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Willis Allison Carto (born July 17, 1926 in Indiana) is a longtime figure on the far right wing of American politics. He describes himself as Jeffersonian and populist, although the Anti-Defamation League and other critics say he promotes thinly-disguised antisemitism and Neo-Nazism.
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Influences on Carto
Willis Carto was known to be a devotee of the writings of Francis Parker Yockey. Yockey was one of a handful of esoteric writers during the post-World War II era who researched Adolf Hitler. Yockey's best known book, Imperium, was adopted by Carto as his own guiding ideology. Later, Carto would define his ideology as Jeffersonian and populist rather than National Socialist, particularly in Carto's 1982 book, Profiles in Populism. That book presented sympathetic profiles of several United States political figures including Thomas Jefferson and Andrew Jackson, as well as the controversial Catholic priest Father Charles Coughlin and Henry Ford. Critics charged that the book all but ignored Coughlin and Fords' virulent antisemitism, and that Carto remained a devotee of Yockey throughout the 1980s and 1990s.
The Anti-Defamation League, as well as other critics, believe that Willis Carto, more than anybody else, was responsible for keeping organized antisemitism alive as a movement in the United States during the latter half of the 20th century and into the 21st century. These critics have noted that Carto has founded some organizations, such as Liberty Lobby, with the intent of appearing to be respectable conservative, populist, or anti-Communist organizations, while founding other organizations that were racialist or National Socialist in nature.
Liberty Lobby and Newspapers
In 1955, Carto founded an organization called Liberty Lobby, which remained in operation under the control of Willis Carto until 2001, when the organization was forced into bankruptcy as a result of a lawsuit. Liberty Lobby was perhaps best known for publishing the newspaper, The Spotlight, between 1975 and 2001.
Carto and several "Spotlight" staff members and writers have since founded a new newspaper, called the American Free Press. The paper includes articles from syndicated columnists who have no direct ties to Carto or his organizations. As in its predecessor, it takes a populist tone and focuses on conspiracy theory, nationalist economics and Israel. One of its writers, Michael Collins Piper, hosts a weekday talk show on shortwave radio that is pointedly anti-Zionist.
Other activities in the 1950s and 1960s
In 1966, Carto acquired control of The American Mercury via the Legion for the Survival of Freedom organization. The magazine was once a highly respected periodical associated with H.L. Mencken, but which was failing by the time Carto acquired it. It was published until 1980.
After the failed third party presidential campaign of George Wallace in 1968, Carto acquired control of what was left of the Youth for Wallace organization, and transformed it into an openly racist youth organization called the National Youth Alliance. Carto eventually lost control of the National Youth Alliance to a rival, William Luther Pierce, who transformed it into the National Alliance, which is today an American white racist organizations.
Carto, Revisionism and Holocaust Denial
Carto was also the founder of a publishing company called Noontide Press, which published a number of books on white racialism, including Yockey's Imperium and David Hoggan's The Myth of the Six Million, one of the first books to deny the Holocaust. Noontide Press later became closely associated with the Institute for Historical Review (IHR), and fell out of Carto's hands at the same time as the IHR did. The IHR was founded by Willis Carto in 1979, with the intent of promoting the proposition that the Nazi Holocaust never happened - a view known as Holocaust denial. After losing control of Noontide Press and the IHR in a hostile takeover by former associates, Carto started another publication, "The Barnes Review", which also focuses on Holocaust denial.
Populist Party (1984-1996)
In 1984, Willis Carto was involved in starting a new political party called the Populist Party. It quickly fell out of his hands in a hostile takeover by disgruntled former associates. Critics asserted that this Populist Party (not to be confused with the Populist Party of 1889) was little more than an electoral vehicle for current and former Ku Klux Klan and Christian Identity members. Olympic athlete Bob Richards (1984), David Duke (a founder of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan and a future Louisiana state representative, 1988) and former Green Beret Bo Gritz (1992) were the Populist Party's only three presidential candidates. It folded before it could nominate a candidate for the 1996 elections.
Other activities
Carto's Liberty Lobby acquired the Sun Radio Network in December 1989, and attempted to use talk radio as a vehicle for espousing his views. It was eventually a financial failure. Liberty Lobby and American Free Press also sponsored the Radio Free America talk show, hosted by Tom Valentine.
In 2004, Carto joined in signing the New Orleans Protocol on behalf of American Free Press. The New Orleans Protocol seeks to "mainstream our cause" by reducing violence and internecine warfare. It was written by David Duke.
External links
- The Barnes Review, Carto's history magazine, founded in 1994
- Willis Carto Interviewed on RBN Radio, April 12th, 2007 - MP3
References
- Carto, Willis A. (1982) Profiles in Populism. Washington: Flag Press.
- Coogan, Kevin. (1999). Dreamer of the Day: Francis Parker Yockey and the Postwar Fascist International. Brooklyn, NY: Autonomedia.
- Mintz, Frank P. (1985). The Liberty Lobby and the American Right: Race, Conspiracy, and Culture. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press.
- Piper, Michael C. (1994) Best Witness: The Mermelstein Affair Washington: Center for Historical Review. (Afterword by Carto.)