Why do the neocons hate Dixie so?

worldnetdaily ^ | November 26, 2003 | Pat Buchanan

[stainlessbanner]

"Howard Dean wants the white trash vote," wrote Washington Post columnist Charles Krauthammer in recent mockery of the Vermonter. "That's clearly what [Dean] meant when he said he wanted the votes of 'guys with Confederate flags in their pickup trucks.'"

After Dean was savaged by Al Sharpton, who called the Confederate flag an "American swastika," Krauthammer was rhapsodic. His humiliation serves Dean right, Krauthammer chortled. He should never have pandered to Southern "yahoos" and "rebel-yelling racist redneck(s)."

What is it in the wiring of these neocons that they so loathe white Southerners who cherish the monuments, men and memories of the Lost Cause?

Last December, Krauthammer, David Frum and Jonah Goldberg all squabbled noisily over who was first to join the media mob that lynched Trent Lott for his tribute to Sen. Thurmond on Strom's 100th birthday. When Lott lost his leadership post, these neocons rejoiced at his resignation.

In the latest National Review – not your father's NR – an editorial calls the cause of Southern independence, for which Gen. Robert E. Lee fought and "Stonewall" Jackson died, the cause of "slavery and treason."

Why the Hollywood Left hates Dixie is easy to understand. It is conservative, Christian, traditionalist, hostile to the cultural revolution. But why do the neocons? After all, the folks Krauthammer calls "white trash" are the most reliable conservative voters in America, God-and-country people. They enlist in disproportionate numbers in the military, and die in disproportionate numbers in America's wars.

The neocons are pro-Israel. So, too, are these folks who believe in standing by Israel because the Bible tells them so. Yet, when it comes to Southerners who revere the Confederate flag, neocons like Krauthammer echo the Washington Post writer who dismissed Southern white Christians as "poor, uneducated and easy to command."

But even the Post does not use the venom of Krauthammer. Indeed, I never heard George Wallace or Lester Maddox, both of whom I came to know and like late in their lives, use the kind of language on political foes that Krauthammer uses on a whole class of people he doesn't even know.

A point of personal privilege. I have family roots in the South, in Mississippi. When the Civil War came, Cyrus Baldwin enlisted and did not survive Vicksburg. William Buchanan of Okolona, who would marry Baldwin's daughter, fought at Atlanta and was captured by Gen. Sherman's army. William Baldwin Buchanan was the name given to my father and by him to my late brother.

As a member of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, I have been to their gatherings. I spoke at the 2001 SCV convention in Lafayette, La. The Military Order of the Stars and Bars presented me with a battle flag and a wooden canteen like the ones my ancestors carried.

Has Krauthammer ever been to one of these meetings? Has he any knowledge at all of these people he dismisses as "white trash"?

Discussing the Dean-flag issue, one New York Times columnist wrote of the campaign "to remove the Stars and Bars from the top of the South Carolina Statehouse." But it was not the Stars and Bars, first flag of the Confederate States of America, that flew over that statehouse. It was the battle flag of the Confederate army, with the St. Andrew's Cross, on which, tradition holds, the apostle Andrew was crucified.

And that flag atop the statehouse flew beneath Old Glory. What were South Carolinians saying by putting it there? Only this: "We are proud of the bravery of our grandfathers who fought under this blood-stained banner, but we are Americans, and the Stars and Stripes represents our country now and forever." What is wrong with that?

To Krauthammer, the battle flag is a racist symbol. And, yes, it has been used by racists to insult and intimidate. But so, too, has the Christian cross when burned on hillsides. And so, too, has the American flag.

These symbols are abused because they have power. But to Southern kids who put battle flag decals on book bags, their fathers who put replicas on cars and trucks, rural folks who fly the flag in their yards, it does not mean they hate anyone. Rather, it says: "We love our Southern heritage and shall never forget our ancestors who fought and died under this flag."

Late in life, Joshua Chamberlain, the Union hero who won the Medal of Honor for holding Little Round Top when Lee sent the Texans to turn Meade's flank on the second day at Gettysburg, said that whenever he saw that flag, it recalled to him the indomitable courage of the men who had fought under it. At re-enactments of Civil War battles, high-school football games and NASCAR races, the battle flag is ubiquitous across the South.

If Krauthammer and the neocons really believe the only folks who cherish this symbol are "white trash" and "yahoos," that tells us more about them than it does about the South, of which they know nothing.

[WKB]

Dixie ping

[11th Earl of Mar]

Oh, now Howard Dean is a neocon?

Pat Buchanan is losing it.

[Maelstrom]

Neocons hate the South for what it represents:

A force for limited government.

[Starbug]

Bump

[11th Earl of Mar]

The neocons are pro-Israel. So, too, are these folks who believe in standing by Israel because the Bible tells them so.

This is where many conservatives part ways with Buchanan.

His Jew-baiting comments like this insult Jews and Christians.

[js1138]

Pat has absolutely no sense of irony. I can call pickup truck drivers white trash because I'm a southerner. If I don't own one, it's not because I don't want one.

Conservatives are honorary Southerners That's why so many of us voted for Pat in Palm Beach County.

[bourbon]

(((MS PING)))

Pat Buchanan has ancestors from MS? Who knew?!

BTW, I am NOT a Pat Buchanan fan, but I have to agree with him on this point: There are several prominent "neocons" who really have a beef with the South. Geo. Will is another good example. I normally love what Will writes, but when he opens his mouth about the South he usually embarrasses himself.

[GigaDittos]

Pat is a guy who will always wish he was president.

[bourbon]

ooops. double ping there. my bad.

[familyofman]

"What is it in the wiring of these neocons that they so loathe white Southerners who cherish the monuments, men and memories of the Lost Cause?"
GOP votes in Dixie are a lock - why bother liking those that will vote for you no matter how little you care for them? After the votes are counted they can just ignore the "white trash" again. Can you say - pander?

[XRdsRev]

Just my personal opinion but I don't really know any Conservatives that hate the Confederate flag or the historical Southern Confederacy. I, like others I know, believe that both the mid 19th century North and South held many sacred and honorable principles and were made up of basically good people who became manipulated by circumstances of their time. I do however know Conservatives (including myself) that hate the concept espoused by some (I believe a very small minority) of the South splitting off from the rest of the United States in the present day.

I think Secession betrays the concept of most of our Founding Fathers, who risked their lives & fortunes to build a country. I really don't think they would be pleased with it falling apart to suit regional interests. I am paraphrasing George Washington but he made it clear, that even though he was a Virginian, he believed that we were all Americans first and we had to put our sectionalism aside for the good, health, prosperity and security of the whole Republic.

The whole Yankee/Redneck division is silly to me and particularly so in a time when we should be minimizing our differences as Americans and standing together to fight those foreign interests who wish to conquer us. I have been very fortunate to have many good friends all over the country and I realize that while we are different in many ways, we have much, much more in common. In the eyes of foreigners, we are all Yankees.

In 2003, when an hostile adversary is trying to destroy our way of life, it's probably not a good time to be arguing with fellow citizens about who and what was right 135 years ago.

[cooldog]

Pat's really lost it here; I read that column by Krauthammer just yesterday, and what he said was that Dean and his ilk loathed the south. Buchanan is so far off base here that its laughable!

Go read Krauthammer's column, then come back and read this one again ...

[sheltonmac]

a Dixie *PING* to anyone who might have been missed.

[af_vet_1981]

A point of personal privilege. I have family roots in the South, in Mississippi. When the Civil War came, Cyrus Baldwin enlisted and did not survive Vicksburg. William Buchanan of Okolona, who would marry Baldwin's daughter, fought at Atlanta and was captured by Gen. Sherman's army. William Baldwin Buchanan was the name given to my father and by him to my late brother.
As a member of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, I have been to their gatherings. I spoke at the 2001 SCV convention in Lafayette, La. The Military Order of the Stars and Bars presented me with a battle flag and a wooden canteen like the ones my ancestors carried.

Granted his service to the Confederate cause, but what service has Patrick Buchanan actually rendered in the armed forces of the United States of America ?

None, zilch, nada ...

I wonder if Pat will be the next artist to cover Stipe's song.

Me, me...
Me in the corner
Me in the spotlight
Losing my religion
Thought that I heard you laughing
Thought that I heard you sing
I think I saw you try
Consider this
Consider the lengths that I would go to
The slip that brought me to my knees
And I don't know if I can do it
Oh no I said too much
I set it up
Thought that I heard you laughing
Thought that I heard you sing
Life is bigger
Bigger than you and you are not me
The lengths that I would go to
Hey, I said too much
I set it up
I think I saw you try
It's me, me...
Me in the corner
Losing my religion
Trying to keep an eye on you
And I don't know if I can do it
Oh no, I said too much
I set it up
Thought that I heard you laughing
Thought that I heard you sing
Losing my...
It's me
It's me...
Can't you see 

[4CJ]

Kudos to Mr. Buchanan for an excellent article.

[WKB]

If the double ping police catch you your privileges will
be suspenned for 3 months

[the gillman@blacklagoon.com]

How on earth is that a jew-baiting statement?

[THUNDER ROAD]

Pat is a guy who will always wish he was president.

The way things are going....
in a few short years from now...
we will ALL wish that Pat had been President !

.....THUNDER.....

[MissAmericanPie]

Ol'Pat is still smarting. His attitude towards Israel cost him alot of Southern votes that he was counting on.