I was watching Gangs of New York and some of the anti-equality debate in the movie sounded familiar. So, I started looking things up – as I love to do.
It’s funny how every generation has a group composed of those that are sure others are less equal to them, and believe their way of life is threatened, in this case occurring over 100 years ago.
The “Know Nothing” party was a political group created for the those that feared change. The differences they found to mark their divide were the “native” vs. the “non native” (AKA fresh of the boat irish vs. those born here) and the divisions of Christianity each gang chose as their own.
Check out the write up on the Know-Nothing party here (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Know_Nothing, http://history1800s.about.com/od/immigration/a/knownothing01.htm), or on your own. Utterly amazing how little somethings change.
Hate and inequality seems to always find a way to influence those who think they are protecting tradition.
I guess a question to ask is, will your party, group, or even your name make its way onto that page for your kid’s kids to read 50 years from now so they can say, “wow, how stupid were they?!”
Sean Shadmand 
After more reading, I am also amazed by the constancy of the fact that the platforming behind tradition always seem to hide behind the flag, shouting nationalism. When all the while, decades later, we end up being proud of our flag because it has been able to dismantle those very platforms and allowed all of us to prosper equally. — The flag is a better blanket then a sword.