At its height during his leadership, his group had no more than an estimated 100 dues-paying members. For instance, when he ran as a write-in candidate for president in 1964 he received a measly 212 votes, whereas today's 'American Freedom Party', a modern neo- fascist political party, managed to get over ten times that in 2012. Though Rockwell is often credited with heavily influencing many of today's neo-Nazis, to the point of being responsible for coining their favorite phrase 'White Power', he was largely considered a joke back in the day. Prior to entering politics, Rockwell, a veteran of both World War II and the Korean War (US Navy pilot), had worked as a commercial illustrator, sign painter, magazine publisher, advertising copywriter, and sales agent. George Lincoln Rockwell (1918–1967), known as 'Commander Rockwell', 'Rocky', or 'Link' to his followers, was an American Nazi sympathizer and Holocaust denier who is best known for founding the American Nazi Party (originally the ' World Union of Free Enterprise National Socialists'), later known as the 'National Socialist White People's Party' ) in 1959. In his own twisted and distorted lexicon he calls it faith, strength, truth. That something he looks for and finds is in a sewer.

And like some goose-stepping predecessors he searches for something to explain his hunger, and to rationalize why a world passes him by without saluting. “ ”.a sparse little man who feeds off his self-delusions and finds himself perpetually hungry for want of greatness in his diet.

White Power by George Lincoln Rockwell