Three Confederate parks renamed in Memphis all at once

Fearing a new Tennessee bill which would have forbade changing names of parks for historical persons, the Memphis City Council renamed Nathan Bedford Forrest Park, Jefferson Davis Park and Confederacy Park yesterday. 

An online ABC News article about it is here:

http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/memphis-renames-parks-honored-confederacy-18414958

Vote was 9 to 0 in favor of renaming the parks with 3 abstentions.

Evidently when the City Council was faced being stuck with these names forever, they were propelled to act.

The Sons of Confederate Veterans (SCV) attempted to defend the park names with their usual delusional historical claims. From the article;

The Sons of Confederate Veterans and others in Memphis oppose the name changes, saying that Forrest is a misunderstood figure who was not a racist but a businessman who treated his slaves humanely and resigned from the Klan.

"We should cherish the history that we have, we shouldn't cover it up and try to bury it or hide it," said Becky Muska, who spoke against the name change.

Ms. Muska is obscuring the issues, it isn't an issue of covering up history, it is an issue of honoring someone. There is something different between a memorial to those Forrest victimized and a memorial glorifying him. As for history, shouldn't we objectively study it, and not drool over it and coat it with sugar or misrepresent it. This is what Muska is advocating, a misrepresentation of history under the guise of sentimental statements.

The Memphis City Council was correct in what they did, but somebody needs to let Beck Muska and the SCV know that their arguments are the nonsense of delusional misrepresenting buffoons.

It does show that once a city has motivation, they can move and rid themselves of Confederate and neo-Confederate nonsense.

Summary of questions for jurors and judges, Update

I think I have thought of enough questions to effectively map the historical consciousness of potential jurors and their neo-Confederacy. I am going to summarize them here:

1. Are you a member of the League of the South, Council of Conservative Citizens, Sons of Confederate Veterans, United Daughters of the Confederacy or any other neo-Confederate organization?

2. Do you identify with the Confederacy or the Union?

3. Do you think it would be appropriate for public officials to praise the Confederacy?

4. Do you think states, counties, cities and other municipalities should adopt Confederate symbols in their logos, flags, seals, or other symbols they might adopt?

5. Do you think it would have been better if the Confederacy had succeeded in seceding?

It is a short list, but I think it would be effective in screening out people who are neo-Confederate or have Lost Cause attitudes from jury pools. I think all the questions can be reasons to exclude the juror with cause, and not merely a detection of bias. The Confederacy was a nation whose creation was attempted to perpetuate slavery and white supremacy.

These questions can also be asked of judges and should be asked of the judge selected to preside over a trial and if the judge asks affirmatively, the judge should be asked to not preside over the trial.

A neo-Confederate or Lost Cause type juror is not going to value the freedom of an African American as they would a white person. They have mythologies of Africans being contented to being slaves and have embraced a national attempt to maintain white supremacy and slavery. They will not take due diligence to make sure that a conviction is without doubt, instead tend to be biased to presume guilt. They will not be that concerned that there is a wrongful conviction.

Now that I have my five questions, I am not sure what my next step is. I will have to think about it.

UPDATE:

I would reword question #4 to say:

Do you think it is appropriate when states, counties, cities and other municipalities adopt Confederate symbols in their logos, flags, seals, or other symbols they might adopt?

Or.

Do you think states, counties, cities and other municipalities should not adopt Confederate symbols in their logos, flags, seals, or other symbols they might adopt?

Secession Poll in Texas identifies secession sentiment

The Public Policy Polling (PPP) organization has conducted a poll and found very high support for secession among Texas Republicans. The Houston Chronicle reports on it with a title, "Texas secession fervor is a heavily Republican phenomenon," the article is here:

http://blog.chron.com/txpotomac/2013/02/texas-secession-fervor-is-a-heavily-republican-phenomenon/

From the article, these are some of the poll results of who supports secession.

42 percent of those who call themselves very conservative
35 percent of Republicans
25 percent of non-Hispanic whites

Also, the article said that sentiment for secession has gone from 13 to 20% in Texas. This is the link to the PPP poll:

http://www.publicpolicypolling.com/pdf/2011/PPP_Release_TX_013113.pdf

The question on secession is:

Would you support or oppose Texas seceding from the union because of Barack Obama’s reelection?

I don't know how seriously this secession sentiment should be taken. It might be that poll respondents are saying yes to secession as a means of strongly expressing their opposition to Obama. 

The League of the South (LOS) will likely see this as a sign that their time has come. It hasn't. 

The PPP is closely affiliated with the Democratic party. A person can't be both patriotic towards the United States of America and in support of secession. I think polling on the question of secession and breaking down the results by party and ideological affiliation in the PPP poll makes the Republicans seem very suspect on the issue of patriotism. The PPPs polling on secession, which has been reviewed in this blog before, identifies Republicans with secession. 

As I have stated before, Republicans have attempted since the 1950s to portray themselves as more patriotic than their opposition, if they are identified with secession, any attempt by the Republicans to portray themselves as patriotic, let alone being more patriotic than their opposition, will have no credibility. The patriotism being mentioned here is patriotism to the U.S.A.

Another impact of these polls is that it will normalize secession among conservatives. The respondents to the poll may have said they supported secession for laughs in rejecting Obama, but other conservatives hearing of the poll results may think that secession is widely supported by persons with similar views and it will be normalized for them and thus something valid to consider. 

Earlier blogs on these secession polls:

In an earlier post I referred to some opinion polls taken about the issues of secession.
http://newtknight.blogspot.com/2012/12/tagging-republicans-as-secessionists.html

It refers to an opinion poll that were taken on secession in Georgia.
http://www.publicpolicypolling.com/main/2012/12/georgia-miscellany.html

I also had an early post on another opinion poll on secession.
http://newtknight.blogspot.com/2013/01/charles-m-blow-new-york-times-columnist.html

Which referred to the following Pew opinion poll result.
http://www.people-press.org/2011/04/08/civil-war-at-150-still-relevant-still-divisive/

Neo-Confederacy of a potential candidate for U.S. Senator from Georgia

Evidently U.S. House Representative Paul Broun referred to the Civil War as the "War of Yankee Aggression," in the U.S. House and now it is likely he will soon be a candidate for U.S. Senator from Georgia.

This is just one item of neo-Confederacy in the Republican party in the South. It isn't a trend yet. If he is successful I think other Republican candidates for federal elected office will seek to emulate him.

The link to the article is:

http://www.salon.com/2013/01/30/paul_broun_enters_georgia_senate_race/

I am reminded of a T-shirt sold by Southern Partisan magazine. This was on the front of the T-shirt.
CLICK ON PHOTOS TO MAKE THEM FULL SIZE.

And surely this would be one of Lincoln's nightmares. And the following graphic was the back side. The prediction or claim made by the graphic is only half true. The Republican party has become a party centered in the former Confederate states, but it it isn't a majority party and increasingly becoming a minor party.

Another question for jurors

Another question for jurors would be:

Do you think it would have been good if the Confederacy had succeeded in becoming an independent nation?

A yes answer to this question would have been cause for disqualifying a juror where a minority member was on trial, since the juror thought it would have been a good thing if a pro-slavery and white supremacist nation had come into being.

I think this is the last question I propose.

Additional questions for jurors and judges

I think these questions could be asked of both jurors and judges.

1. Do you identity with the Confederacy or the Union?

2. Do you think it is inappropriate for public officials to praise the Confederacy?

3. Do you think states, cities, municipalities should have or adopt Confederate symbols in their flags, logos, shields, seals, or other representations they create to represent themselves?

World Net Daily (WND) interviews Michael Hill President of League of the South on secession

Taylor Rose at World Net Daily (WND) a fringe website where Obama Birther theories are spun out, interviewed Michael Hill, President of the League of the South on secession. The story is here:

http://www.wnd.com/2013/01/secession-movement-just-needs-more-oxygen/

It will be interesting to see if WND will continue to report on secession as an issue. Though their site is really fringe, though they have mainstreamed some issues, notably Birtherism, the idea that Obama wasn't born in the United States and isn't a natural born citizen.

Perhaps this is a one time reflexive response in regards to Obama's response to the secession petitions.  An urge to oppose anything Obama might say.

"Los Angeles Times" editorial, "Neo-Confederates in Congress Resist Rapidly Changing World." UPDATE

At this link http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/topoftheticket/la-na-tt-neoconfederates-20130115,0,5722362.story there is an article titled, "Neo-Confederates in Congress Resist a Rapidly Changing World," David Horsey.

It really is astounding how people are picking up on the geography of partisan politics. I am going to read it and comment on it later. I will put an update note in the title when I do. I thought I would share it right away.

A quote from the article:

Today, there are quite a few very vocal neo-Confederates who think gun rights, states rights, the protection of white American culture and elimination of "excessive" taxation on the rich are the nation's preeminent concerns. Their anti-bellum mindset makes it impossible for them to accept scientific reality -- climate change, evolution, the true age of the planet -- and political reality -- America is becoming a more diverse, tolerant nation that does not share their fear-driven philosophy.

One of our two great political parties has been captured by the neo-Confederates and, because so many of them have been elected to Congress, the political system is gridlocked. 

I don't know if the author David Horsey is doing more than capitalizing on the popularity of the Lincoln movie and Lincoln to oppose the policies of conservative Republicans. To some extent though the essay depends on an awareness that the Republican party has become a party centered in the South.

He talks about how progressive change is delayed in the United States, but he really doesn't explain where this delay comes from. Essentially if you have a section of a nation that is a reactionary fortress and they control 25% of the representation, you have to get 67% of the rest of the nation to support something before it has a bare slightly over 50% majority. If you need to get an amendment passed, requiring 75% of the states to ratify something, you will need 100% of the states outside the reactionary block to get an amendment passed. I discuss this in my essay at www.templeofdemocracy.com/breaking.htm.

I think this article raises awareness of the nature of reaction in this nation as being regional, but indirectly. He calls the reaction neo-Confederate, but doesn't explain why and it doesn't necessarily mean conservatives from the South, it could be applied to conservatives anywhere.

However, I think it will tend to jog the public's mind to think about neo-Confederacy and the national geography of politics. Referring to an earlier blog, http://newtknight.blogspot.com/2013/01/rush-limbaugh-rages-like-neo-confederate.html, this essay will certainly seem to Rush Limbaugh a further justification for his argument that the South is being attacked because it is conservative. This would depend on Limbaugh conflating the South with the Confederacy.

Larry Pratt article on school shootings in a white supremacist neo-Confederate publication. Should his group be known as the Gun Owners of America, or the Gun Owners of the Confederacy.

Larry Pratt is the head of an organization called the Gun Owners of America (GOA), but really with his involvements in neo-Confederate organizations and their extremist publications shouldn't his organization be titled Gun Owners of the Confederacy?

His involvement goes way back.

In the May-June 1995, Vol. 2 No. 3 issue of the Southern Patriot, official publication of the League of the South (LoS), on page 24, is a section titled "Noteworthy Publications," in which it recommends a book put out by the GOA noting that the publication is "edited by GOA chairman and SL member, Larry Pratt." The LoS used to have the name Southern League hence the abbreviation SL.

It is not known whether or if Pratt resigned from the LoS or if he is still a member. Someone should ask him.

In a white supremacist publication, Southern Mercury, published by the Sons of Confederate Veterans education PAC, Pratt has in the Vol. 1 No. 2 Sept.-Oct. 2003 issue on pages 5-6, an article, "Judge Roy Moore is Right," concerning the case where Alabama Supreme Court Justice Judge Moore decided to erect a monument to the Ten Commandments and keep it in defiance of a court order to remove it.

In the Vol. 6 No. 5 issue, on page 18, Pratt has an article "Of Schools and Bodies," written in response to the Virginia Tech massacre. He argues that gun free zones at universities are the cause of school massacres and argues that having persons in schools armed is the solution and cites two cases where someone who was armed was able to shoot a homicidal intruder, one case at a church in the U.S., and another case in Israel. Pratt argues that both teachers and students should be allowed to carry guns to schools concluding his article with the statement.

We are told that having students or faculty (with concealed handgun permits) carrying guns scares many students and teachers. Maybe so. Which is worse -- being scared or being dead? 

What is also interesting is that Pratt's GOA regularly ran a full page advertisements in this white supremacist publication in each and every issue and thus was giving it significant support. The Southern Mercury ceased publication for lack of funding, so the GOA ads helped keep this publication going since without the advertising it might have run out of funds sooner.

This is a publication that defended slavery and endorsed books defending slavery.

Again, should the GOA be called the Gun Owners of the Confederacy instead?

For an example of the white supremacist writings in this publication go to this blog:

http://newtknight.blogspot.com/2006/06/white-supremacy-promoted-by-sons-of.html

(Interesting note, the other major advertiser was www.atlanticbullionandcoin.com whose owner has been tried and convicted for a ponzi scheme which defrauded thousands of right wingers of tens of millions of dollars.)

Rush Limbaugh rages like a neo-Confederate

You can read the entire transcript of Rush Limbaugh comments on his show at this link.

http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/daily/2013/01/14/obama_and_moderate_republicans_see_conservatives_as_common_enemy

What is of interest in this show is that Rush Limbaugh talks about the South being under attack from elites, such as an article in The New Yorker magazine. Limbaugh's comments sounds like something that neo-Confederates would say.

Rush's comments: http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/daily/2013/01/14/obama_and_moderate_republicans_see_conservatives_as_common_enemy

New Yorker article: http://www.newyorker.com/talk/comment/2013/01/21/130121taco_talk_packer

The author of the article is somewhat sympathetic to the South, but discusses how it is becoming culturally isolated from the rest of the nation. Limbaugh suggests that the article is part of some conspiracy to isolate the South which it clearly isn't:

And what this is about is a very approving story from the New Yorker about the attempt here to isolate the South.

Limbaugh sees the South being attacked by liberal media elites because it is conservative and that these supposed enemies of the South love the movie Lincoln because Lincoln attacked the South; Quoting Limbaugh:

Have you asked yourself why is Hollywood so gaga over Lincoln, the movie? Why is Bill Clinton all of a sudden out there at the Golden Globes last night being brought on stage to thunderous standing ovation to talk about Lincoln and what he did during the Civil War? 

What did Lincoln do, as far as these people are concerned? He wiped out the South.

The rest of Limbaugh's comments also sound like something the league of the South would say. Indeed the League of the South (LoS) is very enthused about Limbaugh's comments as shown in their posting about them which you can read at the LoS's blog at the following link. 

http://www.lsrebellion.blogspot.com/2013/01/rush-limbaugh-us-left-wants-to-finish.html

I don't know if this is just a one time thing by Rush Limbaugh or if it represents a new ongoing theme in his performances. It could be that Limbaugh has recognized that his likely listeners are geographically concentrated and that he needs to orient his narratives towards that demographic. Or that the geography of current politics has become obvious and he needs to be relevant to this developing public awareness of this geography of current politics. Rush points out a recent article at www.salon.com in his comments:

Last week, Salon.com had a story called, "Welcome to the new Civil War -- Lincoln's Unfinished War Rages On, as the Neo-Confederacy Tries to Turn Back the Clock on Women, Gays, God and Guns."

(Article is online here: http://www.salon.com/2013/01/05/welcome_to_the_new_civil_war/)

I don't think for a second that Limbaugh's bringing up this issue about the South was accidental or just the result of a meandering monologue. I think Limbaugh is shrewd and carefully considers his topics and presentation of them.

If this new theme is successful for Limbaugh, as the leading figure of conservative news entertainment, I think that other media figures in the same field will rush to do pick up this theme of the South being under attack. 

There have been articles in the past which have referred to the Civil War in discussing the modern geography of partisan politics and mapping it to the geography of the Civil War. However, these have been all in liberal or progressive publications or in non-partisan publications. Now Limbaugh is responding to these articles and affirming that there is a modern geography of partisan politics.  If groups in both sides of the political spectrum see the same modern geography of partisan politics that it is likely that the general public will accept this geography as a given. 

Finally, if the South is seen as the conservative region and southern is identified as being identical to conservatism, will not many see conservatism as being Confederate? 

Well one commentary is a trend. We will have to see. 

Another question for potential jurors

I think potential jurors should be asked whether they display Confederate flags or representations of Confederate flags such as flags themselves, flag decals, bumper stickers, tattoos or other visual display.

I think if a person demonstrably identifies with material objects an identification with the Confederacy, a nation created for white supremacy, then I think that juror can be excluded with cause from a jury.

I think this is important since there are many people who have a strong identification with the Confederacy but aren't members of a neo-Confederate organization.

White House rejects neo-Confederate arguments for secession with no answer to secession petitions.

The white house has answered no to the secession petitions. You can read the White House reply here:

https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/response/our-states-remain-united

The reply to the petition quotes Lincoln from both his 1st inaugural address and his "Gettysburg Address," refers to the Civil War and secession in 1861, asserts that the Union is indestructible. These issues are brought up in two paragraphs in the White House reply. Links are provided to Lincoln's "1st Inaugural Address," "Gettysburg Address," and the Supreme Court ruling on Texas vs. White in which the court rules that secession violated the U.S. Constitution. In this blog I will discuss the response after the quotation of these two paragraphs with historical references which follows:

Our founding fathers established the Constitution of the United States "in order to form a more perfect union" through the hard and frustrating but necessary work of self-government. They enshrined in that document the right to change our national government through the power of the ballot -- a right that generations of Americans have fought to secure for all. But they did not provide a right to walk away from it. As President Abraham Lincoln explained in his first inaugural address in 1861, "in contemplation of universal law and of the Constitution the Union of these States is perpetual." In the years that followed, more than 600,000 Americans died in a long and bloody civil war that vindicated the principle that the Constitution establishes a permanent union between the States. And shortly after the Civil War ended, the Supreme Court confirmed that "[t]he Constitution, in all its provisions, looks to an indestructible Union composed of indestructible States."

Although the founders established a perpetual union, they also provided for a government that is, as President Lincoln would later describe it, "of the people, by the people, and for the people" -- all of the people. Participation in, and engagement with, government is the cornerstone of our democracy. And because every American who wants to participate deserves a government that is accessible and responsive, the Obama Administration has created a host of new tools and channels to connect concerned citizens with White House. In fact, one of the most exciting aspects of the We the People platform is a chance to engage directly with our most outspoken critics. 

It should be noted that the White House could have given a reply that didn't have historical references or just limit it to the Supreme Court decision Texas vs. White, but they choose to anchor the reply historically, and specifically in Lincoln's speeches, the Civil War and the secession of slave states in 1861 and one of the most emotionally charged events in American history both then and now.

I don't know if this response will get much coverage in the media, but it is in some ways very historic. I did a study in 2011 and 2012 of presidential statements regarding the Civil War and associated issues, such as the terminology they used, for example "War Between the States" versus "Civil War" back to Herbert Hoover.

Presidents have avoided the issue of the constitutionality of secession since the 19th century as far as I have been able to find. Presidents have avoided saying anything that can be construed as a rejection of the Confederacy in the 20th century since President Hoover who used the term "War Between the States" in the fall before he lost his bid to be re-elected.

However, President Obama White House response directly rejects the constitutionality of secession or any justification for it and thus directly rejects a key argument of the neo-Confederates and the Lost Cause historical mythology. It is a direct rejection of a core belief of the United Daughters of the Confederacy and the Sons of Confederate Veterans and millions of Americans many of concentrated in the region of the former Confederate states. It is indirectly a rejection of the Confederacy, the leaders of secession and the supporters of secession in 1861. It directly rejects the very phrase "War Between the States." Though presidents haven't used this term since President Clinton used it once in 2000. Importantly it isn't just a rejection on some general reasoned principles, but a rejection based on the arguments used in the Civil War against secession by Lincoln the president who defeated the Confederacy. Obama is using specifically the historical narrative of the Union in the Civil War to reject these petitions.

Lincoln's 1st Inaugural Address contains a lengthy argument of secession which though is an argument that would apply to any effort at secession, is specifically applied by Lincoln to the secession of slave states in 1861. It is a rejection of the secessionists, such as Jefferson Davis, secession convention delegates, and many others.

The response with its reference to the "Gettysburg Address" implies that the defeat of the Confederacy was a great and heroic thing for the world and not just America, for as Lincoln said in that address:

It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us--that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion--that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain, that this nation under God shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the earth."

In an earlier post I referred to some opinion polls taken about the issues of secession.
http://newtknight.blogspot.com/2012/12/tagging-republicans-as-secessionists.html

It refers to an opinion poll that were taken on secession in Georgia.
http://www.publicpolicypolling.com/main/2012/12/georgia-miscellany.html

I also had an early post on another opinion poll on secession.
http://newtknight.blogspot.com/2013/01/charles-m-blow-new-york-times-columnist.html

Which referred to the following Pew opinion poll result.
http://www.people-press.org/2011/04/08/civil-war-at-150-still-relevant-still-divisive/

The Georgia opinion poll said that 42% of Georgia Republicans would be willing to secede.

When you look at who identifies with the Confederacy in the Pew opinion poll you see that they are primarily white people who identify themselves as Southerners and they mostly live in a former Confederate state. I would hazard to guess that what white votes Obama got in the former Confederate states were largely not from whites who identify themselves with the Confederacy. In short those Obama might antagonize are very unlikely to vote for him anyways.

I blogged on how Obama would respond to these secession petitions at: http://newtknight.blogspot.com/2012/11/how-will-obama-respond-to-these.html

Basically I predicted that Obama would make a response that was provocative without seeming to be provocative. His hope would be to provoke the Republicans to respond in a way that would identify them with secession and the Confederacy. I don't know for a fact that Obama's response had this intent. However, if you wanted to get a reaction that would identify your opponents with secession and the Confederacy without seeming to provoke, Obama's reply would be the way to do it.

The Sons of Confederate Veterans and the United Daughters of the Confederacy will certainly have response to this White House reply. Whether Obama's rejection of secession gets a wider response it remains to be seen.

Incidentally the link on the Politico reporting of the response goes to the wrong petition and response.

To keep a record of this White House reply I quote the entire reply following:

OFFICIAL WHITE HOUSE RESPONSE TOPeacefully grant the State of Louisiana to withdraw from the United States of America and create its own NEW government. and 8 other petitions

Our States Remain United

By Jon Carson

Thank you for using the White House's online petitions platform to participate in your government.

In a nation of 300 million people -- each with their own set of deeply-held beliefs -- democracy can be noisy and controversial. And that's a good thing. Free and open debate is what makes this country work, and many people around the world risk their lives every day for the liberties we often take for granted.

But as much as we value a healthy debate, we don't let that debate tear us apart.

Our founding fathers established the Constitution of the United States "in order to form a more perfect union" through the hard and frustrating but necessary work of self-government. They enshrined in that document the right to change our national government through the power of the ballot -- a right that generations of Americans have fought to secure for all. But they did not provide a right to walk away from it. As President Abraham Lincoln explained in his first inaugural address in 1861, "in contemplation of universal law and of the Constitution the Union of these States is perpetual." In the years that followed, more than 600,000 Americans died in a long and bloody civil war that vindicated the principle that the Constitution establishes a permanent union between the States. And shortly after the Civil War ended, the Supreme Court confirmed that "[t]he Constitution, in all its provisions, looks to an indestructible Union composed of indestructible States."

Although the founders established a perpetual union, they also provided for a government that is, as President Lincoln would later describe it, "of the people, by the people, and for the people" -- all of the people. Participation in, and engagement with, government is the cornerstone of our democracy. And because every American who wants to participate deserves a government that is accessible and responsive, the Obama Administration has created a host of new tools and channels to connect concerned citizens with White House. In fact, one of the most exciting aspects of the We the People platform is a chance to engage directly with our most outspoken critics.

So let's be clear: No one disputes that our country faces big challenges, and the recent election followed a vigorous debate about how they should be addressed. As President Obama said the night he won re-election, "We may have battled fiercely, but it's only because we love this country deeply and we care so strongly about its future."

Whether it's figuring out how to strengthen our economy, reduce our deficit in a responsible way, or protect our country, we will need to work together -- and hear from one another -- in order to find the best way to move forward. I hope you'll take a few minutes to learn more about the President's ideasand share more of your own.

Jon Carson is Director of the Office of Public Engagement

Tell us what you think about this response and We the People.

This was copied from https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/response/our-states-remain-united January 12, 2013.

White House Petition asking Obama not to send a wreath to the Arlington Confederate Monument

I have submitted a petition asking Obama not to send a wreath to the Arlington Confederate Monument.

You can view it at this link:

https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/not-send-wreath-arlington-confederate-monument-and-therefore-not-support-neo-confederates/gYyh3MQ3?utm_source=wh.gov&utm_medium=shorturl&utm_campaign=shorturl

Another link is:

http://wh.gov/PLBU

Until it has a 150 signatures it won't appear in the listing on the website.

We have 30 days to get 25,000 signatures.

2013 Letter to Obama is posted at the Arlington Confederate Monument Report

The 2013 Letter to Obama is posted at the Arlington Confederate Monument report blog at this link.

http://arlingtonconfederatemonument.blogspot.com/2013/01/2013-letter-to-obama-asking-him-not-to.html

There is also a White House petition at: https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/not-send-wreath-arlington-confederate-monument-and-therefore-not-support-neo-confederates/gYyh3MQ3?utm_source=wh.gov&utm_medium=shorturl&utm_campaign=shorturl

You will not be able to view it at Whitehouse.gov excepting by the use of the above link until it has 150 signatures. Please sign it today.

The letter is as follows and focuses on the issue of the secession petitions.

                                                                                                May 15, 2013

                                                                                                Edward H. Sebesta

President Barack H. Obama

The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500

Dear Hon. President Obama:

As widely reported in the press, nearly a million people had signed secession petitions at the whitehouse.gov website by December 10, 2012.  By their very definition these petitions are a complete rejection of American ideals and they seek to damage the country.  Why are these petitions not viewed as offensive or odious?

Further secessionism has made inroads to mainstream politics. In Minnesota at the 2010 2^nd Congressional District Republican convention a resolution that a state had a right to secede came within two votes of passage, “but only after Sutton, who was functioning as the convention’s chair, reminded his fellow Republicans that opposition to secession by states was a founding Republican principle in the late 1850s.”[1] However, about two weeks later the Minnesota 5^th Congressional District Republican convention did pass a resolution both supporting nullification and endorsing “secession as options to enforce state sovereignty.”[2]

Perhaps because they had listened too many times to the Charlie Daniels Band song, “The South is Gonna Do It Again,” in 2009 the Georgia State Senate passed resolution SR632, conditionally calling for both nullification and secession by a margin of 43-1.[3] Tennessee Congressional Rep. Zach Wamp brought up secession as a response to health care legislation in 2010.[4] Former Vice-Presidential Candidate Sarah Palin spoke to the Alaska Independence party which wishes that Alaska secede from the Union.[5]

Then there is the now widely known statement of Texas Governor Rick Perry speaking before a Tea party group in Texas in 2009 saying, “When we came into the Union in 1845, one of the issues was that we would be able to leave if we decided to do that,” and “We’ve got a great Union. There’s absolutely no reason to dissolve it. But if Washington continues to thumb their nose at the American people, who knows what may come of that?”[6]

Ron Paul went to a secession convention in Charleston, South Carolina held by the Ludwig von Mises Institute (www.mises.org) in 1995 where he was a speaker.[7] He has been heavily involved with the pro-secession Ludwig von Mises Institute over the years.

Why is secession not odious?

I think the answer is obvious to even the most casual observer. At the federal, state, and local level Confederate secessionists who sought to destroy the United States of America are honored and glorified with monuments and symbols. This normalizes and makes the idea of secession to break up the United States morally acceptable.

We believe that a president of the United States of America should not send a wreath to the Arlington Confederate monument as it glorifies both a violent rejection of the United States and normalizes secession.

Earlier we have written you about other practices by the federal government that normalize secession: Allowing the Sons of Confederate Veterans (SCV) to get involved with the Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps; Allowing the United Daughters of the Confederacy to give awards to cadets at the U.S. Military academies named after treasonous secessionists; and allowing the SCV to be part of the Federal Combined Campaign.

I ask you to stop normalizing secession by ending the Presidential practice of sending a wreath to the Arlington Confederate monument on Memorial Day or any day and to end any federal activities that allow the SCV and UDC to spread their secessionist message to our military.

                                                                                    Regards,

                                                                                    Edward H. Sebesta

---

[1] Lori Sturdevant, “Party of Lincoln flirts with a house-divided resolution,” Star Tribune, March 30, 2010, online.

[2] Lori Sturdevant, “Secession gaining fans in MN GOP,” Star Tribune, April 12, 2010. Online.

[3] Jay Bookman, “Georgia Senate threatens dismantling of USA,” Atlanta Constitution Journal, April 16, 2009, http://blogs.ajc.com/jay-bookman-blog/2009/04/16/georgia-senate-threatens-dismantling-of-usa/.

[4] Emi Kolawole, “Tennessee Rep. Zach Wamp talks of secession,” Washington Post, July 24, 2010. Online

[5] Jon Swaine, The Telegraph (UK), Sept. 2, 2008, online; Max Blumenthal and David Neiwert, “Meet Sarah Palin’s right-wing pals,” http://news.salon.com/2008/10/10/palin_chryson Online.

[6] James McKinley, jr., “Texas Governor’s Secession Talk Stirs Furor,” New York Times, April 18, 2009, online.

[7] Ludwig von Mises flyer, “Secession!,” Ludwig von Mises Institute, post marked Feb. 27, 1995. 

Disqualifying Judges who are members of neo-Confederate groups

In going through and indexing neo-Confederate periodicals I come across judges. Not many but some.

I don't think a judge who identifies with the Confederacy should preside over a trial. So one of the questions I think that needs to be asked of a judge is whether he or she is a member of a neo-Confederate organization such as the Sons of Confederate Veterans, United Daughters of the Confederacy, League of the South, Council of Conservative Citizens, etc.

If a judge is a member of a neo-Confederate organization he or she should recuse him or herself from the case.

Again, why defense attorneys don't pursue this question and eliminate biased judges seems to me not to be giving the defendant a full defense.

Potential Questions for Jurors. Using historical memory for juror selection

Using Historical Memory of the Confederacy to Select Jurors

People might have racial biases, but they may not recognize them and even if they were aware of them would be very unlikely to admit to them. A lot of people think they aren't racist if they don't feel active hostility towards a group or feel an urge to attack a member of a group. However, they can have all sorts of biases against a group. People think that since they don't say crude racial statements or are a member of a group like the Ku Klux Klan, they don't have racial biases. I discuss some of these issues of banal white nationalism at a web page www.templeofdemocracy.com/breaking.htm.

I think some questions probing specific aspects of a person's historical memory can determine to some extent this persons racial attitudes.

So I am coming up with some questions that defense attorneys should ask potential jurors, particularly in the case where the defendant is a member of a minority group. I will be blogging them here and tweeting references to them on www.twitter.com @EdwardHSebesta as well as putting them on the Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/pages/Anti-Neo-Confederate-Super-PAC/122398324590629.

The first question I think defense attorneys should ask is:

Are you associated with or are a member of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, United Daughters of the Confederacy, League of the South, Council of Conservative Citizens, Order of the Confederate Rose, or any other neo-Confederate group or group that venerates the Confederacy?

The Sons of Confederate Veterans (SCV) alone has over 30,000 members, the United Daughters of the Confederacy (UDC) has about 10,000 roughly I estimate from the subscriptions to their magazine. There is overlap in membership in some of these groups, but I estimate that there are at least 50,000 or more members of neo-Confederate groups. They get called for jury duty like anyone else.

These are people who believe that African Americans were largely content to be slaves, that being brought over to America as slaves was largely beneficial, etc. They frequently if not almost always have racial biases and often support white supremacy. Should these people be jurors, no. Besides their racial biases, their historical beliefs inherently set a low or no value on freedom for African Americans so they are not going to worry as much as others about mistakenly convicting an African American and taking away that person's freedom. Also, it is inherently repugnant that persons who glorify the Confederacy should be allowed to judge any African American.

A yes answer would not just be a means to select jurors to be rejected without cause. I would argue that membership in a neo-Confederate organization would be cause for rejection.

If you have a question that you would think would be good to identity individuals with a Lost Cause pro-Confederate attitude, email them to me or go like my Facebook pages and propose them there.

As always I don't have time for neo-Confederate nonsense.

Sons of Confederate Veterans goes Tea Party, sees election as a terrible trial for the nation.

In the Jan./Feb. 2013 issue of Confederate Veteran, the official publication of the Sons of Confederate Veterans (SCV), SCV Commander-in-Chief R. Michael Givens in his regular column "Report of the Commander-in-Chief" has a column titled "We must soldier on." (Pages 4-5)

The theme of the column is that the re-election of Obama is a terrible thing, but people must not give up hope. Givens writes:

"After the election many people across America, dissatisfied with the results, have called for secession. They feel hopelessly dejected and are certain that their present needs will not be met under the current circumstances. They feel as if the real problems of the economy and the dangers of this volatile world are not being address. Does this condition seem familiar? What might our revered ancestors thing of our current situation? One hundred and fifty years later and the struggle is the same. Fact is, 225 years ago our ancestors where [sic] putting all they had into a struggle for liberty based on similar circumstances as ours."

So Obama is being compared to King George III. Obama is seen to be an oppressor. He is also compared to Lincoln which SCV members feel was a tyrant and a villain.

Givens can't seem to bear to mention Obama by name but expresses his fear of him that he will be like Lincoln writing:

Only in Reagan did we enjoy a moment in time when a president came close to recognizing the unique rights of our states as prescribed by the founders. Will our current president do more than try to be Lincoln? Will he succeed? Will his actions, like those of Lincoln, create a deeper divide in our country? Are we destined to repeat history? 

The election of Obama is compared to the defeat of the Confederacy during the Civil War which for the SCV is a bad thing.

In the same issue, Mark W. Evans, "Chaplain-in-Chief" in writing that the states seceded for states' rights, comments about the current political situation. (page 12)

Some 150 years later, the issues of governmental tyranny and states' rights are seen as something more than Southern paranoia. Now, the entire country awaits the outcome of a struggle between the vestiges of a Constitutional republic and a self-determining bureaucracy. What was thought to be a regional problem has become a national crisis. 

Columns like this should dispense with the fiction that the SCV is merely a historical organization. They have had a political agenda and do have a political agenda.

Descendants of Mexican War Veterans advertised in the "Confederate Veteran"

There is an organization called Descendants of Mexican War Veterans (DMWV), and they have a website www.dmwv.org. They advertise regularly in the Confederate Veteran, the official publication of the Sons of Confederate Veterans (SCV).

They advertise with a slogan, "Before Manassas, there was Mexico," and explain in their ad:

"Many Civil War leaders like Lee, Jackson, Bragg, Beauregard, Longstreet, Johnston and soldiers they commanded saw action in the Mexican War."

This is to connect the DMWV to Confederate "heritage."

This organization seeks to portray the invasion of Mexico as entirely justified.

Ulysses S. Grant, Union general during the Civil War and later President said about the Mexican American War that it was "one of the most unjust ever waged by a stronger against a weaker nation. It was an instance of a republic following the bad example of European monarchies, in not considering justice in their desire to acquire additional territory."

The mailing address of the DMWV is in Garland, TX. I came across this organization in the last 10 or 15 years. I don't really track them, so I don't know what their real agenda is. However, it is odd that after there being no organization for veterans of the Mexican American war since some time in the early 20th century that they think there needs to be one now.

Also, their triumphalist view of the Mexican American War can do no good for the American Southwest. 

Maps of the Confederacy

I used to have a web page where I had U.S. maps of various types which basically showed imprints of the Confederacy on the geography of the U.S.

Here is a map of the Confederacy.

http://www.slate.com/content/dam/slate/blogs/the_vault/2013/1/8/lynchingmapfinal.jpg.CROP.article920-large.jpg

The old Confederate Veteran magazine of the late 19th and early 20th century, and the official publication of the United Confederate Veterans, Sons of Confederate Veterans, United Daughters of the Confederacy, and the Confederated Southern Memorial Associations didn't defend lynching directly, but opposed criticism of the South for lynching so this map as a map of the Confederacy is very appropriate.

Anti-Neo-Confederate Institute Facebook Page

I have an Anti-Neo-Confederate Institute Facebook Page. You can go to it at:

http://www.facebook.com/AntineoConfederateInstitute

I am trying to organize an institute where neo-Confederacy, both organizations and in the popular imagination can be studied, to conduct research and education and reach out to the public.

This website www.confederatepastpresent.org is largely unknown. With an institution effort could be made to publicize it and this website www.citizenscouncils.com.

Lesson plans could be created for school teachers to correct for deficiencies in American history school textbooks.

More papers about the neo-Confederates could be written for scholarly publication.

Also, see the Anti-Neo-Confederate Super PAC page. This is is for political actions to oppose neo-Confederacy.

I would appreciate people visiting and liking the pages.  Thanks. Also follow me on www.twitter.com. @EdwardHSebesta

I am on twitter now. @EdwardHSebesta

I am on twitter and my handle is @EdwardHSebesta. Twitter is online at www.twitter.com.

Saw Spielberg's movie "Lincoln," entertaining, liked it.

I saw Spielberg's movie Lincoln yesterday afternoon with two African American friends neither of whom were particularly interested in history. However, it was my turn to pick the movie and we saw it.

I grew up with movies having historical themes in the 1960s. They were in black and white and had a type of acting where often the actors are made of marble and lived for the ages, but not for morning breakfast. They were often very didactic. Another thing about historical dramas is that often you know the story and how it will turn out. So I am generally not that interested in these type of films. There are exceptions, I didn't know the life of Gandhi much, so seeing the movie Gandhi was interesting.

However, the movie Lincoln has had a big impact and from reading the reviews I realized that it was well done and might be very interesting to see. Also, knowing that the neo-Confederates hated it made it attractive.

First it is an entertaining movie. I enjoyed seeing it. Second it was interesting that it portrayed Radical Republicans in a positive light. Radical Republicans have been denigrated in American history texts for generations and this is a significant change.

It showed the rabid racism of the Democrats at the time which was an eye opener for my two friends accompanying me to see the movie. One of my friends couldn't believe that the Democratic members of the House were really that racist, but thought they pandered to racism as political opportunists. I explained that  that these representatives were sincerely racists. I explained that there were pamphlets at the time, one endorsed by Jefferson Davis, that held Africans were a separate species from white people.

I thought the acting was good. The carnage of the Civil War was shown. The film wasn't didactic. If you haven't seen the movie already I recommend doing so. We all enjoyed seeing the movie.

I think the movie is good because it shows that the abolition of slavery wasn't inevitable and the 13th amendment passed by a slim margin and through strenuous effort and barely was passed. I think now days people think it was inevitable that slavery would be abolished. It wasn't inevitable, things might have turned out differently.

With this movie Lincoln and the movie Django, it shows that the Lost Cause view of history is beginning to fade away from popular historical consciousness.

Courtland Rogers stupidly gets Confederate flag tattoo

Courtland Rogers, husband of Teen Mom 2 show star Janelle Evans, got a Confederate battle flag tattoo just recently. I am sure we will hear the usual excuses that it is "Southern heritage" or "Southern pride." He won't openly admit to racism, but he would have to be totally disconnected from reality not to know that it is a provocative racist symbol. Obviously that is what he wanted. Maybe this makes him daring bad boy in his mind.

The story and picture of the tattoo is online here:  http://celebs.gather.com/viewArticle.action?articleId=281474981834444

For those of you who think the Confederacy is about states rights, and the other usual self-serving rationalizations given by its supporters as excuses to the public when their real reason is an antipathy to African Americans and probably modernity in general, the following is a link to the reasons Texas seceded.

http://www.confederatepastpresent.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=84:texas-secession-convention-a-declaration-of-the-causes-which-impel-the-state-of-texas-to-secede-from-the-federal-union-february-2-1861&catid=40:secession&back=yes

This is an article from a speech given at a Sons of Confederate Veterans (SCV) meeting that was printed in the Confederate Veteran, in which the speaker, SCV Texas Division historian wants to ship African Americans back to Africa.

http://www.confederatepastpresent.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=181:texas-division-sons-of-confederate-veterans-historian-wants-to-ship-all-african-americans-back-to-africa&catid=37:the-nadir-of-race-relations&back=yes

If fact just visit www.confederatepastpresent.org for numerous primary documentation which will show that Confederate "heritage" is really hateful.

However, I doubt that any of these documents would make Courtland Rogers regret the tattoo, they probably would make him happier that he got the tattoo.

It says something about Janelle Evans that she went along with the tattoo.

It was a thoughtless stupid thing to do.  What type of lesson does Teen Mom 2 want to teach her child? Not very good parenting in my opinion.

Salon.com writer talks about the Neo-Confederacy.

Interesting article at Salon.com. The title is "Welcome to the New Civil War," and the link is:

http://www.salon.com/2013/01/05/welcome_to_the_new_civil_war/

I am going to read it, seems interesting so I decided to share it.

Charles M. Blow, "New York Times," columnist on the legacy of slavery and incarcerations, also public opinion on the Confederacy

Charles M. Blow of the New York Times has a column titled, "Escaping Slavery," about the legacy of slavery, popular attitudes towards the Confederacy, towards African Americans.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/05/opinion/blow-escaping-slavery.html?hp&_r=0

Two polls mentioned in the column are online and well worth reading.

Pew Research
http://www.people-press.org/2011/04/08/civil-war-at-150-still-relevant-still-divisive/

In their poll they found a majority of people who identify themselves as Southerners think it is okay for public officials to praise the Confederacy.

and

CNN
http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2011/images/04/11/rel6b.pdf

CNN found that 4 out of 10 Southerners sympathize more with the Confederacy than the Union.

Yet defense attorneys in the South do not question potential jurors about their attitudes towards the Confederacy. We think they should.

My co-author and I are going to write a letter to the New York Times  proposing that defense attorneys should be asking these questions along with whether a potential juror is a member of a neo-Confederate organization. Neo-Confederates should not be allowed to be jurors in almost all situations. They have a wide ranging animosities and would be biased in most trials.

"Django Unchained": Neo-Confederates hate it and they should

I saw Django Unchained last weekend at the movie theater. It was basically a spaghetti western in many ways. There were numerous anachronistic elements in the film which I ignored.

The movie had two strongly expressed messages: (1) Antebellum slavery was horrific. (2) Antebellum slave owners and slave traders were criminal lowlifes worthy of being shot down like rabid dogs.

The horrors of slavery are made clear in the movie. Racists are portrayed as intellectual idiots. Slavers and slave owners get what's coming to them in the movie, mostly being shot dead when not being dynamited. The plantation house of a sadistic slave owner is blown up completely in the end.

Jamie Foxx, who plays Django, triumphs over white supremacists.

This has gotten the neo-Confederates up in arms and they are leading campaigns against the movie. They are using the strategy of attacking Tarantino personally. Representing the film as some anti-white racist film which it isn't. Django's good friend and partner in the movie is a German immigrant dentist named Dr. King Schultz turned bounty hunter who is favorably portrayed as Django's good friend.

The real opposition to the movie is that it is a complete rejection of Lost Cause mythology about slavery before the Civil War. More importantly it isn't some sentimental pacifistic rejection of slavery weeping over the horrors of slavery and wishing couldn't we all be nicer people in history. It is a film which sees slave holders as worthy as being shot dead as criminals.

Some links:

The League of the South had this comment. Their blogger uses sarcasm and name calling when he doesn't really have anything to say.

http://lsrebellion.blogspot.com/2012/12/scary-jamie.html

The Council of Conservative Citizens (CofCC) has these postings:

http://topconservativenews.com/2012/12/boycott-django-unchained/

http://topconservativenews.com/2012/12/quentin-tarantino-loves-rape-porn/

Any assertion made in any CofCC posting has to be taken with a grain of salt. The story line is explained in the movie as being a parallel to the German mythological story of Brunhilde and Siegfried. Django saves his lost love from monsters. Django isn't out to get all white people but the slave owners who oppress, in particular his love.

However, facts don't weigh much with neo-Confederates who are delusional and hysterical regarding race.

What upsets the neo-Confederates is that there is emerging a public which doesn't accept the Lost Cause view of slavery at all and really regards slave holders as criminals.

Salon.com reports that Joe Arpaio has gotten an award from the Sons of Confederate Veterans UPDATES:

I contacted www.salon.com and sent them documentation about the Nov./Dec. 2012 Confederate Veterans article about the award as well as the Sons of Confederate Veterans (SCV) support of white supremacist ideology.

The article has just been run and you can read it at:

http://www.salon.com/2012/12/27/joe_arpaio_accepted_award_from_neo_confederate_group/

I will be doing updates to track the interest in this revelation.

Updates:

Huffington Post has picked up the story.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/27/joe-arpaio-award_n_2372779.html?utm_hp_ref=politics#comments

Phoenix New Times, the weekly alternative paper has picked up the story.

http://blogs.phoenixnewtimes.com/valleyfever/2012/12/sheriff_joe_arpaio_accepted_aw.php

This means people in Phoenix are going to know about this.

It is making local Phoenix television.

http://www.azfamily.com/news/Arpaio-takes-award-from-neo-Confederate-organization-185106701.html

Now Joe Arpaio is being subject to ridicule.

http://blogs.phoenixnewtimes.com/bastard/2012/12/joe_arpaios_top_ten_reasons_fo.php

Joe Arpaio accepts Law and Order Award from the Sons of Confederate Veterans

Joe Arpaio accepts award from the Sons of Confederate Veterans (SCV), a group which advances arguments for white supremacy.

Full bibliographic reference. "Confederate Veteran," Nov./Dec. 2012, Vol. 70 No. 6, page 36, left column of photos and captions, 2nd item down. It is in the "Army of Trans-Mississippi," section of the magazine. The caption reads as follows: "The Sons of Confederate Veterans awarded the Law and Order Award to Maricopa County, AZ, Sheriff Joe Arpaio at the 2011 National Reunion and Convention in Montgomery, AL. AZ Division Commander Richard Montgomery, left, and Division Adjutant Curt Tipton presented the award to Sheriff Arpaio at his office in Phoenix, AZ. The picture shows the two SCV officials to his left and right and Arpaio holding the award.

This should show that the SCV isn't just a historical society but a political organization.

The re-election of Obama isn't going to help the neo-Confederates

The neo-Confederate think that the re-election of Obama will result in conditions that will inflame the public and get people supporting their neo-Confederate agenda. Not likely.The following is a link to a proposal to re-elect Obama to bring down the system.

http://lsrebellion.blogspot.com/2008/10/in-praise-of-assisted-suicide.html

Here is a link from the League of the South discussing the above proposal.

http://lsrebellion.blogspot.com/2012/08/of-rinos-worms-and-assisted-suicide.html

So this is what will happen. Over the next four years even conservatives who are entirely informed by Fox News will realize that Obama is a centrist Democrat. By 2016 government employees won't be walking around in drab green outfits with caps with a red star. There will be some good things and some bad things and it will be much like other presidential terms. The economy will be doing better as it usually does after a downturn. There won't be an Marxist apocalypse. Some conservatives will get quite disappointed by 2015 when Obama doesn't do something extremely radical. Then in January 2017 Obama will be retired from the presidency. Some conservatives will realized they were all worked up over nothing. Yes there was somethings about the Obama administration they didn't like, but nothing like they were expecting.

Criticizing Obama doesn't mean a person is racist. However, there has been something shrill and hysterical about some of the criticism of Obama. The Birther nonsense is an example of how having an African American president engendered hysteria with some conservatives. After eight years of this type of hysteria the public will be fed up with it and conservative media will recognize that this type of shrill nonsense really is beginning to discredit them. After having an African American president with a name Barack Obama, the novelty of having an elected official who isn't white or doesn't have a surname of British origin will be gone.

By 2017 a great many people will realize they were foolish. People who signed secession petitions will be teased by relatives and or when a secession petition signer is discussed some will derisively tell others, "You known he signed a secession petition and bragged about it," confirming the person's crackpot status.

When the Southern Partisan magazine started in 1979 Reagan was soon to be elected and neo-Confederates had hopes of getting civil rights legislation overturned or rendered ineffective. The League of the South started in 1993 when the southern strategy of the Republican party was still being employed.

However in 2012 the Republican party is trying to drop the southern strategy, note South Carolina Gov. Haley's appointment of Tim Scott to be the U.S. Senator of South Carolina. Note all the talk in the Republican party about getting the Hispanic vote. Then there are the Indian Americans being elected governors in the South. Since about 2000 no Republican wants to appear in any neo-Confederate publication, unlike before when many did. More and more it is becoming less and less the Republican party of Strom Thurmond and the Dixiecrats.

The generation who grew up under segregation is passing away. Those that remain and still embrace neo-Confederate views are an aging remnant left behind by history. When they express their opinions younger relatives will roll their eyes.

As for the supposed tide of secession that will sweep the world. These secession movements have unique local origins. There isn't a secession movement based on universalist values anywhere. No one is saying, everything is fine, but we are just too big and we need to break up our nation. It is ironic that the neo-Confederates don't see this since they are always condemning universal principles as opposed to unique local values.

The secession movements are in places where there are real antagonisms or there has been prior national identities going back centuries or the nation itself is a patch up left behind by colonial powers or there has been mismanagement of the nation or a mistreatment of a region or combinations thereof. Even where they are, practical matters keep the nation together. Scotland finds that the national government subsidies it to something like a 100 billion British pounds annually. The European Union is saying oh no you are not going to be admitted if you secede.

The belief that there is any real driving force for secession in the South exists only in neo-Confederate imaginations. The old resentment of civil rights in the South is passing away and it was the only real driving force for the neo-Confederate movement.

Economy seems to be turning around, neo-Confederate hopes dashed.

With the economic crisis of 2008 neo-Confederates got very excited that there would be some upcoming breakdown of the economy or society that would allow the neo-Confederate view to get a hearing. I had blogged about it in 2008.

http://newtknight.blogspot.com/2007/08/neo-confederates-financial-crash.html

The League of the South has launched this website http://www.getofftitanic.com/ which has the heading "Get Us Off the U.S.S. Titanic." The idea that the United States is going to come to an end like the ship Titanic.

As has been observed in history during times of severe economic crisis fringe views do get a hearing because established views lose credibility when there is a failure to deliver a functioning economy. During an economic crisis there should be a critical review of how things should be run, but choosing a crazy alternative isn't an answer, and with the question before the public that an alternative might be needed some might choose the crazy alternative.

However, neither the Mayan or neo-Confederate apocalypse are going to happen.

For example there is this news item, http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/12/20/how-housing-is-driving-economic-growth-dek-the-latest-data-show-more-people-are-buying-more-homes-at-higher-prices-than-they-have-in-years-so-why-isn-t-the-supply-of-homes-for-sale-rising.html

The housing market has turned around and housing prices are rising and buyers are starting to compete for homes. The number of foreclosed homes on the market is declining. Construction of houses is beginning again.

There are other trends which are beginning to drive the American economy in a positive direction.

One important force is the availability of cheap natural gas through new fracking technology. Natural gas has become very cheap and is about one-fourth the price of natural gas in East Asia. Factories are intensive energy users. Plastics are largely made from natural gas as are many chemical feed stocks. So the trend is to move manufacturing with plastics back to the U.S. However, even for goods that don't use much plastic, lower energy costs makes manufacturing cheaper and many other goods require lots of energy. Many goods require a fair amount of plastic.

The other thing which is helping the economy is the new trend to "onshoring" or "reshoring" as it being called. This is driven by several factors. One is that the economics of offshoring were found not to be as good as they seemed. There were hidden costs and other problems. Another driving factor is that wages in India and China are climbing quickly. In China it was reported that wages rose 18% last year. In India they have been climbing at a rate of 15% a year for some time. At 15% a year compounded that works out to doubling every five years. Now the conventional wisdom is that offshoring was over done and was a fad. There are multiple other factors which are supporting onshoring such as the elimination of shipping delays, the reduction of quality problems, and the fact that if you don't make it, you really lose the ability to design it. This article talks more about it.

http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2012/12/the-insourcing-boom/309166/

I don't want to get into the business of predicting the future for anything including the economy. I tend to thing that the future is opaque. However, it seems that the economic apocalypse isn't going to be happening soon despite how much the www.lewrockwell.com readership enjoys imagining that it is imminent.

Secession creeping into respectability

The American Conservative, a far right publication of "paleoconservatives" and others who are also published in neo-Confederate publications has this article defending the legality of secession.

They aren't advocating secession, just defending its legality.

http://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/is-secession-legal/

I am not claiming it is a trend, just noting that secession is hasn't quite died out in the conservative media.

I have mixed feelings on all this, it probably is evident from my postings. Looking at the secession petitions it is hard to take it seriously. Looking at it from the perspective of cultural geography theories of nationalism I can't quite dismiss it.

I don't think its potential viability is going be enabled much by Obama's rejection of secession though there will certainly be some people who will be reflexively against anything Obama says and for anything Obama is against.

I think a driving force might be that a lot of people at some level imagined America as a white nation and their patriotism was for that nation and not a multiracial democracy. However, I really don't know if there are enough of these people to enable in any significant way a secession movement.

There is a tendency to think history is on some track or trajectory that has inevitability driven by "historical forces" following an irresistible logic. I do think there are trends and forces driving history, but I also think that there is contingency also in history. There are preconditions that have a potentiality but it will take some chance events to develop these preconditions and result in history taking a particular  trajectory. So I think that secession is not going anywhere without an unforeseen development.

So I am just going to monitor developments.

Interesting article on the legality of secession and a commentary on secessionists

This is the link to the article

http://verdict.justia.com/2012/12/14/the-ultimate-gop-obstructionism-is-secession-but-that-will-never-happen

Besides a legal analysis he makes some humorous points.

When might the White House administration reply to the secession petitions?

So multiple secession petitions at whitehouse.gov have gotten 25,000 or more signatures in the allotted 30 days time limit. The question now is not only what the White House response will be, but when.

I think the response will be when there won't be many distractions from the White House response to the petitions. So after the Christmas season and New Years, and after the whole fiscal wrangling now preoccupying politics is when I think the response will be. I think the Obama administration will want to have the maximum exposure for their response to these deeply unpopular petitions. It affords an opportunity to praise America as a great nation. What politician would not want to do that? It also affords an opportunity to embarrass conservatives and cause friction with their base, another political opportunity.

Conservatives will be hoping I think to have the issue disappear as soon as possible. Even World Net Daily, which usually has open arms for any fringe issues, seems to have dropped secession, this last article was published on 12/2/2012. http://www.wnd.com/2012/12/an-american-independence-party/

A couple weeks after the White House response I think the whole carnival will wrap up. Perhaps some ultra right state representative, elected without too much scrutiny by his or her constituents will introduce a secession measure to their legislature. A congressional Republican party convention in Minnesota in 2010 did pass a resolution that a state had a right to secede.  Perhaps some conservative meeting will issue a resolution. There will be a couple residual events, then it will linger on as a humorous footnote in politics.

Secession going nowhere, British Broadcasting Corp. article

The British Broadcasting Corp. (BBC) has an article online why the secession petitions are going no where.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-20633042

I don't see conservative media figures here in the U.S. taking up secession so far even in their competition to say the most outrageous attention getting thing in competition for audience in the right wing media.