Not surprisingly from this first meeting, I shortly found out that the AFP was already divided into two feuding camps, named not surprisingly by the group of party dissidents unhappy with the direction of things as "Team Stall" as opposed to the "Team Forward" moniker they had chosen for their alternative leadership team. Not surprisingly, as indicated by the events of the night, future meetings became increasingly acrimonious. Firstly there were some minor motions designed to speed the pace of meetings up in general, which as I recall were resisted and/or circumvented by the party leadership. At the time I wondered if these matters could simply be resolved by having fewer Natcom meetings, whose frequent occurrence seemed unnecessary. More sustentative matters quickly arose whoever, which did require Natcom resolution, which as we can see was not easy intrinsically to obtain.

The first matter to bedevil the party was that of the conduct of my good Oklahoma chairperson E.Z. Million. After the first two meetings E.Z., had become so irate with the conduct of the meetings and the Party in general that he had, completely independent of and unbeknownst to us, taken upon himself the task of writing private e-mails to a large percentage of the party Natcom membership, whose content varied from mildly abusive to personally threatening – mentioning something about the available dumpsters in Nashville (the site of our upcoming meeting). As might be expected, the reaction was varied and not entirely favorable. This presented a real problem for team forward, as E.Z. had gained their trust and they had become prominently aligned with him, allowing him to arrange with the mercurial "Bo" Gritz to become the keynote speaker at Nashville. Team stall naturally exploited this, introducing a resolution to remove E.Z. Million from Natcom.

Party Meltdown

The pugnacious E.Z.Million managed to narrowly beat his removal resolution, then resigned from Natcom. His choice of Bo Gritz provided a second source of disagreement, one which the weakening party could not now overcome. People always said E. Z. always had his own agenda, and his choice of Bo Gritz seemed dictated more by such than by real consideration for the good of Team Forward or the party as a whole. While Bo Gritz is of course a respected and popular speaker at gun shows, his long record of erratic behavior and extremist ties certainly made him a questionable choice as a public symbol of a party seeking national respectability. Most of us of course had not heard much of Colonel Gritz, and as we did the problems with him gradually sunk in. As with E.Z. Million however, the selection of Bo Gritz had become a public symbol of Team Forward, one that was not easy to back away from, thus unfortunately the decision was made to stick with our official Party commitment to him, rather than admit Team Forward’s carelessness and lack of competence in the matter.  

Having given Team Stall two strong issues to challenge the legitimacy of Team forwards claim to leadership succession, the course of events and their reasoning became murky. Team stall arranged a vote which I think rescinded the offer to speak to Bo Gritz, which Team Forward, irrevocably committed to Gritz and the Nashville meeting at this point (where we were to arrange for our party accession), decided it would (mirroring Team Stall’s obstructionism) boycott the subject Natcom meeting so a quorum could not be reached. This was successful, but the lack of ability to obtain the necessary unity to make the Nashville meeting, or any kind of party business for that matter, seemed to be becoming apparent to everyone. First the existing party leadership, led by Chairman Dan Charles, resigned, turning over the party to Team Forward leader Gene Lovell (who held some secondary office of the Party. His ascendancy to power was short-lived however, as Gene Lovell also quickly resigned. Over the next week a quick procession of Natcom members resigned and announced their state party’s disaffiliation, until only a handful of state parties remained, and along with Secretary John Hey, who remained to exercise executive authority for the party.

Hey’s first action as party head appeared rather puzzling to a man obstensively trying to retain what moral remained in the party, but he announced his first order of business was to collect the party’s debt incurred from cancellation of the convention to the hotel, which as I recall was about $8000, from the remaining members. I opinioned that I did not personally feel responsible for the debt, (still blaming Team Stall for the whole fiasco), and in any event felt that it was unlikely that individual Natcom members could be held responsible for the collective/corporate party debt. Hey disagreed, but after a couple of e-mails, interspersed with a couple of comments from E.Z. generously suggesting if Hey didn’t feel up to the task he could send the whole party logbook to him) discussion of the matter ceased. The only upcoming event on the horizon was a Natcom meeting scheduled July 8, 2003, obstensively to discuss collection of the party debt. I picked up the phone and announced my presence at the meeting that night with more than a little curiosity. In retrospect, it was the sort of curiosity that guests of cannibals have about the dinner menu, but out of contrariness I went anyway. No silly threats about a hotel debt were going to drive me from what I’d worked for with the party, no matter Hey’s threats.

Hasta la Vista - Baby

The meeting of July 8 seemed to start cordially and unobtrusively enough on the surface, although I realized the idiocy of participating in a meeting led by hostile people where I was completely out of the loop. Mr. Hey and the few else of us there all said hello, as if we all were in friendly agreement, and Mr. Hey proceeded to call the meeting to order and ask if anyone else wished to deliver the invocation, then proceeded to deliver it himself. The order of business thereafter left equally little room for improvisation.

Firstly Mr. Hey announced the former treasurer, his fellow Mississippian Maureen McHugh, had generously, in view of the party’s financial troubles, to be reinstated as treasurer and wished to contribute to the party. With slight trepidation at what this initial move meant I welcomed her back.

After we had finished welcoming Mr. Hey, he announced he had another request for reinstatement, this time of the Illinois delegation. This delegation had been generally low-key, although slightly favoring Team Stall. I politely welcomed them back to the party along with the rest.

Now seated as Natcom members, the Illinois delegation in turn announced they had their own motion. The Ohio delegation had requested reinstatement also. Inclusion of this delegation did not seem quite so innocuous to me – I recalled some general anti-Team forward feeling there. But having already approved the Illinois delegation, I graciously welcomed them and their wishes to help work with the party again. They weren’t ideal, but they certainly weren’t the MA delegation, at least.

My rationalizations were rudely challenged in short order. The Ohio delegation, now, as voting Natcom members, announced they had their own resolution they wished to introduce, for the reinstatement of the MA delegation, home of the infamous Tom White, the unsilencable floor leader of Team Stall. Now I was thinking "what on earth"? But there was no stopping things now. The delegations I had just welcomed alone already numbered 7.

"What on earth" was quickly answered. Scarcely had he been welcomed, without the slightest hestitation, Tom White of MA, announced he had his own resolution, requesting for the expulsion of the Oklahoma delegation, on the basis of its continuing association with the disreputable E.Z. Million. I now finally spoke up, saying that it did not seem in order to request the expulsion of Natcom delegations for the actions of state members not under their control, (E.Z. had resigned his Natcom membership after the close vote against him), but as I protested I realized the futility of the whole thing. I had been snookered pure and simple. I requested time to speak, and Hey muttered something about a technicality. Then realizing the futility of this all – this was now an AFP utterly devoid of law, or at least respect for the once sanctimoniously revered Robert’s Rules of Order and all the other parliamentary traditions I view as distinguishing one of our democratic institutions from a mafia don’s hit list meeting, even if such distinctions truthfully are often merely one of sentiment and perception. I uttered a few final words of protest and hung up the phone forever on the America First Party.

Postscript

What has changed since that time in the America First Party? To an inexperienced eye, almost nothing. The AFP continues to send me its slick little 8 page newsletters quarterly, with its glowing, hard-right rhetoric, just like off of any Buchanan website, as well as send me slickly issued press releases, similarly hard-right. Although my old friend Tom White replaced J.D. Jones of Team Forward as national party building chairman, with his fellow Massachusettsan Jon Hill as Party Vice-Chairman, and a couple other of the prominent team stall names personally joining in the my piling on July 8nothing much seems to have changed. The Charles Party always was a slick operation, if nothing else. Clearly in retrospect Team Forward had simply been out foxed and out maneuvered. It was amateurs against professionals, and as is usually the case the amateurs lost. In this case minor matters like the complete dissolution and reformation of the party hardly made it skip a bit. Behind the scenes the party is a completely hollow shell, but it puts up its front as the lone hard-right Buchananite party in America, bravely waiving its banner, for any Buchananite activist thinking of serious political activity, (the kind clearly impossible within our two parties) can see, in the hopes of attracting them in.

This leads one to a few basic questions behind this present group of people calling themselves the America First Party. Who are they really, how do they get their funds, expertise, and other infrastructure, and what are their true motives in continuing to operate. When I was with the Party, disquieting rumors were widespread that certain party officials were in fact in the employ of other political organizations which one would certainly characterize as politically hostile to the stated platform goals of the AFP. While none of these rumors has been conclusively proven to me, certainly my experience with the actions of the present party officers doesn’t disprove their allegation. Even if they weren’t consciously out to destroy the party, they couldn’t have done a better job. Although certainly the tactics of Team Forward and forthrightness of its members wouldn’t necessarily impress anyone much more. My personal impression of team forward was one of amateurishness and clear lack of skilled operative guidance. Which is quite different from Team Stall, the current national leadership.

Perhaps we will never know. Or at least I won’t. A great many questions remain from these events that have never been satisfactorily answered to me. No conclusions can be drawn, but I say there are certainly grounds for reasonable suspicion. Can amateur citizens at the grassroots level still join together to effect meaningful reform and change in this country, or is that time passed, and can only groups with trained and skillful operatives, such as only is obtainable through the support of the existing power-elites in this country, now hope to have any chance of long term existence, let alone success, today? The experience of the AFP is not a hopeful sign.

"Published originally at EtherZone.com : republication allowed with this notice and hyperlink intact."

David Wilkinson is a chemical engineer researcher and consultant in Norman, Oklahoma. He is an activist for the American Engineering Association and is active in several immigration reduction groups, including Numbers USA.  David is a new columnist for Ether Zone.

David Wilkinson can be reached at:dwilkinson12@cox.net

Published in the August 30, 2005 issue of  Ether Zone.
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