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The sudden implosion of the Know Nothings should also serve as a warning to Republicans that the forces that have propelled them to the apex of American politics, helping Donald Trump win the White House, can also tear them apart, leaving barely a trace. The Know Nothings today are a barely remembered footnote to American history; if it continues on its current path, todays version could end much the same.

Much like QAnon, the Know Nothings started life as a secretive cabal convinced that the country was being controlled by an even more secretive cabal and much like Trump-era Republicans, their anxieties were rooted in a country that seemed to be changing around them.

In the late 1840s, the United States was being flooded with immigrants, in this case from Ireland. The arrival of hundreds of thousands of poor Irish Catholics led to a rise of political groups in New York, Boston, Baltimore and Philadelphia convinced that these immigrants could form a fifth column taking direction from the Pope. Under orders from Rome, the theory went, these immigrants would undo American democracy and steal jobs from hard-working native citizens whose economic prospects were hardly secure even in the best of times.

Though these groups had actual names, such as the Order of the Star Spangled Banner, their membership at first was guarded and secretive. Asked about their views and political plans, members would reply only: I know nothing. The nickname was born.

Fringe movements need both oxygen and fuel. The panic over an influx of Irish-Catholics was the oxygen, and the fuel was provided by the break-up of one of the two major American political parties, the Whigs, after 1850. The Whig Party was never a coherent coalition, and when it finally cracked under the weight of North-South division over slavery, the Know Nothings suddenly emerged from the shadows to become a viable political force.

Given that there were both Northern and Southern contingents, the Know Nothing movement avoided the issue of slavery, instead directing the passions of its supporters toward laws against drinking (the Irish were seen as overly fond of drink; they were Catholics; they were in thrall to the Pope; hence alcohol was evil); laws against immigration; laws in cities such as Chicago banning any new immigrants from municipal jobs; laws to prevent immigrants from attaining citizenship.

These were not marginal moves. At their height, the Know Nothings, newly christened the Native American Party (long before that connoted the original inhabitants of North America), controlled the state legislatures and governorships of Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Maine and California. They also held numerous seats in state assemblies throughout the South, and they sent more than 40 representatives to the House and several senators, all adamant. Most of them supported stringent nativist, anti-immigrant legislation; all emerged from conspiratorial clubs that had spread theories about possible Papist aggression and plots against the sovereignty of the United States. (In their grotesque accusations about Catholic priests and nuns strangling babies and holding young women against their will, its not hard to see an early version of QAnons core obsession with imagined globalist pedophiles.) In 1856, the name was shortened to the American Party and its leaders nominated former president Millard Fillmore as their candidate for president under the slogan Americans Must Rule America.

And then, almost as quickly as the Know Nothings surged, they split apart. Formed from scattered groups sharing a sensibility and an animus into a loose national coalition, the party was never tightly organized, much like the Tea Party in our time. Northern and Southern branches were just as divided over the issue of slavery as was the Democratic Party in the 1850s, which also began to break apart into two distinct camps. The rise of the newly founded Republican Party in the northern states also siphoned off Know Nothing support. Fillmore managed to get 21 percent of the vote in the 1856 presidential election and win Maryland (which was then bitterly divided over slavery, which was then legal in the state). But that was not the start of national party; it was the end of one.

Though the political movement collapsed, the anti-immigrant nativism of the Know Nothings never really went away. Even during the Civil War, when all other issues were subsumed, the passions stirred by the Know Nothings were never far from the surface. The New York Draft Riots of 1863 were in part an uprising of Irish immigrants after years of discrimination, with African-Americans bearing the brunt of their rage. After the Civil War, a Republican-controlled Congress passed the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, which banned all immigration for 20 years. Those currents also worked their way into the Populist and Progressive movements of the late 19th and early 20th century, which ultimately became a prominent strain of both parties, the Republicans under Teddy Roosevelt and the Democrats during the Woodrow Wilson years.

There are lessons here for the Republican Party today. History doesnt repeat itself. It does, as Mark Twain quipped, often rhyme, which means that its echoes resonate over subsequent generations in ways that can offer guidance, though never clear pathways. One lesson for 2021 Republicans is that being purely against something and someone can only take you so far. The Know Nothings needed that surge in immigration of the 1840s, and needed economic and political conditions to be perfectly aligned, to create an opening for a movement whose ideas were largely unidimensional, or at least monotonal.

In their policy goals, the Know Nothings were in part a reformist party representing working Americans against the elite; they ended up passing a variety of laws about working conditions that presaged the union and labor movements after the Civil War. But the movement was founded, and grew, purely on the strength of anger and resentment. And only because of instability in the political system the collapse of the Whigs and the widening divisions between northern and southern Democrats was there an opening for them in the first place.

Even then, populist outrage could only propel them to state houses and to the House of Representatives. Then, as now, those are the most fruitful avenues for grassroots and single-issue campaigns. Gaining larger blocs of support as a national movement is much more challenging and requires organization and coherence, and the ability to build and maintain some kind of coalition. Conspiracy theories, which were the core DNA of the Know Nothings, have coherence in their way, but they do best when they avoid the light of public scrutiny. As a local phenomenon, Know Nothingism thrived; as a national movement, it could only go so far before it splintered, fractured and collapsed.

That is one likely path for the Republican Party today, if the Trumpian-conspiracy wing keeps its vital place in the party. Trump reached office by loudly giving voice to undercurrents that the Republican Party had largely kept in check, and had he been re-elected, its of course possible that his long grip on power would have led to a more potent national movement. But even then, he never truly managed to deliver results, or to bend the government to his loose collection of ideas; a faction with one primary ethos subsumed to one primary leader could only have been viable long-term if Trump had actually managed to deconstruct the government systems in a way that he largely failed to do.

Without that kind of success to build a broader base, the QAnon wing now threatens to push Republicans much closer to the fate of Know Nothing Party, even though they dont know it. Many Republican voters, like Know Nothing voters in the mid-1850s, have legitimate grievances about economic equity and opportunity, but the party itself rests on deeper and more exclusionary currents of conspiracy, us-versus-them, anti-immigration and nativism. Trump remains the partys most important figurehead, even out of power, but the fervent supporters who keep him there arent mainstream voters but hard-to-control online cells and local parties.

That doesnt mean that all GOP voters buy into all of that not even close. But it means that the party itself will struggle to survive as an organizing force without that energy, and will be limited as a national party because of it. That limit is the lesson of the Know Nothings.

Its possible that the Republicans will evolve, even though the Know Nothings couldnt. Its also possible that political movements have changed enough in the early 21st century that a minority party with a conspiratorial bent and a small menu of adversarial issues can consolidate power in a large and messy democracy. But the latter isnt likely, and it wouldnt be a good bet for the Republican Party to think that it found a viable model after four years of Trump.

A final lesson of the Know Nothings is that those voters arent going anywhere even if the party begins to fall apart. Some may be lost to conspiracy thinking and hence best not indulged; some may be racist (though some Democratic voters are all those things as well). Many are simply legitimately angry at a political class that has failed them, and an economy that has changed too quickly and too disruptively, and the vehicle theyve chosen is a deeply flawed one. The task ahead is to address the plaints that are distinct from conspiracy and nativism and to recognize that some of the voters do know something, even as their party knows nothing.

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Heres What Happens to a Conspiracy-Driven Party - POLITICO

For those who flirted with parts of the ex-presidents populist message, there is a straightforward line of defense: While Trump obviously failed, real Trumpism was never tried.

The problem was the deeply flawed, unhinged and amoral champion of the populist cause, but not the cause itself, which continues to be relevant. As my AEI colleague Michael Brendan Dougherty writes, political conditions will continue to call for a Trumpist response for some time.

Trumps idiosyncrasies surely go a long way toward accounting for the wholesale failure of his policy agenda, as well as for his disgraceful departure from office. But conservatives have to confront the possibility that populism itself was an important component of the failureand indeed that any populist politics carries the seeds of policy failure.

The proposition will not sit easily with those who, in the wake of the Trump disaster, are seeking to rehabilitate the term. According to the American Compass Oren Cass, for example, theres a way in which populism also means taking seriously the concerns that people have, understanding that they will not all express them in the same terms a Beltway debate might.

But populism has a commonly agreed-upon definition: Namely, it is a type of politics that pits good and pure-hearted ordinary people against a self-serving, out-of-touch elite. As such, populism is inherently divisive as it singles out specific groups as distinct from the people (elites, immigrants, bankers, journalists). It is anti-pluralist as it treats the people as a homogenous entity. Finally, it has a penchant for authoritarianism: If one takes Trumps I am your voice seriously, why should there be any limits to the power of the presidency?

Moreover, through its Manichean nature, populism introduces passions into politicsas opposed to an interplay between interests and abstract principles. And passions are only rarely useful for threading the needle on public policy. In fact, if stirring passions becomes the aim of politics, policy outcomes take a back seat. Neither the border wall, nor the Muslim ban, nor any other of the ex-presidents signature policy ideas were instrumental to achieving any real-world objectives, such as helping those who helped to elect him. Instead, their sole purpose was to keep the audience engaged and emotionally invested in the populist spectacle.

Furthermore, the debate on the future role of populism within the Republican party ought not to be limited to lessons from the Trump era. The bigger picture is not an encouraging one. For every Israel under Benjamin Netanyahus leadership, there is a Hungary under Viktor Orbn, suffering from brain drain and dismantling its democratic institutionsor an India under Narendra Modi, gripped by social unrest and economic dysfunction.

In the GOP alone, recent manifestations go from Pat Buchanan through Sarah Palin and the Tea Party to Trump. Instead of yielding a governing strategy, the partys attempts to embrace populism were akin to efforts to ride a tigerbefore being eaten by it, like Eric Cantor or Lindsey Graham. Perhaps the tiger could be tamed, as the former U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May hoped with her efforts to reshape the Tories as a party of responsible nationalismonly to see herself be overrun by ever more extreme fringes.

It should not be too much to ask those who wish to keep populism as a lasting hallmark of conservative and Republican politics to address populisms real-world record, instead of retreating to a purely abstract defense of politics that would supposedly take the concerns of working-class Americans more seriously than the Beltway elites. Yet, much like Soviet elites of the 1970s and the 1980s, who were not keen to defend the track record of real socialism, the high priests of populism today are keen to sell us a promise of an idealized populism to come, instead of accepting accountability for any of the mess that real populism of the past decade helped create.

There are important policy conversations to be had on the political rightand the leftabout subjects such as immigration or industrial policy. But with its appeal to passions and grievance, populism is the worst possible vehicle for policy change.

In Denmark, the left-of-center government of Mette Frederiksen is seeking without much ado to drive the number of asylum claims to zero, following years of restrictive immigration policy by Social Democrats. Any number of conservative, right-wing, or free-market-friendly governmentsnot least the Reagan administration in the United States or Margaret Thatchers government in the U.K.have provided assistance to specific industries or protected them from foreign competition. Whatever one thinks of the merits of such policies, populism and the pursuit of the substantive agenda advocated by those who want the GOP to be a party of the working class are perfectly separable.

If anything, populism makes thoughtful conversations on immigration, industrial policy, or social safety nets essentially impossible. On both sides of the Atlantic, the combination of the divisive us-versus-them rhetoric of populism on the political right with demands to curb immigration has been a surefire way to attract racists. And combining populism with an expansive view of the states role in the economy has been a one-way ticket to irresponsible, short-sighted economic policy mixesas the legacy of economic populism in Latin America demonstrates.

By all means, let us judge each policy idea on its merits and leave no stone unturned. Yet insofar as insanity consists of doing the same thing over and over again while expecting a different result, to seek to perpetuate the GOPs populism in the wake of the Trump disaster would be positively insane.

Dalibor Rohac is a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington D.C. Follow him on Twitter @DaliborRohac.

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The Problems With Populism Go Well Beyond Donald Trump - The Dispatch

Denver Newsroom, Feb 2, 2021 / 03:14 am MT (CNA).- During his final days in office, President Donald Trump floated the idea of founding his own political party - a move that would certainly wreak havoc for Republicans. Its unclear whether this idea will materialize. It is also unclear what will become of the QAnon adherents and other far-right supporters of the former president.

But even without a potential new political party, the GOP faces an uncertain future, with deep fractures and serious questions of identity needing to be addressed. And the answers to those questions could have significant implications for the pro-life movement.

Recent reports indicate that at least 30,000 registered Republicans have dropped their GOP affiliation since the January 6 attack on the Capitol and that number could be much higher, as only a few states have updated their voter registration data.

These numbers could mean serious challenges for a party that was already struggling with membership. Last year, the number of independent registered voters exceeded registered Republicans for the first time. Meanwhile, registered Democrats outnumbered Republicans by a full 10 percentage points, even before the wave of Republicans abandoning the party in recent weeks.

As they look to the future, Republicans must now grapple with the identity of the party in a post-Trump era, while also looking to expand party membership. There are at least three competing visions for the future, each proposed by a different Republican figure.

One possible path forward for the GOP is being advocated by Nebraska Senator Ben Sasse.

Shortly before the November election, Sasse acknowledged that he was not campaigning for Trumps re-election, because he believed the polling to show it was a lost cause, and he was more concerned about the Senate and the future of the Republican Party.

Sasse said that although he had collaborated with Trump on various nominations and policies over the past four years, he had serious concerns that the presidents values were deficient from a conservative standpoint. The senator said he was concerned about the Republican Party tying itself to Trumps brand and voiced fears that Trumps presidency was ultimately driving the country further to the left.

As a solution to the division and crisis of identity, Sasse has called for a greater emphasis on the Constitution and a return to basic civics - the foundational principles underlying the countrys very framework.

Sasses constitutional focus and conservative voting record, which often favor non-governmental solutions to social problems, have also included a strong focus on pro-life efforts. He has championed numerous pro-life bills in the Senate, including one to protect babies born alive after failed abortions.

Pro-life advocates would likely find a Sasse-led Republican Party to be reliable in its legislative priorities, judicial appointments, and regulatory efforts. Many pro-lifers may see this path forward as a continuation of the political pro-life victories of the Trump presidency, albeit without much of the inflammatory rhetoric and controversy of the past four years.

Another way forward for the Republican Party is that offered by Maryland Governor Larry Hogan. A Washington Post article last week suggested that Hogan, a Catholic, has his eye on a 2024 presidential run and wants to reshape the Republican Party on his way to the White House.

Hogan has stated not only a desire to purge the party of those radical extremists [QAnon adherents], but also to shift to a more centrist stance on key social issues in the hopes of courting moderate voters and growing the voter base.

Among these issues is abortion. Hogan told the Washington Post he believes Republicans focus too much on the issue.Hogan says he personally opposes abortion, but believes it should remain legal and is not interested in challenging Marylands permissive abortion laws. In 2019, he was criticized by local Right to Life groups when he declined to veto a law that was intended to counter federal prohibitions on some funding to abortion clinics.

If Hogans record is any indication of what he envisions for the future of the Republican Party, it could spell bad news for pro-life advocates, particularly those who have bet heavily on the GOP as a political ally. A Hogan-esque Republican Party may not push to advance legal abortion like the Democrats have pledged to do, but it also might do little to advance pro-life legislation and other policies.

A third path forward for the GOP is that presented by Florida Senator Marco Rubio.

Although Rubios ascent to the Senate just over a decade ago was fueled by Tea Party enthusiasm, the senator has made a name for himself in the last 10 years by eschewing hardline stances and working across the aisle.

While Republicans are sometimes criticized as ignoring many of the pressing issues affecting American families, Rubio has worked to offer creative solutions to these issues, often presenting proposals that are more palatable to conservatives who favor small government solutions.

Rubio was part of the bipartisan Gang of Eight senators who crafted a major 2013 immigration reform bill. He worked with Elizabeth Warren on a 2019 bill to help tackle the student debt crisis. He championed a paid parental leave bill that would have allowed Americans to pull from their own Social Security to fund time off after the birth or adoption of a baby.

It is worth noting that these legislative efforts have largely amounted to dead ends. If Rubio is to lead the GOP into the future, he will need to convince other party leaders of the value of compromise and some degree of government intervention in solving important social issues.

But perhaps the biggest impact Rubio might have on the Republican Party can be seen in the way his language has shifted in recent years to reflect Catholic Social Teaching, particularly the writings of Pope John Paul II and Pope Leo XIIIs1891 encyclical Rerum novarum.

In a series of speeches and essays in the last two years, Rubio has repeatedly called for a model of common good economics that places social health and human flourishing at its center.

Rubio has criticized the political right for promoting pursuit of profit divorced from community investment, and has criticized the political left for promising to enforce certain economic outcomes through socialist mandates. His own proposals focus on the dignity of human work and policies to incentivize businesses to reinvest returns in job growth and local communities.

Rubios ideas could transform the Republican stance on economic matters. They could also affect the political rhetoric of the pro-life movement. A Rubio-led GOP might undertake efforts to fight legal abortion, while also working to support families and expectant mothers, through initiatives such as health care reform, parental leave, and expanded child tax credits. Such an approach may particularly delight certain pro-life groups who have insisted for years that the movement needs to broaden its focus in precisely this manner.

Ultimately, it may take several years for the Republican Party to shape its image moving forward, and new figures may rise to prominence in that time, changing the direction of the party. While there is much that remains to be seen, interested observers may find that Sasse, Hogan, and Rubio are three pivotal players to watch as the process unfolds.

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Analysis: The GOP at a crossroads - and what it means for the pro-life movement - Catholic News Agency

Does the New Jersey Republican Party have a county committee problem?John Supino, campaign manager for Patriot Party gubernatorial candidate David Winkler, thinks so.

The campaign said that Winkler is the first candidate of the Patriot Party to run in New Jersey, and were it not for what Supino described as a broken and corrupted Republican County Committee system, the Patriot Party might not have been.

Herein lies the beginning of the new chapter of the NJGOP in the post-Trump era.The Republican Party has existed for 166 years.But the establishment of the Patriot Party as a consequence of Republican frustration may be the first crack in the Grand Old Partys foundations.It comes to grips with itself now that the Trump flagsintermixed with smoke and tear gashave passed from the US Capitol and Joe Biden occupies the Oval Office.

As far as New Jersey is concerned, however, where registered Democrats outnumber registered Republicans by nearly 1,000,000, splinters such as those represented by candidates who want to continue a more Trumpian form of Republican Party will present at the least, an irritant but also a consequence.At the most, it could represent a reckoning and serious handicap to Republicans winning the governors office in the foreseeable future.Supino made it clear that the views expressed were his own and not necessarily those of Winkler, but that Republican woes were the blame of the Republicans themselves.

Last year, Winkler sought to run for Congress in the CD 8 Republican primary.The party came to [Winkler] and they asked him to drop out so they could install somebody else in his place, and the person who was put in his place was put there with the intention of losing, Supino said.David started getting a lot of attention and started doing wellI have no evidence that the other guy was there to throw the towel, but he didnt campaign, all he did was put his name on the ballot.To me, thats not a candidate who wants to win.CD 8, in the general election, consequently went to Democrat Albio Sires who beat Republican Jason Mushnick by a landslide 74% to 24.6%.Libertarian candidate Dan Delaney shaved off 3,329 votes but bears no blame for splitting the meager right-of-center vote and contributing to Sires victory.

To be fair to Mushnick, the Republican challengers performance at the polls may not be entirely surprising, however, given the institutional strength of Sires.His resume boasts a 12 year stint as mayor of West New York, then service in the New Jersey Assemblyas Speaker for 4 years, and then 13 years in the House of Representatives for CD13 and later CD8.Mushnick had previously run for Assembly District 31 with Mary Kay Palange against Democrats Angela McKnight and Nicholas Chiaravalotti, with the latter defeating the Republicans who never broke the double digits in terms of percentage taken.

Supino, who ran the campaign for Tricia Flanagan in the US Senate primary that ultimately went to Rik Mehta, took aim at the Republican county committee system for putting party interests ahead of the interests of the people.From my previous experience, the Republican Primary process is corrupt and broken.The county commission system needs to be abolished and done away with.Were probably the only one or maybe two states in the country that has this system.Its a system that perpetuates 21 kingmakers in this state.If you look at the race I did with Tricia, one person picked the candidate, that person was [Republican National Committeeman] Bill Palatucci, this is all public record.If you look at the newspaper articles, Palatucci put his arm around Mehta, took him to all the county committees with a wink and a nod and told the committees what to do, and they followed suit.So, in the worst light, Palatucci picked the candidate.In the best light, 300 or so people picked the candidate, but hundreds of thousands voted.

Palatucci had endorsed Hirsh Singh until a social media exchange over Governor Christie and Senator Cory Booker made the former switch his endorsement to Mehta, a candidate slammed by Joseph Rudy Rullo and Singh as a Democratic opiate peddler.

As for Murphys opposition headed to the election, Supino was sanguine about their timing.Jack [Ciattarelli] started last year, there are other people coming into the race on the Republican ticket, the Libertarian ticket.Voters dont care what you did the last year, they look at the last sixty days.We are going to do a hard push all the way.Events are easier to hold.Were going to draw more people than Biden, not that that is a huge accomplishment, but we are going to draw sizeable crowds.We see it already, and when the weather warms up, were going to be able to do more things outdoors.

Every campaign requires money, and good amounts of it, to keep in the game.The pandemic has curtailed most political campaigns of the usual nature, with candidates doing more and more virtual sessions to reach voters, which is a cost-saving route compared to the traditional methods.This could be advantageous to smaller campaigns, provided they can effectively use the media and internet to get the word out.I dont see overhead as being an issue.[Bob] Hugin spent millions of his own money and we dont call him senator, do we?Money is important, Im not going to lie, but we will have more than what we need.Theres a lot going on in the background, but there are things happening.This is going to be a national movement.

What the national movement referred to might manifest as, if it does, will only be seen with time. But Supinos predictions represent a serious problem for the post-Trump Republican Party as far as finding its way forward.In the state of New Jersey particularly, Supinos dissatisfaction which led to his break with the party is due to the very nature and habits of those who run the GOP.The Republicans have been in bed with Norcross for years.They had a meeting from what I understand, that 21 chairs got together and the discussion was how to run away from Trump.If thats the direction they want to take, thats up to them whether they exist or not.

What to do, then?The first thing they need to do is get rid of the county committee system that picks the candidates, because if they did, wed be running in a Republican primary.But because the system is so rigged, we had no choice but to go into a third party.

While Supino made it clear that he did not speak specifically on matters of policy, being the campaign manager, he said that the new party was coming from a position of common sense.To build support, they would be looking at a ground-level approach for what they believe are things average voters agree on.Well go to parents and ask do you want your high school girls to use the same restroom as high school boys?Nobody in their right mind could possibly agree with that.Eighty percent of the people who live their lives in such a way that these topics will touch homethose are things we are going after.

The platform was described as Common-sense populist.Very conservative, pro-2ndAmendment, pro-1stAmendment, constitutionalist.You dont need to be a lawyer to understand what the first ten amendments mean.

When asked if Supino thought that the Patriot Party represented a pathway going forward, a product of disenfranchisement with the GOP, he felt that the timing was right and that the Republican Partys own origins were proof that new parties had a viable chance, given the circumstances.With the reaction we are currently getting, not just from New Jersey but from around the country, I dont see why it wouldnt.The stage is set right now.Unlike the Tea Party, which in its time we have to give them credit, they did take the House.But we didnt have a stolen election, we didnt have people frustrated with the government the way they are today.I think the conditions are such that this may be the time.Weve had the Democratic Party since the beginning of the republic, there is no reason why if we started a new party in 1860 that we cant start a new one in 2020.The Republican Party was established in 1854 and ran its first presidential candidate, John C. Fremont, against James Buchanan in the 1856 election.Abraham Lincoln succeeded Buchanan in the election of 1860, the first Republican in the White House a mere 6 years after the partys creation.

When I went through the process of the county committee system and when I saw the corruption firsthand, I was appalled, Supino said.The alternative would be open primaries.Let the voters decide who is going to run.The county committees do not understand their role as they should be.They want to be the power brokers.They shouldnt be the power brokers, they should be the facilitators to get each candidates message to the people.They should host debates, meet the candidate nights, they should go out and promote every single candidate.Thats not the way it works.Right now theyve got twenty people in a room and the first thing they say is How much money do you have?Then they vote, as they are told to vote by their chairmen.Some counties are OK, they try to be fair.Morris county is trying to do a line and I hope they fail.

Supino said that of the counties, the best or fairest was probably his home county of Bergen.They have a Meet the Candidate Night where they invite every candidate and people who are interested in hearing the candidates can go.I think they should give every candidate their own night so they have more time with the people, however, I do think that that single event will probably put them out there.

In addition to the committee system being unfair, Supino accused the New Jersey Republicans of being out of touch.Presumably, the Patriot Party represents a new, alternative voice for those dissatisfied with the status quo.When you have votes in the New Jersey legislature, such as the BLM vote they took last year where every single Republican abstained, and a handful voted, for BLM Day.Is that what we stand for?A terrorist organization?I sent Representative Bergen Ted Cruzs analysis of who BLM is: theyre terrorists.And, unfortunately, the Republicans in New Jersey are afraid to call terrorists terrorists and people are fed up with it.They see the burning buildings and people dragged from their cars and kicked until theyre unconscious and were going to honor that terrorist organization with a day?The average person doesnt buy it.

The New Jersey legislature adopted June 19, or Juneteenth, as a holiday and signed by Governor Phil Murphy.Assemblywoman Shanique Speight (D-Essex)introduced Assembly Joint Resolution 171to designate June 13 as Black Lives Matter Day which passed the Assembly and presently sits in committee in the Senate.Assemblyman Jon Bramnick was among the Republicans to abstain, andaccording to North Jersey, said, Black lives matter. Let me say it again. Black lives matter But this resolution doesnt deal with a concept, it refers to a specific organization.

The American political system was quite literally rocked following the January 6 Capitol Hill riots, an event which left 1 Capitol Hill Police Officer dead and 15 hospitalized.When asked about the impacts on the Republican Party following the January 6 Capitol Hill riots, Supino said, We know what happened there.Lets not kid ourselves, ANTIFA and BLM sent people in to do that.We know that, theyve been on camera, theyve been identified.Where was the outrage when they were burning cities?This is the problem, the only people in DC like Matt Gaetz are the only ones who stand up and call it what it is.People respect politicians who have a backbone.

The claim that the hundreds of rioters were undercover ANTIFA and BLM personnel is dismissed by the Federal Bureau of Investigations Assistant Director Steven DAntuono who said there was no indication that they were involved.President Trump, in his call for peace and calm following the violence, told his followers we love you and that they should go home.Later, he released a message saying that those who participated in the violence would be held accountable.According to the New York Times, there has been dissention circulating among organizations such as the Proud Boys through channels like Telegram, calling Trump a total failure and weaka result of their sense of betrayal.

So, back to New Jerseydoes Jack Ciattarelli have a backbone?I like Jack, I know Jack, but from things I have seen lately, I am disappointed.

Supino felt that new ground was to be had with support from voters on both sides of the aisle looking for a more representative party.There are Democrats who arent AOC-style extremists and they want their kids to have a good education.They want their daughters not to have to use co-ed bathrooms, they want the best for their families.They see things going so far to the left, it isnt the way to go.

Nobody can have a political discussion without bringing up the contagious, microscopic elephant in the room.All aspects of life, including political life, have been impacted by the coronavirus and it has become a key issue for political leaders across the globe to handle.In many cases the legitimacy of the political establishment itself is tested by its coronavirus response, with electorates expecting results.We think [Florida Governor Ron] DeSantis is taking the right course.The cure cannot be worse than the disease, when youre putting people out of business.Especially in a state like New Jersey, where property taxes are typically into the tens of thousands, people are losing their homes and businesses, for what?The government employees who are enforcing this have never missed a paycheck.Youre not allowed to open your restaurant but you better pay your taxes.Supino said that the fault absolutely lies at the feet of the political establishment.

With Jack Ciattarelli as the clear Republican choice going into the gubernatorial election, politicos have wondered out loud whether or not Bob Hugin might enter the race, seeking another run following his unsuccessful attempt to dislodge US Senator Bob Menendez.But still, all politics is local, and the county committee system is where Supino has a problem.Thats where the corruption happens.Additionally, he had little enthusiasm for the prospect of a potential or theoretical Hugin candidacy, which he did not dismiss as a possibility.He was a horrible candidate.You dont out-liberal a liberal.He didnt lose because he spent money and he wasnt going to win because he spent money, he lost based on his ideas.I worked on his campaign for a bit, but nobody was excited about getting out of bed and going to vote for Bob Hugin.Theyre not going to drag their neighbor to the voting booth.

The most appropriate role for the county committees, Supino argued, was to hold events and promote every candidate.The NRC holds their convention after the popular vote.Why dont the committees?

Supino asserted that the Flanagan campaign was ignored by the Party during the senate primary race.When Gary Rich dropped out, we were at the convention in Hunterdon County.Gary Richs team and our team called [Camden County Republican Chairman]Rich Ambrosino repeatedly to reschedule Tricias time to talk.She said we cant be there because we have an obligation to Hunterdon county, she was scheduled for a certain date and time.We tried for three or four days, sending emailsnot just us, our team and Gary Richour two teams tried and tried to get a hold of somebody to reschedule the date.Natalie Rivera was running and when Ambrosino finally called Tricia back, he said we gave the slot to Natalie, she called us this morning and asked for it.Then they put out a statement that Tricia never showed up for her appointed time.While true she didnt show up, that was because we had the obligation in Hunterdon.We tried for days to reschedule it but they refused to pick up the phone or answer our emails.So, you see how these things work.

Supino railed against a Mafia-style committee system.When [a candidate] announced he was going to run for governor, he was going to the county committees, basically to ask for permission to run.Politicians shouldnt be asking politicians for permission to run, they should go to the people.Why do we have to check with these 21 people to get permission to represent us?He continued.These people will deny it until the ends of the Earth, but Tricias first question from Monmouth County was How come this is the first time youve come to see us?In other words, why didnt you come kiss our ring for a year?Her answer was appropriate, she said she was out talking to the people who actually vote.

In his assessment of the Republican Party as it stands now, Supino was not optimistic.Given exactly whats happening here, its hard to support them.They dont care if they lose so long as they maintain power within their power structure.

Whether or not the Republican Party sees a serious threat from a third party has yet to be seen.Nevertheless, this represents a symptom that the GOP of 2021 would do well to address.If it sweeps the matter under the rug, it does so at its peril, risking minority-party status not only due to superior Democratic voter registration, but an exodus of its own.

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Amid Post Trump Disorder in the GOP, Winkler and the Patriot Party Make a Stand - InsiderNJ

Donors to the Tea Party Patriots Foundation, one of the groups that helped organize the January 6 rally preceding the deadly attack on the U.S. Capitol, include the Jewish Community Federation and late billionaire Republican donor Sanford Diller, according to a 990 form submitted to the IRS by the tax-exempt nonprofit in 2019.

The right-wing organization was listed on the March to Save America website alongside groups like Stop the Steal, Turning Point Action (an affiliate of Turning Point USA), and Women for America First, according to a report last week from Documented, a watchdog group that investigates corporate influence. The March to Save America website is down, but archived versions list several participating organizations. Supporters of President Donald Trump gathered for a mass event outside the Capitol last week, aiming to coincide with challenges to Joe Bidens Electoral College victory. The rally culminated in a mob attack on the Capitol that left five people dead.

The Tea Party Patriots tax filing was obtained by Eli Clifton, the a senior adviser at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, who shared it with The Intercept.

A screenshot of a tax filing showing donations to the Tea Party Patriots Foundation, one of the groups that organized the March to Save America rally that led to the Capitol insurrection.

Screenshot: Obtained by Eli Clifton

In a statement, Tea Party Patriots co-founder Jenny Beth Martin said her group did not fund the rally and denounced the violence that followed it.NeitherTea Party Patriots Foundation,Tea Party Patriots Citizens Fund, nor Tea Party Patriots Action spent any money on the rally, Martin said. We condemn the violence. We are shocked, outraged, and saddened at the turn of events on January 6. One of the reasons we revere our Constitution is that it created a framework that allows for the resolution of political conflict in a peaceful manner.

TheInterceptsought to reach out to people listed on the form. The form lists a person named Lewis Stahl anda man by that name is in prison for tax evasion. There was no available contact information for theWill Moose Fund or the John 3:16 FDN.

DonorsTrust, a little-known organization that has funneled hundreds of millions of dollars into right-wing causes over the years and given wealthy contributors the ability to do so anonymously, donated to the Tea Party Patriots a total of $103,000, according to the filing. DonorsTrust has bankrolled a range of causes in the conservative movement, from climate change denial to the rights attacks on organized labor. Wealthy conservatives use these tax-exempt charities and similar organizations known as donor-advised funds as a go-between to pump money into controversial groups and causes since they can direct their donations without legal obligations to name their donors. (DonorsTrust did not respond to requests for comment.)

The Jewish Community Federation and Endowment Fund was among the biggest donors on the Tea Party Patriots list, giving the group a total of $100,000. The Jewish Community Federation, which also functions as a donor-advised fund, previously contributed $15,000 to Turning Point USA. In a now-deleted tweet, Charlie Kirk, leader and founder of Turning Point USA, claimed that Turning Point Action would be sending more than 80 buses full of patriots to the Washington rally.

Of the Tea Party Patriots donation, the Federation said in a statement, This was a grant made in 2017 by the Jewish Community Federation and Endowment Fund to support a donors philanthropy. We conducted due diligence prior to approving the grant to ensure the grantee was a qualified 501(c)(3). We have not received a grant request for this organization since 2017.

While the donations from these funds arent direct, donor-advised funds still have the power to vet contributions. Donors can only make non-binding recommendations from their fund, according to JCFs fund policies, and they cannot control when and how the Federation will make grants nor control decisions about which grantees will receive funding.

The formsaid a person named Tad Taube donated $70,000 to the Tea Party Patriots, and a philanthropist from the San Francisco Bay area with that name did not respond to requests for comment. John Binkley is listed as giving $29,000. John Binkley from Alaska, a Republican former state senator who launched a failed gubernatorial run and served as one of the states three electors to the Electoral College, denied that he had made any donations to any Tea Party groups. And Sanford Diller, a billionaire Republican donor who died in February 2018, made the second-biggest contribution on the list at $150,000.

Martin, the Tea Party Patriots co-founder,tweetedlate last year that she would be speaking at the Stop the Steal rally and promoted the event in the weeks leading up to it. She called for peaceful protest as the rally became violent. A few hours earlier, Martin had tweeted, We will not allow them to steal this election! though the tweet did not name the perpetrators.

The Tea Party Patriots, which was formed in 2009 and describes itself as the nations largest grassroots Tea Party organization, is fundedby two nonprofits and a political action committee.

Update; January 13, 2021, 11:45 a.m. ETThis story has been updated to include a statement from Tea Party Patriots co-founder Jenny Beth Martin that was made after the pieces publication.

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Here Are the Donors to Tea Party Group That Helped Organize Pre-Riot Rally - The Intercept