Marjorie Taylor Greene launches ‘America First’ platform to promote ‘Anglo-Saxon traditions’

‘America is a nation with a border, and a culture, strengthened by a common respect for uniquely Anglo-Saxon political traditions,’ an America First pamphlet says

Nathan Place
New York
Saturday 17 April 2021 14:22 BST
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<p>Marjorie Taylor Greene has been leading the effort to form an ‘America First’ caucus in the House of Representatives</p>

Marjorie Taylor Greene has been leading the effort to form an ‘America First’ caucus in the House of Representatives

A policy pamphlet for a group of pro-Trump House Republicans explicitly calls for respecting white traditions, according to a document obtained by Punchbowl News.

“America is a nation with a border, and a culture, strengthened by a common respect for uniquely Anglo-Saxon political traditions,” the document, titled the “America First Caucus Policy Platform,” says.

A group of pro-Trump Republicans are working to form the new caucus, led by representatives Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia and Paul Gosar of Arizona. The “Platform,” however, does not list any authors.

Punchbowl News, which first reported on the document on Friday, said it contains “some of the most nativist stuff we’ve seen.”

“History has shown that societal trust and political unity are threatened when foreign citizens are imported en-masse into a country,” the pamphlet says, “particularly without institutional support for assimilation and an expansive welfare state to bail them out should they fail to contribute positively to the country.”

The document also goes on to demand that any new American infrastructure “reflects the architectural, engineering and aesthetic value that befits the progeny of European architecture.”

Democrats condemned the platform.

“This document is nakedly racist and disgusting,” tweeted Rep Peter Welch of Vermont. “This supposed caucus and its members represent a dangerous nativist perspective that hurts our country, but sadly is not surprising.”

“As an immigrant, I served on active duty in the US military to defend your right to say stupid stuff,” Rep Ted Lieu of California wrote in a tweet addressed to Ms Greene and Mr Gosar. “What makes America great is that we don’t judge you based on bloodline, we look at your character. So take your nativist crap and shove it.”

Despite such criticism, some House Republicans have already expressed interest in joining the new caucus. Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida has announced he’ll be a member, and Rep. Louie Gohmert of Texas said he was “looking at” joining.

The caucus says in its introduction that it seeks to “follow in President Trump’s footsteps.” Unsurprisingly, the first area of policy it addresses is “Election Fraud.”

“We will work towards an end to mail-in voting, implementation of national voter ID and substantive investigations into mass voter fraud perpetrated during the 2020 election,” the document says.

In reality, no substantial fraud was ever uncovered in the 2020 presidential election, despite the dozens of lawsuits brought by former president Trump’s campaign.

One of the longest sections of the document is devoted to immigration. That section is where the “Anglo-Saxon” comment comes up, but it includes several other controversial statements as well.

“An important distinction between post-1965 immigrants and previous waves of settlers,” the document says, “is that previous cohorts were more educated, earned higher wages, and did not have an expansive welfare state to fall back on when they could not make it in America and thus did not stay in the country at the expense of the native-born.”

According to the Pew Research Center, immigrants to the United States before 1965 were significantly more white.

This is not the first time Congresswoman Greene has been accused of racism. In February, the House of Representatives voted to strip her of her committee positions as punishment for what critics call her hateful and conspiracy-mongering comments on social media. All Democrats in the House voted for the measure, with only 11 Republicans joining them.

Ms Greene’s office did not immediately respond toThe Independent’s request for comment.

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