Huckabee’s Confederate Flag Fraud
Veterans of South Carolina politics have been waiting and wondering what the last minute stunt would be leading up to Saturday's First-in-the-South bellwether Republican primary. I predicted it would be a Confederate flag stunt and begged the Ron Paul campaign to make his positions on the War Between the States better known, early on.
The stunt ads came out today in South Carolina. They attack McCain and Romney for going against the Confederate flag and calling it all of the typical politically correct names: racist, bigoted, hatred. Then they talk about how Governor Huckabee feels when he sees a pickup truck with a Confederate flag on it. It just makes him so proud to be a Southerner! Shame on those who would disparage those who wore the gray!
Referendum after referendum all across the South proves that this kind of thing makes voters fall in love with you. Three-to-one in South Carolina in 1996 voted to keep the flag atop the State House dome. Two-to-one in Mississippi a few years ago voted to keep their Confederate canton in their flag. Georgia, Virginia, and Missouri have shown the same patterns when the issue arose. Surveys say 14 to 18 percent of Southerners would prefer that their states secede, today.
These new radio ads are a ridiculous attempt to exploit the good sympathies of South Carolinians for a totally dishonest and fraudulent candidate. All along, Huckabee has said his liberal stance on illegal immigration is brought on by his desire to make atonement for slavery, “a second chance for America to get right with God.” He has, himself, over and over, repeatedly used all of the same politically correct slurs against the Confederate flag—not to mention grandstanding for the NAACP.
Not only does this last minute ploy attempt to align Confederate flag voters with a bad and fraudulent candidate, but it plays into the national stereotype that those who like the Confederate flag will support a megalomaniac Big Government Liberal Republican. In South Carolina, this means State Senators like Jake Knotts and David Thomas, and Attorney General Henry McMaster. The ad takes the Confederate flag away from Lynyrd Skynyrd and hands it to Billy Sunday (the famed fundamentalist preacher, who, by the way, was from Iowa and whose father was a Yankee soldier). Or, more specifically, rather than Billy Sunday, it puts the flag in the hands of Jimmy Carter Part Deux. What a mistake.
Beyond that, the ad is misleading. It is paid for by a well-known lobbyist for foreign arms deals. Perhaps this individual, who will remain anonymous here, believes that Huckabee will be McCain’s vice president, and can be a convenient personal ally in selling arms to Middle-eastern warlords.
Why not go ahead and let the Southern Heritage supporters support their natural ally, Ron Paul? After all, he defended their cause, top to bottom, on Meet the Press, Morning Joe, and Bill Maher’s show. For Ron Paul, it’s part of an overarching philosophy that rejects New York City neoconservative political correctness, the real American enemy. For him, it’s not just a brief ploy that he will ditch on Sunday morning, after the South Carolina primary, when presumably, Mike Huckabee will give a speech on the many virtues of Martin Luther King, Jr.
On Monday, Hillary and Obama will be giving speeches on the South Carolina State House steps, in a contest to see who can hate the Confederate flag the most. It will be flying right in front of them, at the center of the State House grounds, and Southern Heritage protesters will be waving their flags. Get ready for a circus.
Meanwhile, on Wednesday, Huckabee continued in his dishonest takeover of evangelical Republicans in South Carolina. All of the candidates were told (on tape) that none of them would be permitted to address this week’s South Carolina pastor’s convention in downtown Columbia, South Carolina.
On Wednesday morning, Tim LaHaye introduced Huckabee to the convention, who then gave his own speech. Questions have been raised over whether this kind of tactic was legal. In the long haul of the South Carolina campaign, it is a perfect representation of the Huckabee South Carolina strategy: Lie for as long as you can. Tell no one that you support Huckabee. Then unleash all of the endorsements during the final hour. It's the perfect straw man for the Left: the "Christian leader" whose supporters' greatest strength is their capacity to lie, lie, and lie.
After being called out time after time in South Carolina for supporting Huckabee, evangelical leaders such as Oran Smith, president of Jim Dobson’s South Carolina Focus on the Family affiliate, the Palmetto Family Council, have insisted that they are not supporting Huckabee. Not to mention South Carolina Lt. Governor (and the ultimate Confederate flag sellout) Andre Bauer. And also consultant Rod Shealy; political goons and flag sellouts David Beasley (former governor and U.S. Senate candidate) and Mike Campbell (son of our Reagan-era governor and candidate for Lt. Governor and personal friend of George H.W. Bush). All the while, their names were on press releases announcing Huckabee events, and they went out of their way to stifle Ron Paul’s efforts, in particular. The same strategy is true of Dobson himself, if you remember his Research Family Council straw poll in Washington, D.C., last September.
So, while South Carolinians are falling in love with Mike Huckabee—and they sure do love him in that red sweater Christmas TV commercial—they had better wake up. If they think McCain exploited them in 2000, they ain’t seen nothing yet.
Huckabee's numbers in South Carolina are rising as a result of the bogus radio ad. Southerners expecting to make an ally with someone who's going somewhere are going to be miffed. As soon as Fred finishes getting just enough votes to palliate an embarrassing showing for McCain against Huckabee and Romney, he's going to drop out and endorse the Mac.
That's been the neocon plan from the beginning. Fred's voting record is rated four points lower than McCain's by the American Conservative Union. He's only pretending, as actors do, to be a conservative, just long enough to do the hit job.
Who gets anything out of this ridiculous radio ad stunt? Complicit in the deal were many of the leaders of Southern Heritage activism, including the Commander-in-Chief of the Sons of Confederate Veterans. They will be the biggest losers in Saturday's election.
(More references can be found here, here, and here.)
Tim Manning is Assistant Editor of Southern Partisan magazine and Vice President of Publications of the Foundation for American Education. His views do not necessarily represent those of his employers.
51 Responses »
Trackbacks
- The Confederate Flag and the South Carolina primary
- Conservative Heritage Times » The Inside Scoop on the Confederate Flag Issue and Huckabee in South Carolina
- The Southerner » The Blast Heard All Across the Southern Movement
- Thoughts on Politicians and the Confederate Flag « Altars & Firesides
Entries(RSS)
Mr. Manning may be outraged but Mr. Huckabee is just playing good ol' Southern politics. Southerners are no more attached to limited government than the rest of Americans and they love their Stars and Bars. Ol' Huck knows his good ol' boys - they made him governor and may make him Prez.
P.S - I'm all for Ron Paul!
Never mind the flag. Someone should ask him whether he thinks the southern states had a right to secede, or whether Lincoln had a duty to force them back into the union. That will bring out what he really thinks and expose him as no friend of states' rights or of regionalism.
You tell 'em, Corky!
It would seriously be better for the South to secede from the Union right now. If only they had won the War of Northern Aggression, then that could have been done, and transplanted Connecticut Yankees like the Bushes would only have to lie to their fellow Yankees to get votes. By all means the North and South have always been so different from each other as far as culture, religion, politics, and economics are concerned. The American Republic was a great idea, but I believe that's all it ever was. If I can inquire of the writer of Comment #2, is your last name Vernon, and do you live in Arkansas? If so, I believe I'm your grand-nephew. Email me at solidstate1031@aim.com if you'd like to chat, please disregard otherwise.
"For Ron Paul, it’s part of an overarching philosophy that rejects New York City neoconservative political correctness, the real American enemy."
Neoconservatism is an enemy, but it is not the enemy. The enemy is the Fourteenth Amendment; specifically, the doctrine of incorporation, by means of which the states are held to be bound by the Bill of Rights, which was originally only intended for the national government. This has completely destroyed the ability of the states to resist usurpation of power by the national government and created the authoritarian monstrosity we see today.
Neoconservatism is merely a culturally conservative leftism; a "conservatism" that has made peace with huge, unitary, consolidated, centralized government.
Mr. Newland, keep in mind that the Incorporation Doctrine is just that - a doctrine, one that is wholly alien to the drafters of the 14th Amendment. Its purpose was to guarantee all rights and privileges in the Bill of Rights to the former slaves. It was still understood at the time amongst both the Radical Republican Yankee criminals and oppressed Southerners alike, that the Bill of Rights applied only to the Federal government.
Hence, there is no need to repeal the 14th Amendment despite its never being legally ratified. The only thing that need be done is for Southern governors to stand at podiums in front of their respective statehouses and declare that whatever unconstitutional federal government order which is at issue will not be enforced into law in their states.
Rod Shealy Sr. is not with Huck. Bauer is, but other Shealy cliebts are backing mott, rudy and fred.
I weep as I watch "True Bred Southerners" buy into "The Hucksters" carpetbagging bull $hit! (My greatgrandmothers father surrendered with Lee at Appapotomax-47th Alabama)........Huck is a hoax!...His "Second Chance Doctrine" positions him as another LBJ in the "Hispanic Civil Rights Movement" with some twisted concept that Americans have a second chance to make things right with illegal alliens after screwing things up so bad for the African/American decendents of slaves!..............WHAT?.........Yea, that's right! He's nuts!.............He is a "Master Speaker" trained in the art of pulling on peoples heartstrings, and tapping into their core beliefs......He is a minister, yet, his desire for power is greater than his desire to serve GOD in the pulpit!(Check the fruit on the tree.)
The man is Bill Clinton riding an Elephant, yet was introduced to politics by an introduction to Jocelyn Elders by the Clintons!
It has been entertaining to watch him screw with the GOP GLOBALIST that had it all figured out by simply screaming, "BUT WHAT IF HILLARY GET'S ELECTED!", inorder to create fear..............The real conservative is Ron Paul, and the rest of the GOP are bought and paid for globalists, either owned by the CFR, Israel, the WTO, or the International Banking Cartels..........Vote PAUL and return our nation to the States with a Limmitted Federal Government!
Hee, hee, gotta' love the Huckster. Man, here in the swamps of south Georgia we've seen enough of the hillbillies from Hope. You know gang, another eight years of any thing short of Dr. Paul will result in an amalgamated culture goo that makes Brooklyn look civil...I need a beer. No two.
Gentlemen,
It is obvious that those of us posting on this forum see through the Elmer Gantry from Hope; however, I assume that he will beat Dr. Paul - whom I support and who really understands the issues and votes and articulates according to his understanding - handily in South Carolina. I will continue to work for Dr. Paul here in Louisiana through the caucus next week and the primary next month. But, gentlemen, neither South Carolina nor the South is capable of recognizing a friend and ally. We have been deconstructed and reconstructed, and we have sold our souls for military bases named after our "heroes," for the "privilege" of serving as the bleeding Janissary of the empire's armies, and for the "respectability" gained through airbrushing from our minds and the stories we tell our children the great and compelling Southern narrative. It is indeed one thing for our ancestors who fought the nascent empire to have lost their freedom and their land; but we, their offspring, have lost our integrity, our honor and the essence of who we are or were. These things must indeed be true; for if they were not, the false prophet from Hope would not be getting so many of us Southern rats to follow the tune which he pipes, if I may mix my metaphors.
Personally, I suspect South Carolina politics has been going downhill ever since Ernest Hollings retired, one of the few members of the U.S. Senate in recent decades worth a damn.
Huckster's opponents should be posting pictures of the corpulent big government SLOTH that he was as a BLOATED governor of Arkan'sauce prior to jumping on the diet-pills for his egomaniacal BID for the presidency. At first I had pictured him as an average fat slob but then as I listened to him I realized he also had a silver tongue. Finally I said to myself (believe it or not) ok i'm on board better someone at least pretending to be Christian and southern than a shill for "New York City neoconservative political correctness, the real American enemy," like all of them anyway.
And I 'grew' toward that perception and acceptance of Huckster because I figured Dr. Ron Paul was too good for America and thus they wouldn't vote for him. They tend to gravitate sadly toward people who abuse them like say a Mort Zuckerman. Mort loves the war in Iraq and on t.v. last night has suddenly figured out there's 'something' wrong with the economy. hA-Ha-HA-what a wit and pundit and publisher...lovely guy.
So what do we have now to select from in South Carolina well - Dr. Ron Paul has my vote because otherwise there's:
HUCKSTER
JOHN MCUNDEAD ... "I will be your President my friends and the President of Mexico now that they are on us, thanks to me... Remember - I survived Nam. Even though i've been Your problem in Washington D.C. low these many years... I AM qualified to lead, thanks to the Media's misleading yourselves about the 'surge'. We've lost the south of Iraq - the Brits are gone... And our only advantage has come from arming the Sunnis, whom we toppled when we invaded iraq for israel & to some extent for exxon. Morons thanks to that fact - i AM qualified to continue leading you all thru disaster after disaster, and you know it. Thank you and now on to Mexico."
MITT: who is already a cardboard cutout of himself that street vendors take your picture next to so it looks like you 'know' a president...was governor of Massachusettes. What else is there to say except he's apparently also been endorsed by the Trilateral Commission and the Council On Foreign Relations.
THOMPSON: a t.v. actor
Anyone else?
Humor: the ILLEGAL immigration FLOOD is solved - the economy in the u.s. is so bad - we're all heading to Mexico. 'Donde esta el'banos.'
________________
What corky said.
I will say one thing, although Huckabee is an Elmer Gantry of sorts, it is of importance that he has “changed” his positions on the flag, free trade, and immigration, however superficial they may be. The fact that he had to change on these issues demonstrates that there is a real base of people still concerned with the preservation of their traditional ways of life, not yet ready to see the U.S. transformed into some PC, Third World country. Huckabee will come and go, but these issues will live on - we can only hope.
My, my, what republican candidate has not "changed his opinion" on key postitions after sticking the all important polling finger in the wind? Only one: Dr. Paul. Only one has displayed true character and virtue: Dr. Paul. Is there an option? Me thinks not.
Next to Huckabee, Slick Willy--on his best game--was a rank amateur at snake oil sales.
A few years ago, a Washington Post writer was pilloried by the "religious right" for opining that evangelical Christian voters were "poorly educated and easily led." Obviously, when it comes to the bloc's present support of the Huckabee candidacy, the WP scribe was a prophet.
The Huckster's brand of reptile lubricant in 2008 is topping the sales charts in the liberal Big Apple as well as in tractable Resurrection Tent-Cities across the nation. In the day, Hil's "better half" was utterly incapable of pulling off that kind of biangulation.
I would say the only one who out-Slicks Huckster potentially for sheer deaths with a View...are the pharmaceutical companies. (not even the banks.) so the banks will love him too.
anyone with any sense had already left town...
wait i may change my mind... word has it i may be wined and dined. never mind, i fear poison - all kinds on all levels... sorry. keep it.
face it you can't go NO further - without the jack of hearts... that's me. i kid. you can go further (and go) - over the CLIFF. and take yur'own Stinkin'poison.
I love the flag, I mean really love it. Have since I was a kid and bought my first one with grass-cutting money and hung it over my bed where it stayed until the night before I got married. I spend two weeks a year sharing Southern history with school which includes a reasoned defense of the Confederate flag. It thrills me to see anyone in front of a TV camera defend it. However, you are quite correct about the governor and his motives. Thanks for the honesty and clarity. I'll be voting for Ron Paul as well.
Mr. Manning vitiates and weakens his essay considerably by his bitter, unfounded, and baseless attack on the "unnamed" lobbyist---an individual who has been a dear friend and associate of mine for over 25 years--to whom he attributes the responsibility for the SC radio adds. Tim Manning's information is incorrect and arguably slanderous. That individual has never been an "arms dealer" and does not represent interests in the Middle East. Indeed, in an email to me, Mr. Manning states, again totally baseless, that the indivdual represtnts Qadafi, a baldfaced lie. Although the individual initiated the effort, there were literally hundreds of others who collaborated in it, including, as individuals, the top leadership of the Sons of Confederate Veterans. Moreover, it is well-known in South Carolina (and Mr. Manning admitted it to me personally) that he is angry with the unnamed individual for not inviting him to a high level summit of South Carolina conservatives, and I would suggest that this bitterness comes through in his column.
Secondly, it's interesting that in my correspondence with Manning I suggested that, although I had been a Ron Paul supporter previously, that the object in SC was to stop John McCain, and that I found it interesting and curious that Mr. Manning, despite his connections to the Paul campaign, worked for an organization whose part-owner was McCain's top political consultant in South Carolina. I further suggested that his comments could, at that late date, ONLY help McCain, as Paul was only drawing a consistent 3-4% of the vote. And indeed, that is exactly what happened.
It is always encouraging to formulate good ideas, but carrying them out, realizing them, is another thing. Mr. Manning's attempt here involves slander and personal bitterness on his part, and that is not a good beginning.
I won’t argue that Ron Paul isn’t a better pro -Southern candidate than Mike Huckabee, but the truth is even if Paul had draped himself in a Battle Flag he wasn’t going to get more than 10% of the vote in South Carolina. The sad truth is Huckabee stood a chance of winning and once he seemingly embraced the Confederate Flag his loss in South Carolina will be hailed as a defeat for those who hold that flag precious. It now appears that McCain, or worse, has clear sailing to the presidency -- I reckon the Huckabee haters can take some solace in that.
I've received hundreds of responses to this article, almost all highly enthusiastic. Interesting to see where the few political maneuverers appear. "Rolf", above, is obviously one of these. In reality, unlike the others I've outed, I at least admire Shealy for his usual slickly deceptive maneuvering in the hothouse of dirty SC politics. When all is done in SC, at least we are for the most part open about our dirtiness---hanging out our laundry for all to see---unlike other states.
Poor old Boyd Cathey (above), however, was simply fooled by a maneuverer. A few minor affirmations: I've been told that 'the lobbyist' openly takes credit for buying the whole of those radio ads. My sources on his employment are various unpretentious members of the League of South, whom I trust dearly.
As for the maneuvering argument: If Huckabee really gets you that excited about defeating McCain, try again elsewhere. I find them equally reprehensible. If those ads had ended with an endorsement of Ron Paul, and if they were aired months ago, it would have been sensational. SC voters would have read up on all the things Paul says about the Yankee War, and they would have loved him. Instead, for the first time anywhere, Paul's numbers went down. He was even polling at 6%, and probably would've gotten 8.
As for my "connection" to McCain, Boyd's side is stronger. My boss was part of Boyd's inner circle with the Huckabee lobbyist. My larger point: Yes, a vote for Ron Paul is a tiny gesture of defiance. At least here in SC, 99% (or more) of his supporters were from the hard right.
As for the general philosophical points about the Confederate flag: Well, if only the Southern Heritage PAC had acted earlier on behalf of Ron Paul, the entire argument behind SC's "third rail" would have been fleshed out much earlier and much deeper, which would have been a monumentally good thing for Southern paleoconservatism. Instead, those of us on the SC Ron Paul staff were lied to, and promised support. Waiting with baited breath, we found ourselves stabbed in the back.
If the Confederate flag tar baby had been hit months earlier in this campaign, and Ron Paul attempted to do that in November (only to be officially ignored)... well, then he might have actually stood a good chance of winning in South Carolina. The rub of the thing was in the strange treasonous silence from that inner circle of Southern Heritage 'leaders' who dishonestly plotted for Huckabee from the very beginning.
I stand by my point that Southerners are the most culturally attuned to the real-life actualities of paleo-anything (conservatism, libertarianism, etc). For us, the past isn't even past yet. Just try to hold a conversation with any Southerner over the age of 70. It won't be 5 minutes before they violate the most holy of the rules of political correctness.
I thought it was interesting that Gov. Huckabee would champion the Confederate flag, as it certainly plays into the hands of the New York media in whose eyes this Baptist preacher has been trying to "rehabilitate" himself. But you are certainly right in comparing Mike Huckabee to Billy Sunday, and to him you can add Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson. I was actually attracted to the Arkansas Governor, both because of his compassionate position on Mexican immigrants (I'll write more on this later), but also because he is the one candidate of the Republican Right who knows how to take the Bible seriously, as opposed to most who only pay it lip service.
But no more - not only through his association with Tim LaHaye, but also through another interview he has given
( http://www.philipweiss.org/mondoweiss/2008/01/huckabee-palest.html ), Mike Huckabee has proven himself to be a Christian Zionist on a par with Pat Robertson and the rest, a policy which, if pursued, will lead America, if not into Armageddon, then certainly will prosecute the "war on terror" until the U.S. is brought to the ashheap of military bankruptcy upon which the Soviet Union foundered.
Fighting Mexican immigration is, I'm afraid, like renewed calls for Southern secession. It's fighting battles that are already lost and over with. Instead of fighting to secede, we should be joining with Northern liberals in their fight against the powers that be in Washington - give them the freedom to legislate for themselves the capitalist system away and the socialist state in, and we in the conservative South can reap the benefit both of states' rights and the foolishness of Northern utopianism. And instead of trying to close the Mexican-American border after that horse has already escaped the barn, we should be spending the patrimony we are now wasting on the War on Terror and use it to build up Mexico as we have the American South, securing truly defensible borders surrounding a combined U.S., Canada and Mexico. It may not be utopia, but from my vantage point, it's the best of all POSSIBLE worlds!
As for the flag, well, I'm glad they brought it down off the Capitol dome down in Columbia. Why, they actually had St. Andrew's cross flying directly beneath the Stars and Stripes (!), an affront not only to every Scots-Irish Presbyterian, but to every man who ever wore the Gray!
Boys, what Robert M. Peters said (#10) about the reconstructed, scalawag South is the sickening truth.
That said, the Huckster has hit his high-water mark. His shape-shifting message won't play in the big states. It's all downhill from here.
Leon
Agreed as to immigration being THE NATIONAL SECURITY ISSUE of our days and those of the next generation or two. But white racial nationalism? What is that anyway? Is white racial nationalism akin to black pride or psycho babble "self esteem" in which you adopt all the trappings of pride with none of the accomplishments to form a basis for the feeling? I will tell you this. I have known scores of whites and observed innumerable of them that I would no sooner want living anywhere near me than the most vile "rap culture" black or Latino. On the other hand, I fondly recall the apartment complex in which I recently lived. Largely Korean and Filipino, the place was CLEAN, the children quite and respectful, the evenings not at all resembling an episode of COPS.
GET OVER THE RACE thing already! Conservatism and TRUE AMERICANISM means this if it means ANYTHING! Allow winners to be winners and allow losers to be losers. Subsidize the best among CITIZENS including immigration. Eliminate any policy that fosters the growth of degenerate subcultures regardless of the cultures' racial composition. Does it occur to you that among the animals, we are the ONLY ones that actively encourage the reproduction of the WORST of our species to the detriment of the best? Let black rap star youth be blacks, let barrio gang bangers be barrio gang bangers and let white trash be white trash. The problems inherent in those subcultures will take care of themselves, by the hands and efforts of the group members, one way or another. They will self correct and civilize or they will kill themselves through violence or disease or starvation through lack of employment. One way or the other, the problem will solve itself.
The difficult parts are having enough spine to actually allow nature to take its course without sentimentalizing the issue, and isolating ourselves from the disease while the cure takes effect. Oh yes, another problem. HONEST cultural assessment. There will always be those yahoos like Leon who distill the issue into one of white vs. everybody else. As if white trash somehow smelled better than other trash. We must be willing to throw the degenerate elements of our own race under the bus along with degenerate elements of all other races so that only achievers remain.
So, how do you keep the semi literate 3rd generation pathetic loser 15 year old that expects to support a family on Sonic Drive in wages from reproducing the 4th generation? I'm afraid we as a nation will NEVER acquire the stomach to solve that problem. Our "Christian charity" showing itself don't you know? So, with our fate in our own hands, with the answers to our problems being obvious yet unimplemented by our own choice, we as nation and a culture will fall to the barbarians or be subsumed by a culture that has the excellence and aggressiveness to take us. And justice will have been served, for, as I began, winners will inevitably win and losers will inevitably lose.
Tim Manning states that ONE of his bosses was intimately related with the effort to "stop McCain" by using Huckabee as a battering ram, and that is true. But he conveniently "forgets" that his OTHER BOSS (the one he gets along with) is the top consultant in SC for McCain, and that McCain's strategy in SC was to use Thompson and Paul to fracture the vote, enabling him to win. And that is exactly what happened, almost if by plan.
Tim refuse to discuss his "sources" he use in attacking my friend of 25 years, because, as he has written to me in an email, his source "are friends from DC" and he "trusts" them. He refuses to name his sources. But the information he has spewed out is warned-over falsehoods, word for word, all from The Nation and The NYT; it is demonstrably false and slanderous.
I pointed out to Tim that I have supported Ron Paul, and would have voted for him in Iowa and NH, and I will most likely vote for him in NC. I do think Huckabee is something of a populist demagogue who will say what he thinks it might take to win. But the situation in SC dictated a strategy to stop the McCain juggernaut, and that is why I and a number of others on the hard right that Tim now calls "traitors" held our collective noses, at least this once, and got behing the "huckster." We almost succeeded.
My bona fides on the "hard right" are unimpeachable, but Tim now calls me a "traitor" to the Cause and accuses me of being envious! Oh, and elephants have wings and pigs fly! Please!
Finally, when I suggested to Tim that his own personal bitterness at not being included in a high level meeting of conservatives motivated at least some of his actions, he admitted that he was infuriated by the exclusion. And I sincerely believe that this engendered his accusatory and false personal attacks on someone I've known to be a devout Christian and dedicated Southern partisan for twenty-five years. When I wrote him that that is not a good way to begin a campaign to redeem the South or the nation, he replied that he thought such calumny was indeed a good way to begin. Go figure.
I differ. Honor and honesty necessarily must accompany our pursuit of truth, and serve as its handmaidens and vehicles. If not, despite all the good ideas and concepts, the truth suffers and is perverted.
So it is with Tim's lack of prudence and his own personal bitterness and anger.... his "good cause" and "good ideas" are vitiated and corrupted.
And that is too bad.
In response to Boyd's disconnected assessment (above), the support for Huckabee is a bad omen in regard to how well a campaign might be mounted against Lindsey Graham. But these are peripheral points that, indeed, should have been discussed openly, earlier on, down here in SC. It's no mystery that the SC Huckabee team is, for the most part, supporting Graham. Out of pure character and principle, even mild support for Ron Paul would have been better than what happened. In the end, the Political Preacher is a pull toward the left, one that will not help non-neocons overall in the SC guerilla wars.
This Palmetto state political incest is highly interesting, but what, to Mr. Cathey, does he expect the "stop McCain" juggernaut to do if it flips around from Huckabee to who? Romney or Guiliani, in its "stop McCain" efforts? I must confess, even as I trundle around with my Ron Paul bumper sticker on the pickup truck, that I tend to succumb to Dr. Fleming's view that none of this matters.
Dr. Paul will not win the nomination. Most Southerners (the passion of the LoS, SCV and others notwithstanding) are wholly uninterested in Dr. Paul's message. They feast on the red meat militarism that McCain spews and the effeminate evangelicalism that Huckabee embodies. The notion that any more than 10% of Southerners would vote for secession is utterly ridiculous when only 4% will vote for a candidate who would bring about real constitutiionalism without secession (meaningless opinion polls in which people can say any manner of nonsense without consequence, notwithstanding).
"Stop McCain" indeed. What next, then? When the carousel stops, whose horse will you be on?
This is all a lot of nonsense from "hard right" men who make their living off the sow's tit just like Huckabee et al. Southerners support the Battle Flag because it's simply a symbol that doesn't require them to do anything. When it comes to voting for a candidate who actually embodies the principles behind that flag (Old Republic constitutionalism), we see where these brave "Southerners" stand--4% in favor.
Southerners like their Wal-Mart, military bases, US cheerleading, illegal wars, and materialism as much, if not more, than Americans elsewhere. The Southern Heritage movement is fighting a cause long lost among its own people, much less elsewhere.
Sorry, for the deep cynicism/pessimism. Don't let me dissuade you from hoping, just don't ask me to buy into the notion that political maneuvering in some silly primary where about 10% of the populace votes means anything.
P.S. The Southern heritage movement certainly can support efforts to educate its people about their culture, but that's a civil/cultural, not political. On politics, this is a dead letter that only people who mistake political maneuvering for actually accomplishing something would misunderstand.
Bill Wilder
HEAR HEAR!!
As an accidental Yankee by birth living in the South by choice with a good Southern wife, I rtell you that is almost impossible to tell a Southern HS age or younger person from one living In NY or Chicago or Plili or LA. The language, the dress, the music, the
" 'tude", in short the culture, are becoming homogenized and rthe common elements just are not good at all. Old line Southern culture is dying thanks to parants that don't care and schools that push "diversity" down our throats as if it were a sacrement.
Bill Wilder at 30 and 31
From time to time, one bumps into a very kindred spirit at a party, a family reunion or on some forum. At least in terms of your posts at 30 and 31, I have encountered that kindred spirit.
I am often asked by SCV camps to provide the program for the evening, which for many, although not for all, is an afterthought. I speak on different topics; but almost all of them revolve around the same theme: What, if anything, about the legacy of our Confederate ancestors do we really know and understand; and what thereof can we not only defend but employ in our spiritual, domestic, economic and political lives today?
Pursuant to your sentence, "When it comes to voting for a candidate who actually embodies the principles behind that flag (Old Republic constitutionalism), we see where these brave “Southerners” stand–4% in favor," I said the following in a recent meeting in which about one third were wearing facsimilies of Confederate uniforms. I had built my remarks around Lee and Jackson. I paraphrase myself but I essentially asserted that the men who led the secession movement of 1860/1861, who formed the CSA and who fought for Old Republic constitutionalism between 1861 and 1865 did something in those acts on behalf of Old Republic cwhich was quite other than putting on powdered wigs and reenacting the battle of Yorktown! I asserted that those men took to heart the legacy of the Founders and Ratifiers and put it into practice with honor, integrity and sacrifice in their own time. They did not practice ancestor worship of Washington and Jefferson. They did not trot Washington and Jefferson out as historical relics in order to satiate a compusion of historical sentimentality. Quite the contrary, the men of 1860-1865, struggled and hoped in the snippet of time which history had provided them.
I frankly find no objective correclative between the historical values and actions of the Southern men of 1860-1865 and the Southern men of 2008 who claim to honor those values today.
If we truly embraced those values today, we would be patriots and not nationalists; we would oppose all manner of internal improvements such as getting our peanut subsidies and sugar cane subsidies; we would be against the federal reserve; we would support gold and silver over the counterfeit mess which we have; we would be for true free trade and against both protectionism and faux free trade (NAFTA), not confusing free trade with globalism; we would be for free enterprise and true captitalism and against neo-mercantilism and soft fascism in the form of corporatism; we would be against the empire as were our Confederate ancestors, for they did not write "Victrix causa diis placuit, sed victa Catoni" at the base of the Confederate monmument for nothing; we would be against total war and killing the innocents, and we would not be the willing Janissary of the very empire which vanquished us. The moral disconnect becomes most obvious to me when talking about the war itself. I listen to speeches denouncing Sherman's march to the sea and then hear during the post-program Kaffeeklatsch the rabid conversations about blowing the Iraqis back into the stone age. I am appalled by the blank stares when after someone has denounced Lincoln's Anaconda and all that it did to Southern civilians, I state that we did the same to Iraq under Clinton, killing about 600,000 innocents.
The list could go on.
No, while Ron Paul is certainly not a "Confederate," his voice on the republic, on the Constitution and on the related issues is very much indeed like the voice of Jefferson Davis whose own voice was not unlike that of Jefferson. Given that, Jefferson and Davis and the constitutional federated republic which they espoused have no place in the modern South; that was proved beyond doubt in South Carolina.
Thank you, Mr. Kamka and Mr. Peters. I am no Southerner (not as I understand the term) though born and raised in Virginia. I am, at best, a Copperhead living in the South. But I have little real understanding of "Southernness." About all I am capable of is spotting a rube.
My compliments to Mr. Peters for his clear statement, particularly on the difference between tradition/heritage and ancestor worship.
Mr. Kamka at 32,
It is hard to say when Southern culture began to die. The War of Northern Aggression did a lot to kill it because in it our very best men were killed or maimed. In the aftermath of the war, many of the remaining best went into exile as did Louisiana's Governor Henry Watkins Allen or where disenfranchised. In the context of Reconstruction, only the morally strongest were able to maintain the values of previous years and many of them withdrew from public life and from forming the post-Reconstrcution discourse.
Many in the South were subsumed by Wilsonian nationalism and embraced for themselves and for future generations the nationalistic jingoism of that period.
Post WWI, more and more Southern youth were tossed into the spiritual and intellectual nullifier of public schools with their alien curricula. They were ready under the right social and economic conditions to join the collective organizations of the CCC's, the WPA and be drafted into the standing armies empire.
Post WWII, the collective was even stronger and there were also the economic good times which we understandably embraced; but these economic good times were cultural levelers.
Much that is of spiritual, intellectual and cutlural essence and value has been willingly sold off by Southerners to gain "respectibility," something which has been discussed on other threads of these fora. We want to fit into the Marxist narrative; for not to fit, makes us seem awkward and be too obvious.
Demographics are also doing us in. The Yankee wave into Florida is now backing up, like murky flood water, into Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina. Maryland was gone before it ever was. Northern Virginia is now long occupied. I am afraid that the Army of Northern Virginia would not be welcome there. The invasion out of Central America and Mexico has overtaken Texas, extreme western Louisiana and Arkansas.
What is left is a shell without essence. In the little town where I was reared, there are less than three of the genteel sort, all over 90, which were once quite numerous in these climes. A few "Southern Belles" still have a faint echo of an accent. About all that we have left is the "good ol' boy" or "Redneck," but even he is likely to have and "proudly" display a Battle Flag with an eagle on it, not realizing the utter historical contradiction which he is displaying.
Doubtless, he would display such flag while driving his truck to watch the "Redneck Comedy Tour" and other popular manifestations of "Southern" culture.
Mr. Wilder #30
Indeed, I generally agree with your assessment (as indeed I think Tim Manning has some good points). My response to him was dictated more by the personal attacks and by my personal friendship with the individual who was targeted in Tim's column, which I know to be untrue.
You ask what was to be gained by attempting to "stop McCain" in South Carolina? And I would be the very first to answer: not a whole lot, except maybe to postpone a final decision in the Republican contest a bit further and possibly derail McCain, whom I personally and politically dislike intensely. The other candidates are not much better; I hold out practically NO hope for the GOP. Let me explain: I was Buchanan state chairman in NC in 1991-92, supported him in 1996, and left the Republican Party in 1999 to support him again. In the 2004 presidential contest I wrote in the name "Jefferson Davis" on the theory that it was better to vote for a "good" president [Jeff Davis] who was dead, than support a bad one [Bush] who is alive. I think now the best thing would be for the GOP to completely implode and dissolve---thus the more diverse and confusing the primary process, the better in the long run...perhaps.
On a very human level, I am quite pessimistic about the prospects for the survival of the Southland I love. On this point, Mr. Peters, I am sad to say, is probably correct. Talk about Mexifornia---just come to central North Carolina, and welcome to Morelos and Nuevo Leon! And yet, as a traditionalist and a rightwing Catholic, I do hold firmly to the Virtue of Hope...Spes; and I fully understand that the decline, even destruction, of my culture in no way let's me off the hook in my obligations and responsibilities, as a Christian, as a Southerner.
Not all choices we make are, in the long view, correct ones, but that in no way removes the obligation.
Bill and Robert
Yes it is disheartening to see that what passes for Southern culture today is largely a parody of what was once a distinct and vibrant sub culture. Northerners find "acceptable" the comical "good ole boy", something like the eccentric crazy uncle that is fun to have around on the holidays, but for god's sake don't invite him to live with us. If you MUST be "southern" be that, or become absorbeded into the PC "white guilt" culture that is only allowed to celebrate the 3rd world. More sadly, the 'good ole boys" I know actually take pride in playing the role that Yankee has set for him. Something akin to a modern day Black relishing in the role of "step n' fetch it" darky. Of course there would be chorus of PC's types denouncing that as degrading to blacks. White Southerners are, on the other hand, fair game.
Tim, why, in your opinion, did Paul do so poorly in S.C.? I think that GOP voters in S.C. are more traditional GOP partisan type "conservatives" than they are often portrayed. They also delivered for Dole over Buchanan in '96. I'm not saying this is a good thing. Just that we have more work to do (brainwashing to undo) than many might believe.
Dr. Cathey,
I do not intend to intrude in a personal quarrel of which I know little. I also do not presume to lecture to Southerners what is or is not their culture. As I said, I cannot be considered a Southerner and would not presume to judge in that matter. Hopefully, I have not appeared to. Still, my observations are based on what I see . . . You have, however, explained yourself cogently. Still, I cannot imagine the reason for failing to support Dr. Paul in pursuit of apparently personal hostility to Sen. McCain. That appears poor judgment when one recognizes little will come of it. What if the Palmetto state had put Paul #3 (or even 2) in a close result in the teens ahead of Sen. "Fred" and the Mormon? I think that would have accomplished more, particularly when he placed second in Nevada.
Dr. Phillips,
Again, without presuming to speak to South Carolinians (I assume Dr. Wilson would be at least somewhat pleased that most of the chattering classes have used "up country" and "low country" in discussing the primary). However, I think the answer is simply, they have adopted the same militarist/materialist culture that is the Reagan legacy. They salute the flag with jingoistic fervor. They endorse gov't subsidies for BMW or others to locate in the state. They lap up the pork that Fritz Hollings and Strom Thurmond brought home.
There is no reason to expect that such a prevailing culture would support Dr. Paul.
(There are too many doctors in this discussion for me to keep up.)
Dr Cathey
On the thought of the Republican Party imploding, I must say that I have considered that as a possibly good route. Of course, the result may well be that a small band of true Constitutionalists would emerge as nothing more than the eccentric uncle in the house. The rest of the fragments of the GOP would splinter into similar irrelevance until they would coalesce around some centrist who would be able to tell enough lies and half truths to people desperate to believe in something. Implosion would only work if the Dems likewise imploded. Anything else leaves them the field. What is truly frightening is the possibility (probability?) That "them" and "us" are essentially the same. What is the GOP and the Dems, as both stand today, are hoodwinking us all, marching us all off along different forks of a road that lead to the same destination? Only we poor dolts don't see it until we are there.
On a personal note, I credit you for remaining a practicing Catholic. I found that the Church left me a good many years ago with its despicable left wing and anti-American policies. The active aiding and abetting of illegal immigration was the final straw. Keep up the good fight on that score.
Mr. Wilder, I try not to be pessimistic, but I fear you are correct. I would love to be proven wrong.
we're young the world is yet young...so young it thinks it's old. funny. but that fact is cause for a tad of optimism. if it weren't i would not deceive you about it...i'm not the serpent...just the jack of hearts... i eat serpents if there's nothing else available. with fries...cooked in non-transfat 'beautiful' olive oil. that's no boner or on the other hand is it? drop the viagra. seriously lots of guys go blind with it, literally. (it's not highlighted in the ads...just in the disclaimer.)
To answer the question at #39: Ron Paul did so poorly here in SC due to treason from the highest ranks of the Southern Heritage movement. In SC, it is the flagship for the hardest of the hardright voters. When the 'leaders' announced for Huckabee, Huck's numbers surged. The ads attacked McCain, but his supporters didn't care that he's bad on the Confederate flag. They also attacked Romney, and his numbers went up from 12 to 15%. His supporters were so anti-flag, that they swelled when they found out that he was also anti-flag.
The Confederate flag is such an officially forbidden symbol that when it appeared that Southern Heritage was supporting Huck, and that Huck welcomed it, several percentage points immediately shifted from Paul to Huckabee. This is the only example, so far, of Paul supporters leaving him to support someone "who can win".
What's worse is that if only those not in on the secret pro-Huckabee campaign had known what was happening, we could have piped up sooner and given Paul a very impressive showing. I'm beginning to think this was the national media's plan all along. Build, build, and build up their straw man (Huckabee), so that the would-be Paul voters will be too distracted to figure out what's going on. Too bad that even our own ranks fell for it and sympathized with the straw man.
Of course, I agree with Fleming that none of this really means anything. Still, there is a strong paleo movement here in SC, and this treason dealt it a heavy blow.
I'm in South Carolina and voted for Ron Paul last weekend. I even got my wife to vote for him as well. I think what we are dealing with is the very human weakness of always wanting to be associated with a winner. Nobody likes a loser. You can see this by post-election talk of a "boost" for such and such a candidate which leads to increased poll numbers for that candidate prior to the next state primary. I'm sorry that people confuse elections with horse races in which you get money for siding with the winner.
"I'am sorry that people confuse elections with horse races in which you get money from siding with the winner" I am afraid thats not the case here in New Jersey
As usual Ron Paul doesn't meet expectations on discussing the War Between the States.Same can be said for immigration.He has a reasonably good position on illegal immigration,same cannot be said on legal immigration.Paul's passion is monetary policy.Give him a second and you can easily get hours on the gold standard.Paul is going nowhere and fast.He can barely hit double digits in his best state(Nevada).Now Paul has leveled out in middle single digit land.The GOP race will boil down to Romney and Amnesty McCain. I will vote for Romney.McCain is scary.The perpetual war hawk who loves pandering to the MSM.Like Amnesty-- love crazy John.War,war, war, and America as a Third World dumping ground --that's what you get with this grumpy,old, geezer.
Huckabee's populism is tromp l'eoil. It's the suburban populism of people making decent livings, driving minivans, who just want to be left alone in the comforting feelings they receive from their mega church, Oprah, and their comfortable ignorance of the past and other cultures. It's utterly feminine and weak, and Huckabee's 700 Club schtick is a far cry from the manly snake-handling religions of the rural south.
As my friend Jeff Quinton long ago explained to me, there is no dirtier politics in the world than a Republican primary in South Carolina. What was truly shocking was that Huckabee would be claiming to be pro-Confederate while simultaneously traveling with Gov. Beasley.
By the way, I'm leaving The Washington Times as of Jan. 29 and going to Sudan next month.