A House Divided Against Itself Can Not Stand
. . . Or can it?
The Middlebury Institute and the Second Vermont Republic are Northern secessionist organizations, and they have formed an unlikely alliance with the League of the South to hold a Secessionist Convention in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Now that’s a convention we’d like to attend.
From the report:
They expect to attract supporters from California, Alaska and Hawaii, inviting anyone who wants to dissolve the Union so states can save themselves from an overbearing federal government.
If allowed to go their own way, New Englanders “probably would allow abortion and have gun control,” [League of the South president Michael] Hill said, while Southerners “would probably crack down on illegal immigration harder than it is being now.”
The affiliation of hippy-dippy Vermonters and Southerners is even more unusual considering rumors that the League of the South is a racist organization.
The League of the South says it is not racist, but proudly displays a Confederate Battle Flag on its banner. . . .
“What is remarkable and really astounding about this situation is we see people and institutions who are supposedly on the progressive left rubbing shoulders with bona fide white supremacists,” [director of the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Intelligence Project Mark] Potok said.
Well, that’s pretty damning. How does the Middlebury Institute explain that?
“They call everybody racists,” [Middlebury director Kirpatrick] Sale said. “There are, no doubt, racists in the League of the South, and there are, no doubt, racists everywhere.”
Vermont, we thought we knew you.
October 3rd, 2007 at 10:36 pm
SOS!! SOS!! I live in Red State Tennessee and work as a photojournalist. Things down here are getting worse every day for me and my family
October 4th, 2007 at 1:52 pm
I will be interested to know what becomes of this… Please keep us informed and thanks for the story.
October 5th, 2007 at 5:42 am
Sad to say, some publications are picking up the topic without even looking into what the League of the South is. The organization has its roots in the White Citizens Councils that fought against desegregation. (It still supports a network of all-white private schools in the South, along with fellow traveler the Council of Conservative Citizens.) The goal of the LOS is basically the reestablishment of the Confederacy, complete with subjugation by race, gender and religion. The fact that the Northerners can be so easily misled suggests they have a very weak understanding of the importance of disavowing racism and other forms of inequality in an increasingly diverse United States.
October 5th, 2007 at 11:52 am
You liberals are just so laughable. God save the South, and speed the dissolution of the American empire.
October 10th, 2007 at 12:11 pm
My condolences to Rob King. I’m sure that things are becoming immeasurably worse for him and his family in benighted Tennessee. There isn’t a week goes by here but what photojournalists and their family members are found tarred and feathered and suspended from rails, and “Lensman, Don’t Let the Sun Go Down On You Here” signs are springing up like toadstools in rural towns.
In larger cities, PJs are being driven into photographic ghettos and forced to wear camera-shaped yellow patches on their clothing. The circumstances for picture-takers of any stripe are simply too grim to be contemplated without shuddering.
And yes, of course the League of the South is a racist organization. After all, it says “South” right on the label, and Everybody Knows that the South and everything and everyone associated with it are unapologetically racist. The only exception is the Southern Poverty Law Center, and they escape solely by virtue of the fact that they’re not actually Southern at all. They’re really virtuous Yankees who’ve learned to use the second person plural in a more-or-less convincing manner and thus pass as the sort of in-bred, racist, toothless, homophobic, barefoot, anti-semitic, illiterate, fundamentalist, untermenschen among who they have to exist.
Deo vindice, Ed