Perry, O'Malley link Trump to 'Know-Nothings'. - 19th century nativists live again!
Democrat Martin O’Malley and Republican Rick Perry don’t agree on much, but both have linked Donald Trump to the “Know-Nothings” — the 19th-century anti-immigrant movement that rocketed to political success in pre-Civil War America and flamed out just as quickly.
“Donald Trump is the modern-day incarnation of the know-nothing movement,” Perry said on Wednesday in critiquing Trump’s role in the Republican presidential race. “He espouses nativism, not conservatism. He is negative when conservatism is inherently optimistic.” Perry echoed the comments of O’Malley, the Democratic candidate who has also criticized the billionaire businessman for his claims that too many Mexican migrants are “criminals” and “rapists.”
“If Donald Trump wants to run on a platform of demonizing immigrants, then he should go back to the 1840s and run for the nomination of the Know Nothing Party,” O’Malley said earlier this month.
Know-Nothing-ism essentially began with creation of the Order of the Star-Spangled Banner in New York City in 1849. Its members had criticized a spike in immigration throughout the 1840s, particularly of Irish Catholics, fearing that the flood of people would take jobs at lower wages and be more loyal to the pope than the United States. The nickname for this and similar organizations sprung from members’ responses to questions about their activities: “I know nothing.” Adherents claimed the attempted slur, adopting the motto that “I know nothing but my Country, my whole Country, and nothing but my Country.”
http://onpolitics.usatoday.com/2015/07/23/perry-omalley-link-trump-to-know-nothings/
At least the Donald will have a party to run with if he does not win the republican nomination. I doubt that most of his supporters will even be reluctant to associate with a party called the Know-Nothings. Science and history are not their strong points anyway. Emotion and hatred are the most important things to his base and those fit into the label Know Nothings quite well.
= new reply since forum marked as read
with the tea party. I doubt it would bother them in the least to bring back the "Know Nothing" title. 
Maybe Perry is just plagiarizing O'Malley?
