Thread by @msbellows

I just read the Anglo-Saxon/America First Caucus statement of (so-called) principles, and it's clear that the writers used "Anglo-Saxon" only because "Aryan" already was taken. It's the Racist/Nativist Caucus.

Here are some thoughts about "our" "Anglo Saxon" roots:
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https://twitter.com/thehill/status/1383141659941203972

First, who WERE the "Anglo-Saxons," anyway?

Immigrants and invaders. Germanic ones. Nothing "native" about them.

"Saxon" = "Germanic." "Anglo" = "the subset of Germanics who ran England for a while."
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And those foreigners arriving unwanted on British shores didn't respect the culture they found when they arrived: there was "hostility between incomers and natives... violence, destruction, massacre, and the flight of the Romano-British population."
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And did the Anglo-Saxons assimilate into the native culture, as the new nativist caucus members demand modern immigrants do?

Ha! Quite the opposite:
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"The incomers achieved a position of political and social dominance, which initiated a process of acculturation of the natives to the incoming language and material culture... aided by intermarriage."

Reverse assimilation and "racial replacement" via interbreeding.
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Again: Reverse assimilation and "racial replacement" via interbreeding. Immigrants creating a new dominant culture, even to the point that the immigrants' language becomes primary. THAT'S the Anglo-Saxon model. en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anglo-Sax…
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OK, you say, but those are just origins. What about AFTER that? What did "Anglo-Saxon culture" BECOME?

(Unattributed quotes that follow are from this good article:
historyextra.com/period/anglo-s…)
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Well, the "Anglo-Saxons" were surprisingly diverse. Descendants of actual Germanic immigrants were the minority, and while they clung to power, they didn't cling to some "back where we came from" purity myth; "Anglo-Saxon" England was its own thing, a mix of old + new.
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The people U.S. conservatives are celebrating as a model of exclusive nativism spoke English, Irish, Welsh, Pictish and Latin. Even as late as the 980s, near the end of Anglo-Saxon dominance, England remained a land of “many different races, languages, customs and costumes.”
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And "Anglo-Saxon" art and religion were diverse and multicultural, as well. Their literature mixed "Christian and pagan themes." The paintings in an illuminated Bible from that era are "a glorious evocation of the Mediterranean roots of English Christianity."
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OK, you say, Christianity! At least they were firmly Christian, right?

Um... sort of? Yes, "Christianity" became dominant in Anglo-Saxon culture. But it was Beowulf Christianity: "honor the rood, and now let's pound mead + slay monsters." It included a LOT of pagan beliefs.
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And where did they learn Christianity? From foreigners, of course: the preexisting religions driven to the margins and replaced with new ideas brought by foreigners. EXACTLY what American conservatives want, right?

Right?
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And what foreigners! Not just Germans. The two most influential missionaries embraced by the "Anglo-Saxons" were...

A Syrian and an African.
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"Early in AD 669, two strangers arrived in England: Theodore of Tarsus, a Greek-speaking former Syrian refugee, and Hadrian, a Libyan." And the Libyan brought letters written by Saint Cyprian, also an African.
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OK, you say, fine. FINE! But missionaries often are furriners. The LEADERS of the Anglo-Saxons were English, right?

Wrong. Don't you watch "The Crown"? England's rulers have always been globalists!
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At the pinnacle of their power, the Anglo-Saxons were ruled by an English-Danish (think "Viking") king, who governed much of Britain, all of Denmark, and parts of Norway and Sweden: "a North Sea empire."

Germans. Syrians. Libyans. Scandinavians.

As I said: globalists.
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OK, fine. But can't America be a nation of Anglo-Saxon IDEAS? An Anglo-Saxon polity? For instance, the new caucus' policy sheet says "we will work to divest power from the federal government." Because states' rights are an Anglo-Saxon heritage, right?
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Nah. The Anglo-Saxons steadily eroded local sovereignty in favor of a strong national government. "They gave us the idea of the English nation." And in 928, they enacted England's first unified, nationwide code of law. No more separate kingdoms administering local laws.
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(The "common" in "common law" means "shared by everyone." "Common law" = "nationwide law, as developed over time by smart judges.")

(So much for conservatives railing against activist judges.)
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OK, so if the Anglo-Saxons WEREN'T native-born; required the native-born to assimilate into immigrant culture rather than vice-versa; spoke multiple languages; were shaped by multiple cultures; blended Christianity with paganism; and favored a strong central government ...
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... then what the hell DID the Anglo-Saxons offer that might be attractive to today's GQP extremists?

WHAT COULD IT BE???
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A millennium ago, Pope Gregory knew the answer. When he saw a group of fair-haired foreign children playing and was told they were Angles (English), he replied: "Non Angli, sed Angeli" ("Not Angles, but Angels").
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Generally, the "Anglo-Saxons" were White As F*ck.

Aryan, even.

But of course the GQP can't claim Aryan ancestry any longer, both because it's historical nonsense and also the whole, you know, Hitler thing.

So "Anglo-Saxon" is the new "Aryan."
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I mean, these conservatives could have said "English traditions." Because, sure, at its founding, the U.S. largely was rooted in and informed by English history and polity.

But they didn't say English. They said "Anglo-Saxon." Meaning: Germanic wypipo.

Aryan.
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Basically, they're pretending the U.S. is an (ahem) Aryan Nation.

No matter how much @mtgreenee squeals, the America First/Anglo-Saxon Caucus actually is the Aryan Volks/Whites First Caucus.

The (Almost) Openly White Supremacist Caucus.

And their anthem is a dogwhistle.
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