Down the Garden Path with Rosepath

     The America First Party was founded in Spring 2002 by Rob Gronkowski Jersey Womens a large group of Buchanan Brigade defectors who splintered away from the declining Reform Party to form this new, uncompromisingly social conservative and fair trade party (with a strong foundation in the Religious Right movement). The views of the party largely echo those espoused by commentator Pat Buchanan during his three Presidential bids. The AFP is dedicated to "protect our people and our sovereignty... promote economic growth and independence... encourage the traditional values of faith, family, and responsibility... ensure equality before the law in protecting those rights granted by the Creator... [and] to clean up Aaron Rodgers Jersey our corrupted political system. " Within a month of the AFP's founding, ten former Reform Party state chapters formally broke away from the RP and affiliated with the AFP. By the August 2002 National Convention, the AFP had affiliates in around 20 states - and they hoped to be organized in nearly all 50 states by the end of 2003. Now, those hopes seem dashed. The AFP's national chair, vice chair and treasurer have all resigned in mid-2003 after a hardcore group affiliated with ultra-right militia movement leader Bo Gritz purportedly grabbed control of key Ray Lewis Super Bowl Jersey party elements. Others in the AFP denied this, saying the Gritz complaints were just a pretext to mask serious financial problems and personality divisions within the party that really caused the collapse. So - for whatever reasons - many AFP state parties apparently left the national party for the same reason. The AFP National Convention - set for July 2003 - was cancelled. The party even abandoned the possibility of fielding a Presidential candidate in 2004. A Buchananite AFP faction reported that they will attempt to reorganize at mid-2003 meeting - placing a greater emphasis Terrell Suggs Super Bowl Jersey on building state party strength. The AP is a very small, very conservative, Christian splinter party formed after a break from the American Independent Party in 1972. US Senator Jesse Helms (R-NC) and Governor Mel Thomson (R-NH) both flirted with the American Party's presidential nomination in 1976, but both ultimately declined. The party won its strongest finish in the 1976 presidential election - nominee Tom Anderson carried 161, 000 votes (6th place) - but has now largely faded into almost total obscurity. The party's 1996 Presidential candidate - anti-gay rights activist and attorney Diane Templin Ray Rice Super Bowl Jersey - carried just 1, 900 votes. Former GOP State Senator Don Rogers of California - the 2000 nominee for President - did even worse as he failed to qualify for ballot status in any states. The party - which used to field a sizable amount of state and local candidates in the 1970s - rarely fields more than a handful of nominees nationwide in recent years, although they do claim local affiliates in 15 states. Beyond the pro-life, pro-gun and anti-tax views that you'd expect to find, the American Party also advocates an end to Joe Flacco Super Bowl Jersey farm price supports/subsidies, privatization of the US Postal Service, opposes federal involvement in education, supports abolition of the Environmental Protection Agency, supports repeal of NAFTA, opposes minimum wage laws, opposes land use zoning regulations and opposes convening a Constitutional convention. Of course, the AP also opposes the United nations, the new World Order, communism, socialism and the Trilateral Commission. The AHP, formerly the Washington State affiliate of the USTP/Constitution Party, broke away from that group in 2000 because of religious grounds (i. e., while the CP is clearly a Religious Right party, it is not Authentic Ray Lewis Jersey explicitly a Christian party). Thus, the AHP describes itself as "a political party that adopts the Bible as its political textbook and is unashamed to be explicitly Christian... [and] whose principles are drawn from Scripture. " The AHP planned to become a national conservative party, with the ultimate goal of fielding candidates around the nation in coming years. The party previously fielded some candidate for Congress, Governor and local offices in Washington in 1998 - but ran just one local candidate in 2000 and another one in 2002. Governor George C. Wallace (D-AL) founded the Ray Lewis Jersey AIP and ran as the its first Presidential nominee in 1968. Running on a right-wing, anti-Washington, anti-racial integration, anti-communist platform, Wallace carried nearly 10 million votes (14%) and won 5 Southern states. Although Wallace returned to the Democratic Party by 1970, the AIP continued to live on - although moving even further to the right. The 1972 AIP nominee, John Birch Society leader and Congressman John G. Schmitz (R-CA), carried nearly 1. 1 million votes (1. 4%). The 1976 AIP Presidential nominee was former Governor Lester Maddox (D-GA), a vocal segregationist - but he fell Authentic Terrell Suggs Jersey far below Schmitz's vote total. The AIP last fielded its own national Presidential candidate in 1980, when they nominated white supremacist ex-Congressman John Rarick (D-LA) - who carried only 41, 000 votes nationwide. The AIP still fields local candidates in a few states - mainly California - but is now merely a state affiliate party of the national Constitution Party. For the past three presidential elections, the AIP simply co-nominated the Constitution Party's Presidential nominee. Exactly what the name implies...