America First Union Party

> The America first in America First Union Party means America first and not some rich shareholders first!
>
> -President Robert F. Kennedy Jr. after dismantling BlackRock, Inc.

The **America First Union Party**, commonly referred to as **Union Party** or **AFUP** for short, is a left-leaning populist American party of heterogeneous membership. It is variously described, by both party members and externals, as democratic socialist, non-interventionist and nationalist. It is seen as a major catch-all party that originated from the secession of Huey Long and his followers from the Democratic Party in the late 1930s. Its main political rivals had been the Socialist Party in the Sixth Party System and the Green and Republican Parties respectively in the Seventh Party System.

Having its roots in the Great Depression, the Union Party emphasizes the importance of its values of presidential democracy, American isolationism, neutrality and patriotism, as well as the redistribution of wealth that created the the Longist economic system, named after its enactor Long. The AFUP‘s rise oversaw the fragmentation of the long living two-party system after the short-lived Fifth Party System, the emergence of the multi-party system of the Sixth Party System, World War II, the Long Administration, the Great Struggle, as well as the foundation of the United Commonwealths that replaced the old United States. The AFUP under its founder Huey Long, known as the Kingfish or American Otto, and the Kennedy Clan dominated American politics like never before, a dominance that only ended with the emergence of neoliberals and Greens, known as the Seventh Party System.

The Union Party's traditional coalition has consisted of the working class, Catholics, mainline Protestants, Jews, Hispanics, Filipinos, Muslims, intellectuals, and organized labor since its inception. After passing the Civil Rights Act in 1964, Blacks which had previously voted for New Deal Democrats of the Democratic Party (Social Democrats) started to support the AFUP. Besides that, many white conservatives in the South temporarily supported the AFUP in the 1980s. Its philosophy of "Share Our Wealth" blends civil liberty, social equality and redistributionist populism with support for a dirigist market economy. On social issues, it advocates for the continued legality of abortion and same-sex marriage and the legalization of marijuana. On economic issues, it favors universal healthcare coverage, free education, universal child care, paid sick leave, and unionism, while being anti-big business, anti-Marxist and anti-fascist.

President Chris M. Tanner's (AFUP) plans to move the Union Party into the political center via his Third Way "centrist Unionism" campaign failed and efforts to end the economic crisis through limited deregulation proved to be ineffective, after which he was called a sellout by party comrades. After the Republican Revolution of Ellen Wilson (GOP) and the Progressive Leap of Ralph Nader (Green Party) had secured both opposition parties two consecutive terms from 1991 to 2007, the Union Party renounced some of its left-wing populist policies and has since then focused mainly on American nationalism and isolationism. In 2006, Afro-American Jayceon C. Young (AFUP) was elected president with a campaign kin to "centrist Unionism" but more leftist in economics, however Robert F. Kennedy Jr. returned to the "Share Our Wealth" program in his 2018 campaign.