League of The South, Part 2
Mr. Mike Tuggle wrote an excellent response to my previous post regarding the League of The South. While I do not agree with his analysis and conclusion, it was well-written and explains the reasoning that I am opposed to. His reply is too important to possibly be missed in the comments section, so I am posting his full reply here, along with my own further comments. Be sure to read his related blog post on Dixienet.org.
You and I clearly agree on the goal for any real and meaningful Southern activism, and that is to preserve our culture and protect our people.
What is threatening them? It’s an out-of-control Federal government, an alien, occupying force that’s assaulting basic Constitutional rights, brainwashing our young people into abject self-hatred, and engineering a demographic revolution — all while robbing us of our tax dollars and undermining our economic security. Those are the things that are destroying our culture, and they all stem from the same rotten source, the District of Corruption.
The Southern people are remarkably resilient, and are capable of restoring their culture to vitality to where it can again become self-sustaining.
But before the wound can begin to heal, we have to remove the foreign body that is harming it. Just like the American secessionists of 1776, and the Confederate leaders of 1860-61, we must energize our people with a clear message that wakes them up to what’s being done to them, and organize them to action.
In other words, we must organize politically. Once we have restored real self-government, and can then work for our values and our goals, rather than for the enrichment of a globalist elite, our culture will self-heal and self-organize around the existing elements that are still alive and fighting.
Your clear-headed analysis tells me you’re someone we need on our side. I hope this response shows our sincerity and commitment to reach out to you and others like you with similar questions.
Perhaps some background about how I came to my conclusion about how the political process fits with this would help: When I was a candidate for political office (a county-wide office in 1992), I truly believed that if I could only get my message out to the voters, they would see that clearly I had the best, most honorable, most logical plan and background for the office. This was my first real taste of real world politics. I had been involved in various political campaigns before, starting as a college student with the Nixon re-election campaign in 1972, but I had never been a part of the strategic decision-making process of a campaign.
I learned a lot during that campaign, and I was able to apply it a few years later when I was on the campaign staff of a first-time challenger for state representative (we won, and we also won the re-election campaign two years later). Several other campaigns (always working for other candidates), holding office in the local Republican organization, and having spent the past 14 years with my own business selling software and data services to candidates, lobbyists, and PACs, has shown me that the voters are anything BUT logical. You have to reach them on an emotional level if you are going to get their attention and their vote. That’s the science behind sound-bites; that’s the science of propaganda. One’s cultural roots are one of the deepest emotional parts of the thought process (only things such as direct family can routinely be classed as being deeper). If you can appeal directly to cultural “hooks”, then you can attach your own political agenda to those hooks - and you then have that vote. A certain German dictator rose to power in the 1930’s by being an absolute master of that strategy.
The key to any political campaign (or advertising campaign or anything else that tries to influence large groups of people) is very much like planting a garden. Success depends on well prepared soil where the seeds will find water and nourishment and a lack of pests. If you sow your seeds on dry, rocky ground, the crop is going to fail. Politicians manage this by finding that good ground (saying whatever people want to hear) rather than taking the time to prepare that good ground and turning it into fertile soil. Continuing the garden analogy, we do not have that luxury - there is simply not a large enough “field” available, so we have to do the long hard work of turning poor soil into good soil. That is the core strategy that I am pursuing.
This is how issues like this are sorted out by gentlemen. Ideas are exchanged in a logical and reasonable manner. Sometimes minds are changed and sometimes they are not. I haven’t changed my mind and I am pretty sure that Mr. Tuggle has not changed his either. While we are both working toward the same goal, we are each taking a different path to get there. I think mine is better, and he thinks his is better. May God make both of us right.
June 27th, 2009 at 10:44 am
“I haven’t changed my mind and I am pretty sure that Mr. Tuggle has not changed his either.”
I do have my stubborn streak.
However, I will admit that your site has piqued my interest. I was delighted to read through your thread on the Southern Gentleman. There’s a different kind of ideal for Southern men, and I think we’d all benefit from understanding and realizing it better. Michael Hill had a great article entitled “Honor, Violence and Civilization” with the significant subtitle, “Things worth dying for.”
Dr. E. O. Wilson of Alabama, who studies social organizations, lauded Southern men who uphold ideals of “altruism and devotion to duty” as they exhibit the “strength ordinary people possess that held civilization together in dangerous times.”
http://www.dixienet.org/rebellion/2008/05/confederate-memorial-day-address-in.html
This is something we could work together to explore and update. What passes for role models for young people these days is a crime and a travesty. We can do much better for our young people, and must.
June 27th, 2009 at 11:35 am
Excellent post, sir - thank you.
I looked for the article, “Honor, Violence and Civilization” but could not find it (although I did find several references to it). It certainly sounds like one of those classic essays that we all need to be reminded of on a regular basis. I will continue searching for it.
I thoroughly enjoyed reading your speech - I would encourage anyone who is following this to click on the link and read it carefully.
“This is something we could work together to explore and update. What passes for role models for young people these days is a crime and a travesty. We can do much better for our young people, and must.”
We can, indeed, learn much from each other. I have posted several links on the Confederate Colonel forum to articles on the League of The South’s web sites, and will be posting more as I find appropriate articles there. Yesterday, I sent an email to an official of a state chapter of the LoS asking for more information on a project so that we could post that information on Confederate Colonel so that more Southern Gentlemen can benefit from it.
In your speech you referred to the book, “Born Fighting”. That trait is both our strength and our downfall. At some point, we have to realize that we are not all going to agree on even the basic strategy. We need to utilize the best points of each other’s work and just agree to disagree on how best to get there. That is why I try to just state my position, clarify it as needed, and let it go at that. Because I see the political aspects of our shared efforts to strengthen The South differently from official League of The South policy does not mean I should verbally attack the League. Ideas should stand or fall on their own merits - not on who can post the strongest attacks. The LoS has a number of fine programs that I wholeheartedly support. After stating my opposition - and more importantly, my reasoning and specific alternatives - it is time to set aside the differences and remember that all true Southerners are on the same team.
Just as the individual states in The Confederacy did not agree on everything, but united in a common cause, we, as descendants of those great men, need to show the same sense of honor and humility and work toward a better, stronger, and more Southern South.
Again, thank you sir.