Thread by @ProfPaulPoast

With the `clashy' phrase "Anglo-Saxon" trending the past few days, I decided to take a look at the American First Caucus policy platform.

Wow, this group has indeed read way too much Huntington.

[THREAD]
punchbowl.news/wp-content/upl…

Just to clarify, by "clashy" I'm referring to Samuel Huntington's definitely not-not-racist tome "Clash of Civilization"
amazon.com/Clash-Civiliza…

When I teach about Clash, I don't shy away from the racism underpinning it

https://twitter.com/ProfPaulPoast/status/1198787340711452678

In class, I draw a direct connection to Lothrop Stoddard's 1920 book "Rising Tide of Color"

In his excellent write up on the AFC document, @KevinMKruse also references Stoddard. That's not surprising, as the AFC platform is definitely hearkening back to the white nationalism of the 1920s.
msnbc.com/opinion/gop-s-…

Typical of a platform document, it's basically a list of policy issues, with short write ups on each.

Example: here is the part on removing power from the federal government -- which, should be noted, was what the Confederate states claimed as the true issue of the Civil War

It is notable that the longest sections of the document are about immigration (which is where the phrase `Anglo-Saxon' is used)...

...and trade

On the trade section, I'm impressed they name dropped David Ricardo and referenced "Comparative Advantage".

But let's be honest: saying that wealth is moving to the "Western Pacific" away from the "North Atlantic" is another way of saying "from white people to not-white people"

Hence, both the trade & immigration sections are centered on the same idea: US `white culture' (i.e. Anglo-Saxon/North Atlantic) is threatened by the "outside world" due to economic forces (i.e. globalization)

Near the end of his career, Huntington himself didn't shy away from making similar claims
amazon.com/Who-Are-We-Cha…

To be clear: not everyone who criticizes the displacements caused by globalization is a white nationalist. Far from it.
foreignaffairs.com/articles/world…

Also, anti-globalization backlash is not unique to the US. For instance, this is a key reason for the rise of border walls GLOBALLY over the past 30 years
journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.117…

But such displacements have historically created fodder for white-nationalist groups in the US. See the Kruse piece above and @carolmswain's book from 2002
amazon.com/New-White-Nati…

Did the AFC platform authors actually read Huntington?

🤷‍♂️

But his ideas permeate the document.

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