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Thursday 25 September 2008

Nick Griffin roots for Obama - truth stranger than fiction?

By SARA NELSON
Published: 24 Sep 2008

BNP leader Nick Griffin cuts an unlikely figure as a Barack Obama fan – but that did not stop him wearing a hat supporting the presidential hopeful.

The controversial politician was convicted of incitement to racial hatred in 1998 for denying the Holocaust but has repeatedly insisted the BNP is not a racist group.
The far right party is opposed to non-white immigration and all for returning Britain to a white nation.

But as this snap shows, it looks like Griffin is not averse to seeing a black man become the next American president.

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/the_real_american_idol/article1729367.ece

4 comments:

Jeff Marshall said...

2 comments on this subject from the British Democracy Forum:

“There is no contradiction with British Nationalist principles in supporting a person of African heritage for US president.

The "white" population of the US have no more claim to the country than the "black" population, neither are indigenous and both arrived at approximately the same time.

Therefore there is absolutely no reason why a nationalist would object to a presidential candidate simply because he was "black".

True Obama is the American Blair and we will be forced to listen to four years of meaningless pious rhetoric from the guy should he be elected.

However since whether the BNP supports him or not will have no impact on the election what so ever this is irrelevant to be the position the BNP takes.

And besides its hardly as if British Nationalists have anything to hope for from McCain either who is equally as vacuous and irrelevant.

So there are only the domestic political implications to consider.

By supporting Obama the BNP would have gained positive news coverage as in The Sun yesterday, and almost certainly in the Broadsheets as well had Griffin been serious and there had been some substance to the story.

This would have challenged the stereotype of Nazis and racists in the public's perception (creating cognitive dissonance in Griffin favored phrase) and given Searchlight serious problems.

But most importantly this would have been a totemic issue which would have neatly sheered away the white supremacists and genuine Nazis and fascists from the Party. Particularly the American "white nationalist" faction whose friendship is far more greatly to be feared than its enmity. Something which has got to happen if the Party is to even have a chance of breaking into the mainstream. As it is they have concluded this is a joke.

It would have been a brilliant example of media manipulation and agenda setting using the press' own stereotype against it to generate coverage.

These are the tactics which would be crucial if the BNP were to become a serious revolutionary Party.

The BNP supporting Obama is a no-brainier as our American cousins would say. But has Griffin the balls?

NOTE: Then again this would only work as part of a massive re-positioning and re-branding exercise otherwise the inconsistencies in the parties position will simply make it look untrustworthy as well as ridiculous.”

(Wowbanger TIP)



“Wouldn't lifting the colour bar in the BNP also create 'cognitive dissonance' and set the party on a path to electoral respectability?

Searchlight would a have a lot to worry about then, having only tiny neo-nazi crank parties to attack - which is hardly the reason it is in business.

Lifting the colour bar would also establish a more interesting idea of nation over race.

All patriotic nationalists - of whatever colour - would be welcome, and there would no grounds left for describing the party as racist, fascist or nazi.

Indeed, anyone who did describe it so could - at long last - be sued.

We might arrive at a proper legal definition of 'racism' in the process, doing society a great service.

Whatever one's views on race this would be a good political measure.

You give something up now in order to gain more in the long term.

Of course I am very far from being the first person to propose this - but isn't it about time it was done in order to head for sunlit political uplands as a nice change from the racist and Nazi gutter, which can never be properly escaped as long as the colour bar remains in existence?”

(London Orbital)

Claire Khaw said...

I quite agree that it is a No- Brainer for the following reasons:

(1) Obama and his team would be overjoyed to learn that a leader of party known to be racist white nationalists should be seen to be supporting him.

(2) When he is US President he will need to calm the fears of the white proletariat. Making friendly overtures to the BNP next time he is in the UK and showing that he understands the pain of the white working classes (should he be bold and imaginative enough to make this gesture) would be enormously reassuring to Americans of all races.

The publicity it could generate for both parties is huge.

(3) McCain as President would have no reason to make any overtures to a minor party in Britain tainted by racism.

The irony that a black US President is in fact more useful to the BNP than a white Republican one is delicious and delightful.

Could Nick Griffin really be a PR genius after all and anticipated the debate his choice of headgear would generate?

Griffin shaking hands with a black US President while the cameras flash and the world looks on?

The stuff of feelgood Hollywood movies ....

Anonymous said...

“Wouldn't lifting the colour bar in the BNP also create 'cognitive dissonance' and set the party on a path to electoral respectability?

No it would not. The Flemmish Vlaams Bloc had no coulour bar, they still got banned for being racist and nazi. The Front National have no colur bar, I witnessed black members at their BBR festival in Paris 2 years ago, again they are still branded racist and Nazi.

The whole reason for the BNP existing is that we are a racial Nationalist party. Lift the colour bar and there would be nothing to separate us from the others. Notice how the FN vote collapsed when Sarcosi came in on a strong anti immigrant ticket (did nothing about it since mind).

Claire Khaw said...

Just because Le Pen didn't do well in the last election doesn't mean lifting the colour bar wouldn't work, and it is a tired argument that is trotted out time and time again because you are dreadng another period of internal strife when your more purist members march off to the NF. It is after all the equivalent of your Clause V and is part of the growing pain of a young party, ie that of coming to terms with the real world.

Sarkozy was the clear blue water and the French so understandably wanted - a good-looking young man after decades of elections between one old man and against yet another old man.

Le Pen's age was against him because he was yet another old man.

I have heard it said that the NF vote was destroyed when Thatcher talked about people "feeling swamped".

Maybe if the BNP were more sympathetic to the plight of people who are well and truly pissed off with the mainstream parties (as Thatcher was when showing sympathy towards the "swampees") but who are afraid of being treated as social pariahs and suffering any sort of economic damage as a result, ie the middle classes in employment who are well-known for their political spinelessness but whose support you need to become respectable.

Not everyone with the views of a cab driver has the luxury of being self-employed, you know!

Nation is not the same as race - different races can want to be part of a nation, but only if its projected image is attractive. At the moment it is not, but all that is required is vision and the ability to articulate that vision attractively.

The Flemmish Vlaams Bloc ruling was interesting, but nowadays even non-whites don't want any more immigration!

The NF don't have a colour bar either, but I doubt that there are any ethnics banging on their door to be let in!

Not only do you not stop them from joining as full members, you positively encourage them to join.

All they have to do to join is sign a statement declaring that they want all anti-discrimination legislation repealed so nobody at all in this country can use it against another.

Then, you might have CBI and IoD members banging on your door ....

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