Guns, God and the American Flag

Howard Dean and Yankee Democrats don't have a clue what it means to be a Southerner. It's not about Confederate flags. It's about honor, family, self reliance and American patriotism. 

Who are these Confederate voters that Vermonter Howard Dean wants to represent? Is Jefferson Davis on the ballot again? I thought he was dead, along with the Confederate States of America. Hey, I’m a Southerner, why didn’t I get the memo? Duh, Dean was just being "hisself", a Yankee liberal, describing voters as he sees people – divided by race, class and gender. What a hoot. Liberals imagine identity politics fit real people. Dean should listen to Yellow Dawg Democrat Zell Miller.

Confederate Voter is the wrong term. Democrats covet the White Southern Voter. True, the white Southerner majority’s ancestors were Confederates, but that provides the wrong connotation – slavery, segregation and racism – that doesn’t fit the present and the future. The South is different from the rest of the country in significant measures, but the distinction isn’t "Confederate", it’s simply "The South". Yankees and liberals just don’t get it, although Dean did stumble over truth when he talked down to Southerners to get over “race, guns, God and gays.” Behind "race, guns, God and gays" are issues based on values. 

The South is about deep-fried shared values, history, and identity. Better universities have courses on Southern culture. Psychologists can test for regional attitude and behavior differences. The differences matter when Southerners vote. If only the liberals could understand that complex thoughts –- not easy divisions of race, class and gender –- reside in the heads of most Southerners.  Liberals shouldn’t forget that Southern culture encourages a fierce passion for ideas held as right. Over 300,000 dead Yankees learned that lesson.

Here are some ideas held in common:

• Slavery, segregation and racism are wrong.  They are sins against God. There are white, black and other racists. None are respected.

• The Confederate battle flag is a racist symbol only to racists, demagogues (liberals, thus Democrats), and dummies. To Southerners, Confederate symbols stand for courage, sacrifice, and fidelity. The people who want to oppress the Cross of St. Andrew want to suppress the Cross of Jesus.

• The American flag is the highest national symbol and beloved above all else.

• There are absolute truths, unchanging and yet always relevant, in the Holy Bible, the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution.

• The Bible Belt is buckled by people who actually read the Bible, believe it and evangelize it more than any other region. From a Biblical world view come the values that count.

• Ten Commandments. Our culture and laws are based on our Judeo-Christian values. Historical fact is not hate, nor is it "imposing" beliefs, nor is it a separation-of-church-and-state issue.  It’s a free-speech and freedom-of-religion issue. This issue draws from the same power as Martin Luther and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Watch out.

• Family First. Your name is all you have really in life. You can not shame your last name – your People. Honor is personal, familial and real.

• Love the Land. Hunting, fishing, and animals are all part of good stewardship, using and preserving our natural blessings.

• Men and Women are different for good purposes. Men should be gentlemen. Women should be ladies. Marriage is between one man and one woman only.

• Sexual sins are wrong. Adultery, homosexuality, incest and bestiality are all wrong. Tolerate homosexuals -- they’re your kin -- but don’t honor them.

• Fight when right. Serving in the military is an honor. Fighting for freedom is worth the cost – no matter what.

• Defend yourself. We have a right and duty to defend our persons, our family and home and neighbors with whatever it takes, including personal firearms.

• Leave us alone. Tax less, govern less, nanny less, lecture less, because we want the individual freedom for our family, our property, our opportunity, our liberty to prosper. 

• Crime leads to poverty. Poverty doesn’t cause crime. Our ancestors built something from nothing and re-built it again after destruction. Better to earn your way in life than take a handout. Better to be poor and free than rich and slave.

• We are Americans first. We are Federalists who believe in the Constitution as it was intended, not as it has become with the Judicial Oligarchy and Federal Behemoth. We don’t want to be ruled by the U.N. or anybody else. We don’t give a damn what foreigners think of us. And, frankly, my dear, we don’t give a damn what Yankees think of us (and that really bothers them).

• We are conservatives based on convictions. We are not loyal to any Party, as much as to our Principles.

The Democrats can con Southern voters like Bill Clinton did. But, the Democrats are on the wrong side of ACW II (the Great U.S. Culture War, 1962-TBD) for the South. A few factors can change that:  

• If Southern culture, fueled by Christian evangelism, is ascending, then the immigrant invasion (foreign and Northern) will add to the Southern census - and conservative votes - after each generation of assimilation.

• If the Liberal Cultural Cleansing, most ruthless in government schools, is gaining and Southerners are weak enough to surrender, then Liberals can win elections.

• If blacks ever get off the Democrat plantation, then the South will explode as a conservative haven, hope and success. Progress is so slow in this emancipation. Yet, the irony is how Southern values – white and black are so close. We are united more by culture than we are divided by race.

As a Republican, I’m glad that Dean and the Democrats think talking slowly means you’re stupid.  As a man actually named "Bubba" all my life, I’m proud to be disdained by any non-Southerner - and non-conservative, non-camily, anti-evangelical Christian - "youse guys".

-- October 6, 2003