Preface For A Southern Blockbuster

 by Al Benson Jr.

Member, Board of Directors, Confederate Society of America

I received a Christmas present yesterday that I deeply appreciate. It was a copy of Ron and Donnie Kennedy's third and updated edition of their blockbuster book The South Was Right!  It had previously been published in 1991 and in 1994. The 1994 edition sold well over 100,000 copies. This new 2020 edition will hopefully do as well. It has been updated so that it reflects exactly where we are, both in the Southern Heritage Movement and in the country at large.

My comments today will deal only with the preface to the new 2020 edition. A full book review will come later as I get into the real meat of the book. But as I sat on Christmas morning and read the preface I felt that it, by itself, deserved some comments as it shows how our leftist adversaries have changed their tactics against us since 1994 and many of us, myself sometimes included, have opposed them still using the same tactics we used over twenty five years ago. Is it any wonder we are losing?

I will quote the Kennedy Brothers here because what they have to say is so relevant. They observe: "Since the 1994 publication of the second edition of The South Was Right an evil, neo-Marxist shadow government has taken control of the United States. The evil, shadow government consists of leftist ideologues in the media, academia, political establishment, and their donor-class supporters both in the North and the South. With the fall of the old Communist world, Marxism changed its form but not its objectives. Neo-Marxists, composed of liberals, progressives, socialists, and other social justice warriors, replaced the older form of Marxism. Today, 2020, they dominate diverse  organizations such as the mainline media, digital media, Black  Lives Matter, ANTIFA, and other left-of-center organizations." So Marxism has taken on a whole new complexion at this point in time. The question for us is--have we kept pace with them? I'm afraid, at this point, that's doubtful.

The Kennedys continue: "Everything associated with the traditional, conservative, Bible-Belt South has been demonized by the evil, leftist shadow government that now controls America's social and political thinking. Evidence of the effectiveness of this evil, neo-Marxist shadow government can be seen in a 2020 opinion poll. The poll documented that most (77%) conservatives are afraid to openly express their political opinions.  The America where freedom of speech and freedom of expression is a Constitutionally protected right no longer exists!  This evil, leftist shadow government serves as the propaganda center that supports the Yankee Empire's genocidal policy toward its captive nation--the Confederate States of America. The old North/South bargain or detente where the South agreed to remain passive and patriotic and not attempt to secede again in exchange for nominal control of our local, puppet governments--that agreement has been broken.  We did not break the agreement,  they broke it!  This third edition explains how it happened, but more importantly it explains what the people of the occupied South can do about it."

They tell us: "National Republican politicians cower before the demands of this evil, neo-Marxist shadow government, while national Democrats provide political cover for the left-of-center shadow government's riotous storm troopers. America's once 'free press' is now controlled by postmodern, neo-Marxists who maintain monopolistic control of public information. The mainline and digital media serve as the evil shadow government's ministry of propaganda. These people are ideologically driven, they detest traditional Western Christian civilizations definition of truth, civility, and due process under the law...The cultural genocide directed against all things Southern that we warned was coming in 1994 has now arrived. Today Southerners are the only minority who are forced to allow our enemies to define our culture....We are in the same position as people of all other captive nations. The people of the South, Dixie, or the Bible-Belt are in a struggle for our very survival as a unique people The following questions remain--'Do Southerners still posses the courage to take their stand in Dixie? Do Southerners have the backbone necessary to establish their own provisional government in each state to bring pressure on 'our' wobbly  weak-kneed politicians?" 

There will be more about provisional and shadow governments in the book and for those who might not have a copy of it you can try to get a copy of Ron Kennedy's book Dixie Rising--Rules for Rebels. Ron deals with shadow governments in the South in that book also. It is time we updated our response to those Marxist types that seek to destroy us as a distinct people and who seek to destroy this country as a whole. 

The leftists label us a "reactionaries" because we mostly react to what they try to do to us. It's time we started being proactive rather than reactive and this new edition of The South Was Right! should help us to begin to do that. More on this as I get into the book.

A "Bully Pulpit" For Louisiana--And by extention for the rest of the South

 A "Bully Pulpit" For Louisiana--And by extension for the rest of the South

by Al Benson Jr.

Member, Board of Directors, Confederate Society of America

Recently someone handed me a pamphlet which I found interesting and which I will quote from extensively in this article. It took information out of the book by Ron Kennedy  Dixie Rising--Rules for Rebels that may be helpful to those struggling to preserve our culture, heritage and history here in the South where it is under unrelenting attack by the Marxists that seek our cultural destruction. 

The pamphlet observed that "...the Bully Pulpit is a state-wide elected office in which the incumbent uses the prestige of the office  to advance the cause of Southern and American Constitutional liberty. The office holder becomes the spokesman  for the Cause not only in his state but across the South and the nation. He is central in organizing pro-liberty folks in every Southern state. By virtue of hs office, he generates public knowledge and enthusiasm for our Cause.."

When you look at the way leftist Democrats and Republicans and other assorted Marxists have trashed our history and culture in recent years you realize that something of this sort is sorely needed. Someone with official political standing needs to be there to speak up for Southern Heritage folks who have no political power or voice of their own.

The pamphlet notes: "Only power can counter power. They (the Marxists) have power, we do not. One person in a Bully Pulpit could arouse the general public to forceful political action. Southerners will follow a strong leader who uses his Bully Pulpit to organize a mass movement; a leader who has developed a strategic plan to defeat the neo-Marxist mobs  and replace the current illegitimate, supreme federal government  with a Constitutional Republic of Sovereign States secured by real States' Rights inclusive of the rights of state nullification and secession."

The person in the Bully Pulpit has to be one of us ordinary folks, and not a career politician looking to feather his future political nest and therefore willing to sell out to the highest bidder. He needs to be someone who is willing to spend a good part of his time defending the Cause rather than the political eggs in his basket.

The pamphlet states that this person "...must understand the necessity of using irregular political warfare to unseat the political status quo--a system that is designed to favor the ruling elites, while holding 'we the people' in check and under their control." This becomes especially important at a time when we risk having our national election stolen from us via massive fraud.

Dixie Rising Rules for Rebels states the following: "Consider the impact on recruiting of new supporters and members that the Bully Pulpit would have. Assume that we elect one of our own as Lieutenant Governor of Louisiana. In Louisiana, the Lt. Governor has almost no real duties and would therefore have plenty of time to travel across the South and otherwise promote our Cause. For example; if a Southern scholar or author were to be invited to speak to a gathering in Columbia, South Carolina, it would cause very little public notice. But if the Lt. Governor of Louisiana comes to town that would make a noticeable public impact. More people would attend the meeting; more people would be encouraged to support the Cause and the news media would report on the event." They might try to report negatively on it but they would have to cover it, much as they might hate to do so.

The pamphlet continues: "More detained information about the Bully Pulpit, irregular political warfare, Provisional Government, South-wide ballot initiatives, and our Sovereign State Amendment to the US Constitution can be found in the second edition (2020) Dixie Rising--Rules for Rebels   Shotwell Publishing, Columbia, South Carolina. Our aim is not just to win an election--our aim is to win our Freedom."

Even In Lincoln's Day Some Folks Recognized A Communist

by Al Benson Jr.

Member, Board of Directors, Confederate Society of America

Awhile back I printed off an article from https://www.jacobinmag.com by an Andre Fleche called America's First Red Scare. The article seemed to me to be a mix of truth and error and Mr. Fleche's somewhat left of center bias seemed to show through.

But he did get some things right. He noted: "Advocates from both sides argued their case in print and in public. Conservative newspapers warned Missouri's citizens to beware of heeding the advice of 'scarlet red speakers.' Good advice, for there were quite a few of those around even then. Contrary to what we have been taught, communism and socialism were problems in this country starting at least in the early 1850s and not in the 1950s as we have been told in what passes for history books today. 

Fleche continued: "Slaveholders denounced abolitionists, immigrants, and activists as 'Pure red republicans! People rotten from the ground up, red all the way through to their kidneys'." That is true, but it was not only slaveholders that exposed them

Fleche observed that St. Louis Unionists armed themselves in order to prevent Missouri from seceding. He said: "Progressive Republicans, soldiers, and the German immigrant community took the lead. Revolutionary veterans from Europe, including such radicals as Heinrich Bornstein, editor of the St. Louis German language newspaper Anzeiger des Westens, played a prominent role in helping to organize the new Union volunteers." Notice Fleche's terminology here. "Progressive Republicans" Folks, that's just another term for socialist Republicans--the same kind of RINO's today that are willing to help the Democrats to try to defraud Trump of his legitimate vote count in the 2020 election.

Fleche's leftist bias bleeds through in his next comments. He tells us that "On May 10, 1861, the loyal regiments marched to the outskirts of town where they dispersed and disarmed a gathering of secessionist militias. As the victorious units marched their captives back through the city, radical journalists likened the scene to the revolution that had swept Europe in 1848."  One of them wrote: "It was one of those splendid moments when emotion glowing deep in the heart of the masses suddenly breaks into wild flame." The captured Confederates took a little different view. They said "These reds and forty-eighters are to blame for everything." This according to one conservative editor--and he was pretty close to the actual truth there.

Fleche contended that Southern secession  tried first and foremost to protect slavery in the South, which was a misnomer because Southerners could have stayed in the Union and still kept their slaves. Lincoln said as much. The second part of his contention was a little more accurate. He noted that "...by establishing a Southern nation, Confederates also sought to forestall progressive political and social change, which they believed threatened to transform the American republic."

Fleche observed, correctly, that "In the years before the Civil War, white Southern intellectuals grew increasingly worried about progressive Northern thinkers.  During the 1840s and 1850s, Northern reformers had advocated not only abolitionism, but also working-class trade unionism and utopian socialism. The Yankee editor, Horace Greeley  took the lead in popularizing radical politics. In the pages of his widely read newspaper, the New York Tribune, he exposed readers to the latest work of contemporary social theorists." One of those "contemporary social theorists" was Karl Marx, the supposed founder of present day communism. But, then,  Greeley was, himself, a socialist. I have on my shelf a book by Charles Sotheran called Horace Greeley  And Other Pioneers Of American Socialism. It was first published in 1915 and then again in 1971 by Haskell House Publishers in New York. I'm not sure if it's even still available. 

Greeley wasn't the only socialist around back in the day. There were lots of them around, lots earlier than we'd like to think.

And there were even some similarities with our situation today. In Missouri, many of the radical Unionists were in the city of St. Louis, while much the rest of Missouri was pretty conservative. How well does that pattern hold true today, not only in Missouri but in many of our other states as well. You have conservatives and patriots in the more rural areas of the state but the big cities are mostly, with some exceptions, socialistic politically. Same when it comes to elections. The big cities usually vote socialist while the rest of the state votes conservative. I know it works that way in Louisiana. And it did in Illinois and Indiana when we were there.

Years ago Dr. Clyde Wilson wrote an informative series of columns called The Yankee Problem in America. He was right. I don't recall if Dr. Wilson ever wrote a book by that title or not. He may have. Problem is, a lot of those Yankees that have been such a problem have also been socialists, and therein lies part of the problem.