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Introduction: Eclipsed by the disastrous financial news of recent months, as well as relatively superficial considerations-lipstick, hockey mom, moose huntress-Sarah Palin’s political resume and heritage is genuinely frightening. Although downplayed or ignored by mainstream media, Sarah Palin’s profound relationship with the Alaskan Independence Party (AIP) augurs very poorly for American politics. Anti-American, politically retrograde, deeply racist and dedicated to fracturing the republic, the AIP is the Alaskan element of the Constitution Party. This fascist political party has run candidates endorsed by the Aryan Nations and dedicated to the successful re-establishment of the Confederacy. In addition to echoing the neo-Confederate endorsement of Southern Secession, the AIP has actively sought the support of the Republic of Iran in attempts to separate Alaska from the United States. Earlier in 2008, Palin sent a greeting to the AIP’s convention, endorsing their efforts. Those knowledgeable about Palin’s political heritage assert that this greeting was predictable. In fact, the AIP had much to do with shaping Palin’s political agenda when she was mayor of Wasilla and she continued to permit access to her AIP mentors when she became governor. (Her husband Todd Palin was a member of the AIP until recently and is described by acquaintances as a “shadow governor.”) Former Nixon cabinet official Walter Hickel became governor of Alaska running as the AIP candidate! Although he later switched back to the GOP, Hickel takes credit for Palin’s election. Of great significance is the AIP’s ideological affiliation with other secessionist elements around the world, including elements associated with the UNPO, an organization that champions the independence of “unrepresented peoples.” Although it represents itself as egalitarian and progressive, the UNPO’s agenda actually works to undermine the political and geographical integrity of larger countries that might present a rival to the Underground Reich. Of more than passing significance is the fact that Palin quoted fascist columnist Westbrook Pegler in her speech before the Republican Convention. It is also worth contemplating what the Nazi elements in the Bush administration will do with a seated African-American President.
Program Highlights Include: The AIP’s support for Tibetan secession, the AIP’s support for the Lakota secessionist movement; the AIP’s support for Hawaiian secession; the AIP’s support for Chechen secession; the endorsement of Constitution Party Presidential candidate Michael Peroutka; by Aryan Nations head Richard Butler; Sarah Palin’s origins in Sandpoint Idaho-an epicenter of the White Supremacist movement.
1. The secessionist party with which Sarah Palin is closely affiliated has a violently anti-American agenda.
“ ‘My government is my worst enemy. I’m going to fight them with any means at hand.’
This was former revolutionary terrorist Bill Ayers back in his old Weather Underground days, right? Imagine what Sarah Palin is going to do with this incendiary quote as she tears into Barack Obama this week.
Only one problem. The quote is from Joe Vogler, the raging anti-American who founded the Alaska Independence Party. Inconveniently for Palin, that’s the very same secessionist party that her husband, Todd, belonged to for seven years and that she sent a shout-out to as Alaska governor earlier this year. (‘Keep up the good work,’ Palin told AIP members. ‘And God bless you.’)
AIP chairwoman Lynette Clark told me recently that Sarah Palin is her kind of gal. ‘She’s Alaskan to the bone ... she sounds just like Joe Vogler.’
So who are these America-haters that the Palins are pallin’ around with? . . .”
“The Palins’ Un-American Activities” by David Talbot; Salon.com; 10/07/2008.
2. Vogler has allied himself with Iran in order to generate international support for Alaskan secession. In that context, one should not lose sight of the networking between the Iranian regime and Nazi and fascist elements from the U.S. and Europe. By the same token, the networking between Islamists and fascists is a well documented phenomenon, manifesting itself in the 9/11 attacks, among other events.
” . . .Vogler wasn’t just a blowhard either. He put his secessionist ideas into action, working to build AIP membership to 20,000 — an impressive figure by Alaska standards — and to elect party member Walter Hickel as governor in 1990.
Vogler’s greatest moment of glory was to be his 1993 appearance before the United Nations to denounce United States ‘tyranny’ before the entire world and to demand Alaska’s freedom. The Alaska secessionist had persuaded the government of Iran to sponsor his anti-American harangue.
That’s right ... Iran. The Islamic dictatorship. The taker of American hostages. The rogue nation that McCain and Palin have excoriated Obama for suggesting we diplomatically engage. That Iran. . . .”
3. Although the mainstream media have ignored or downplayed the connection, the AIP is very close to Sarah Palin and has helped to shape her political agenda. AIP luminary Mark Chryson has helped to forge the link between Palin and his party.
” . . . Though Chryson belongs to a fringe political party, one that advocates the secession of Alaska from the Union, and that organizes with other like-minded secessionist movements from Canada to the Deep South, he is not without peculiar influence in state politics, especially the rise of Sarah Palin. An obscure figure outside of Alaska, Chryson has been a political fixture in the hometown of the Republican vice-presidential nominee for over a decade. During the 1990s, when Chryson directed the AIP, he and another radical right-winger, Steve Stoll, played a quiet but pivotal role in electing Palin as mayor of Wasilla and shaping her political agenda afterward. Both Stoll and Chryson not only contributed to Palin’s campaign financially, they played major behind-the-scenes roles in the Palin camp before, during and after her victory. . . .”
4. Chryson and the AIP network with White Supremacist and neo-Confederate organizations. The AIP’s web site links to many of the site maintained by groups supported by the UNPO (as well as the UNPO’s website), such as the Tibetan, Hawaiian, Lakota and Mongolian independence movements. Note that the UNPO–represented as a progressive, egalitarian organization–supports the rights of minority peoples in order to weaken and breakup larger states that might prove a rival to the Underground Reich. The possibility that an economically and politically devastated U.S. might disintegrate is one to seriously consider. Certainly, having a major-party Vice-Presidential candidate affiliated with an organization such as the AIP is very disturbing. Note that the AIP’s website has a quote from Confederate President Jefferson Davis at the top of its front page. It is also significant that the Constitution Party, which counts the AIP as its Alaskan affiliate, ran Michael Peroutka for President. Peroutka is a member of the League of the South and his candidacy was endorsed by Richard Butler, the now-deceased head of the Aryan Nations.
” . . . Yet Chryson maintains that his party remains committed to full independence. “The Alaskan Independence Party has got links to almost every independence-minded movement in the world,” Chryson exclaimed. “And Alaska is not the only place that’s about separation. There’s at least 30 different states that are talking about some type of separation from the United States.”
This has meant rubbing shoulders and forging alliances with outright white supremacists and far-right theocrats, particularly those who dominate the proceedings at such gatherings as the North American Secessionist conventions, which AIP delegates have attended in recent years. The AIP’s affiliation with neo-Confederate organizations is motivated as much by ideological affinity as by organizational convenience. Indeed, Chryson makes no secret of his sympathy for the Lost Cause. ‘Should the Confederate states have been allowed to separate and go their peaceful ways?’ Chryson asked rhetorically. “Yes. The War of Northern Aggression, or the Civil War, or the War Between the States — however you want to refer to it — was not about slavery, it was about states’ rights.”
Another far-right organization with whom the AIP has long been aligned is Howard Phillips’ militia-minded Constitution Party. The AIP has been listed as the Constitution Party’s state affiliate since the late 1990s, and it has endorsed the Constitution Party’s presidential candidates (Michael Peroutka and Chuck Baldwin) in the past two elections.
The Constitution Party boasts an openly theocratic platform that reads, “It is our goal to limit the federal government to its delegated, enumerated, Constitutional functions and to restore American jurisprudence to its original Biblical common-law foundations.” In its 1990s incarnation as the U.S. Taxpayers Party, it was on the front lines in promoting the “militia” movement, and a significant portion of its membership comprises former and current militia members.
At its 1992 convention, the AIP hosted both Phillips — the USTP’s presidential candidate — and militia-movement leader Col. James ‘Bo’ Gritz, who was campaigning for president under the banner of the far-right Populist Party. According to Chryson, AIP regulars heavily supported Gritz, but the party deferred to Phillips’ presence and issued no official endorsements. . . .”
5. In her speech at the Republican convention, Palin quoted Westbrook Pegler, a reactionary columnist viewed as a fascist by many, including George Seldes. (See below)
” . . . ‘We grow good people in our small towns,’ Palin said, quoting someone identified only as a writer, ‘with honesty and sincerity and dignity.’ That ‘writer,’ Wall Street Journal columnist Thomas Frank notes, is a man named Westbrook Pegler. You have probably never heard of him, but he was a very popular and very right-wing columnist from the first half of the 20th century. How right-wing? He openly wished for the assassination of Franklin Roosevelt, for one. . . .”
“Palin’ Source”; Politico.com; 9/10/2008.
5. Author George Seldes devoted a chapter of his 1943 opus Facts and Fascism to Pegler.
“It is the opinion of many persons and organizations that one of the most widely known and read newspaper columnists, Westbrook Pegler, is aiding the Axis rather than the United States in this war; it is a fact that the New York Newspaper Guild, the organization of thousands of Pegler’s colleagues, so stated when it sent President Roosevelt a documentation of twelve instances out of Pegler’s writings.
It is a fact that newspapers, columnists, radio orators and others who form public opinion have served the Axis propaganda. It is also true that too frequently those who know and who make these charges do not name names. They, therefore, emasculate their own words.
For example, here is the director of the U.S. Conciliation Service, Dr. John S. Steelman, who states:
‘Careless recital of the dramatic side of strikes in the press and on the screen and over the radio has given too many people the impression that our war efforts are being held up in a serious way because of willful strife in a major part of American industry. This is a dangerous lie that serves the purpose of the Axis, but serves no good end among us.’ Dr. Steelman knows the culprits, but he is not in a position to name them. He is aware that Kaltenborn on the radio, Pegler in the newspapers, the entire Hearst and Howard press are those guilty of careless recitals about strikes.
On the other hand here is the statement issued by the conference directors of C.I.O. editors (Washington, April 11, 1942):
‘Labor has been subjected to an infamous campaign of misrepresentation, for the purpose of cutting wages, destroying union organization, and in advancing the profits of special interest groups. Most of the daily press has joined in this campaign, together with such radio commentators as H.V. Kaltenborn and others of his type. This anti-labor propaganda campaign, if not directly inspired by Axis agents and American appeasers, at any rate plays their game by striking at national unity and undermining labor morale.’
Again, the official organ of the National Maritime Union, The Pilot, states that ‘Pegler’s sales talk has the made-in-Berlin label.’ . . .”
Facts and Fascism by George Seldes; published in 1943 by In Fact Inc. [HC].
7. Whether relevant or not, it is interesting (and possibly significant) that Palin is a native of Sandpoint, Idaho, an epicenter of the white supremacist community.
8. It is also worth contemplating what the Nazi elements in the Bush administration will do with an African-American President.
Just FYI, if you’ve ever been exposed to the herbicide paraquat (I’m looking at you, hippies) and you have a family history of Parkinson’s disease, new research suggests that you may want to take extra precautions to avoid any sort of head trauma. It appears that head trauma and paraquat exposure triple the likelihood of developing Parkinson’s.
These findings, of course, also means you may need to avoid any US political news for the next, oh, four years or so. It’s going to be a bumpy ride.
Here’s a question that should be rhetorical but unfortunately isn’t:
What would be a more damaging to a young mind? The Ted Cruz coloring book or a biography of Sarah Palin for kids?
Too hard? Ok, how about an American history book for third graders starring a time-traveling Rush Limbaugh or deceptive TV news?
Still too hard?
With former League of the South leader Michael Peroutka still the GOP’s nominee for the Anne Arundel County Council in Maryland and Rand Paul continuing to flirt with a 2016 presidential run, here’s a look at the kind of future the GOP, and society, is flirting with these days:
House Majority Whip Steve Scalise, a vehement opponent of gay marriage, issued a statement of support for Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore in his battle with the Federal government over gay marriage, calling for like-minded citizens to get ready to stand with Moore. Oh wait, that wasn’t Scalise’s press office, but a different like-minded organization making that ‘call to arms’. Easy mistake:
“We call upon all Klansman and White Southern Nationalist to help in the massive protest’s coming, Not by wearing your colors, but by joining in with the Christian community’s protests that are surly coming against tyrannical Federal judges,” Waller said.
That sounds like a call for support, but it’s still stealth support (no colors). Not loud and proud. Maybe the Mississipi Klan is unaware of the public views of one of Judge Moore’s most prominent backers. Because if they were aware, they might not be so shy about being identified as a bunch of Klansmen supporting Judge Moore:
As we can see, Judge Moore’s political sugar-daddy, Michael Peroutka, publicly champions views like:
And don’t forget Peroutka’s views on states seceding in order to set up theocracies. It’s all part of why, if any group is going to be issuing a ‘call to arms’ for Judge Moore, it might as well be the KKK. Although Moore no doubt has plenty of support outside the Klan.