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.

[hirn_man]

The 10th amendment leaves all powers not granted to the federal government to the states OR TO THE PEOPLE.

You guys ALLWAYS leave out OR TO THE PEOPLE when you talk about the 10th amendment. But by leaving it out you can point to the tenth amendment and call arguements you don't agree with as "silly".

"If several States, in this case what is now called the Confederacy, exercise this power nearly simultaneously, the only legitimate Constitutional response is ''See ya.'' "

Wrong. The constitution is silent on secession, but Article 4 Section 4 says that the federal government will guarentee to each state a republican form of government. That gaurentee is meaningless if a state can simply seceede and form whatever kind of government they want(kingship, dictatorship, etc).

[ZULU]

I agree. I love the South and Southerners. Robert E. Lee and Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson were moral giants and great Americans, along with a great number of individuals who fought for the South. I also support Israel. I am also a fan of Krauthammer's.

I used to like Buchanan, but then realized he is really IS a closet anti-Semite, and while some of his politcal rhetoric makes sense, a lot of it is just garbage.

I am also glad Buchanan is no longer a Republican.

[general_re]

No doubt. I get enough heartburn on the damn evolution threads - I may not care for the revisionism, but I see no need to up my blood pressure a few more points by making these threads a habit too ;)

[hirn_man]

"I don't want to get into a history lesson here, but tarriffs played a much larger role in causing the war of northern aggression than slavery."

correct terms for the war would be "War Between the States" or the "Civil War".

I prefer the War of Confederate Stupidity.

[ZULU]

"The constitution is silent on secession..."

Hence the Tenth Amendment applies.

"Article 4 Section 4 says that the federal government will guarentee to each state a republican form of government. That gaurentee is meaningless if a state can simply seceede and form whatever kind of government they want(kingship, dictatorship, etc)."

Your conclusion is illogical. The paragraph only applies to states which are in the Union. If a state seceeds, that state is not in rebellion, that state has seceeded, and the Consitution no longer applies. All of the evil we see spewing out of Washington and the Federal Courts, all the abuse of the rights of individuals and of the states, are rooted in the Liincolnian Logic that the Federal Government is supreme, and is an outgrowth of the Civil War.


It was very easy for the North to take the highground on the issue of slavery. Having made their profits from the slave trade, they found modern industry was better served by an underclass of "rented slaves", immigrants from Europe who were underpaid, overworked, and frequently cared for more poorly than some southern slaves. In the long run it was cheaper. I never read about an industrialist caring for a factory worker who was too old to produce. Yet this happened quite often in the South to southern slaves.
Kind of hypocritical I think.

[ZULU]

I prefer the "War of Northern Hypocracy"

[philosofy123]

you got that right

[philosofy123]

Carles Krawthamer is a loser. I have never liked his condesending attitude.

[hirn_man]

No doubt you have that right.

It was a very big war. There was plenty of hypocracy to go around on both sides.

[hirn_man]

Well I never heard of a factory owner that beat and tortured a worker that got a better job offer, either.

[ZULU]

"Well I never heard of a factory owner that beat and tortured a worker that got a better job offer, either."

If you were an illiterate, untrained Irishman who just got off the boat from County Cork, there would be NO "better job offers".

The Industrial North during the Civil War was the gensis of the Robber Barons and the Industrial Revolution with all its horrors - 12 hour workdays, no benefots, low pay, horrific working conditions, child labor, etc.

[A2J]

Neocons hate the South for what it represents:

A force for limited government.

Worth repeating.

Dixie bump!

[ZULU]

Charles Krauthammer is a brillant man with keen insights into the world of foreign affairs. I believe you are mistaken.

[hirn_man]

""The constitution is silent on secession..."

Hence the Tenth Amendment applies. "

But is it left up to the states or to the people? The 10th says that there are 2 different places it can be left to and gives no direction anywhere which of the two should be followed. You can't just say its left to the states end of story.

And my point on Article 4 section 4 is what good is it if a state just says "im outa here" and can leave at any time? Kind of a worthless gaurentee isn't it?

[hirn_man]

While your mythical Irishman may have endured bad working conditions, he was a free man.

Thats something you obviously do not value very much, but I bet the Irishman did.

[4CJ]

Abortion is legal. Does that make it right?

No. But the analogy is a bad one. Every state agreeing to be in the union ratified the Constitution with it's slavery provisions, and it was legal in many other nations as well. Most slaves brought here were already slaves - the yankee slave traders simply purchased them from coastal African tribes. Numerous court decisions had upheld the legitimacy of the practice. For the South, it was an economic issue, just as it had been in the North, where they were quite willing to make huge profits in the trade.

Legalizied abortion was by judicial fiat with no basis in the Constitution. Abortion and slavery are wrong, I'm glad one is gone and pray the other will be soon.

[Mr. Mojo]

Yep, Krauthammer didn't say anything close to what Pat claimed he said. Pat probably got mixed up with what he daydreamed - wished - Kraut said. This 10-time loser sees "neocons" and "Hollywood leftists" - iow, Jews - in his sleep. And like most people who carry this kind of anger and hold to powerful delusions throughout their lives, he has now gone insane. He's a completely broken man. ....a shell of a man.

[4CJ]

At least some one knows more about our American history than is taught in the 'public' schools...thanks!

You have to wonder WHY the truth isn't being taught. A factual understanding of the issues could help heal the wounds that divide us today.

Deo vindice!

[4CJ]

The Guarantee Clause only applies, as does the ENTIRE Constitution, to the states that are members. It does not prohibit secession, it only forces the federal government to ensure that states within the union have a 'representative' form of government - duly elected representatives of the people, not a monarchy.

[Mr. Mojo]

Neocons (Folks like Krauthammer) hate the south

Sweeping (and thus inaccurate) statement. There are many definitions for 'neocon', but most agree that neocons vote GOP, are pro-Israel (as opposed to pro-Arab/Muslim hellholes), and advocate pre-emptive military action against our enemies (if necessary). I know a lot of people who fit this description, and not one of them hates the South in any way.