By Thomas B. Edsall Washington Post Staff Writer Sunday, July 23, 2000; Page A04
Patrick J. Buchanan's presidential bid has turned the once-centrist Reform Party into a magnet attracting leaders and activists of such extreme right organizations as the National Alliance, the Liberty Lobby, the Council of Conservative Citizens and the League of the South. Many of these white nationalist groups are promoting Buchanan's candidacy in their publications and on their Web sites, and one controversial group set up an independent committee to back his bid for the presidency. Some leaders of these organizations have held Buchanan fundraisers, collected petitions for Buchanan and spoken at state Reform Party meetings. The flood of support from the extreme right, including groups that are intensely anti-black, anti-Jewish and anti-immigrant, reflects the profound transformation of the Reform Party. Buchanan's candidacy is turning the party from a secular organization predominantly focused on trade and campaign finance reform into a hard-right party opposed to abortion, critical of the influence of Israel and adamantly opposed to affirmative action. Buchanan's harsh critiques of the "Israel lobby," of third world immigration and of such civil rights leaders as the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. have resonated with groups that see Jews as corrupters of American culture and that see blacks and Hispanics as threats to white majority rule of the United States. Buchanan insists that he is neither racist nor antisemitic. Angela "Bay" Buchanan, his senior campaign adviser and sister, declined to be interviewed for this article but issued this statement: "My brother Pat does not now and has never belonged to any organization or group that preaches or practices intolerance or hatred. . . . And if any member of any such group has gravitated to our campaign, it was without our knowledge, or consent. But if they have, they probably did so because they came to believe the malicious lies about my brother spread by such institutions as The Washington Post. You do your worst; we shall do our best." Operating far outside the mainstream of political debate and discussion, the activities of hard right organizations in the Reform Party and in behalf of Buchanan include: * An e-mail to members of the National Alliance from Will Williams, a leader of the group who has become active in the North Carolina Reform Party, said: "It's our job to get out there in our areas, to raise consciousness, attract and radicalize 'those very people'--OUR people--then organize them into a majority. Many good people will have joined a much more radicalized, White-friendly Reform Party come November. . . . It is going to be a very interesting year with the Jews constantly screaming 'NAZI!' at PB [Pat Buchanan]." The e-mail was provided to The Post by the Southern Poverty Law Center. Williams said in an e-mail interview that he is "interested in the Reform Party becoming the party of the White." William Pierce, who heads the National Alliance, estimated that the overwhelming majority of his supporters and members who vote will vote for Buchanan. "Among Bush, Gore and Buchanan, Buchanan would be a hands-down winner," he said. Pierce said that his goal in dealing with American Jews is to "get rid of them, get them out. . . . I want to get them out of our lives, out of our country, off the levers of power." He said he has not worked out specifics of how he would propose to do this. * Buchanan supporters have solicited petition signatures at two meetings of a "white rights" group called American Friends of the British National Party.(http://www.americabnp.net/ ) A recent editorial in the group's newsletter said that until recently there has been "no Nationalist party in the U.S. that even comes close to the BNP and other similar parties on mainland Europe, like France's National Front or Australia's Freedom Party. . . . However, as it now looks like Pat Buchanan is going to be the Reform Party's candidate for President, we suggest that you give your support to the Reform Party. . . . "Our type of people--Nationalists--have been joining the Reform Party all across America and this is going to almost guarantee that Buchanan will be its candidate in November. . . . The Reform Party could soon become an American Nationalist party in all but name." * The Liberty Lobby, which the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) describes as "the most significant antisemitic propaganda organization in the United States," has set up an independent Americans for Pat Buchanan committee. The Lobby's publication, the Spotlight, has run numerous favorable articles about Buchanan. In 1991, the Spotlight described Zionism as "a world political engine of massive power which, allied with the power of the supercapitalists, effectively controls all aspects of western political, intellectual, religious and cultural life," according to the ADL. * Alabama League of the South, a pro-secession organization, recently published an article in its newsletter declaring that "conservatives do have a place to go. The Reform Party is America First on nation-defining issues. . . . It is essential that Buchananism lives on after the 2000 election." * Don Wassell, David Duke's 1988 presidential campaign manager and the head of the American Nationalist Union, http://www.anu.org/ has editorialized in his Nationalist Times tabloid: "It's now or never for rank-and-file conservatives to prove they are patriotic Americans first, and party supporters second. Pat Buchanan has methodically and effectively . . . taken over the Reform Party with the intention of making it into a genuine America First alternative to the two-party tyranny." * Leaders of the Council of Conservative Citizens (C of CC), which grew out of the defunct White Citizens Council, an organization that opposed civil rights legislation in the 1960s, have become active in the Buchanan campaign and the Reform Party. In South Carolina, Francis Bell, the state C of CC chair, won the post of secretary-treasurer of the Aiken County Reform Party chapter. "I think Pat Buchanan is the only person who is running for president that is morally adequate to run this country," she said. In Illinois, the liberal Center for New Community reported that Father Dennis Pavichevich of the Holy Resurrection Serbian Orthodox Cathedral and vice-chair of the Northern Illinois C of CC, held a $100-a-person fundraiser for Buchanan on June 30, and John Kelly, chair of the Northern Illinois C of CC, was among those who attended. Pavichevich said in an interview that he flies the Confederate flag in front of his house because the flag "is a Christian symbol, it's a symbol against tyranny . . . a symbol against the tyranny that is leading us into the new world order." (Another serbian-american fundraiser/politico, William Dorich, for PJB see http://news.suc.org/bydate/May_24/fundraising.html. )He said the fundraiser was not a C of CC function. A survey of C of CC members found that Buchanan was the choice of a solid majority, according to Gordon Baum, the group's CEO. Buchanan had 55.5 percent. Texas Gov. George W. Bush was second at 12.5 percent. Baum said the C of CC has not endorsed Buchanan. * Don Black, founder and director of Stormfront, a white nationalist Web site, said, "Those within our organization who are politically active do, as you surmise, support Buchanan. . . . I support Buchanan. He is not one of us, but culturally he is." Stormfront promotes on its Web site such books as "The Biological Jew," by Eustace Mullins, described as "proof that the Jews are a race and not just a religion. Jewish inherited political traits are left wing." Stormfront displays such articles as "Who Rules America?" which stated: "By permitting the Jews to control our news and entertainment media, we are doing more than merely giving them a decisive influence on our political system and virtual control of our government; we also are giving them control of the minds and souls of our children." Black said in an interview that he believes "we can restore white majority rule to the U.S. while we are still a majority during the next three or four decades." © 2000 The Washington Post Company