist ideology that rejects both capitalism and communism 鈥� or knew the A3P鈥檚 version to be akin to neo-Nazism. It may also have been an attempt to draw in the far more numerous supporters of the similarly named antigovernment 鈥淧atriot鈥� groups that have burgeoned in recent years.
It鈥檚 understandable that the group would look for a makeover after its less-than-remarkable showing in the 2012 presidential election. The party鈥檚 candidate, film director and white nationalist Merlin Miller, finished ninth. But that didn鈥檛 stop A3P spin doctors from doing their work.
鈥淪urprising his competitors,鈥� a statement accompanying the announcement of the November election results reads, 鈥淢iller finished 鈥� ahead of a number of much larger parties and more well-known candidates.鈥�
Well, kind of. In a country of more than 310 million people, Miller won the votes of exactly 2,703 voters. That works out, in the final, official statistics of the 2012 presidential election, to 0.00%.
