I have no winning alternative to offer, but well over a decade ago, I stopped voting for the “lesser of two evils” and cast my vote for Constitution Party candidates. I would ask that you take another look at the post titled, “Lost Causes” when considering what you will do on election day. Is your one vote really going to make a difference in the outcome? No, of course not. Then why would you be willing to give your vote to anyone other than a candidate who you truly believe is the man best qualified to lead the nation in the way you believe it should be lead?

A Southern gentleman does what is RIGHT – not what is expedient. Our ancestors fought for the Lost Cause because it was the right thing to do. We have a noble heritage to uphold. Voting should be a moral decision not a political decision.

Edited to add:
For another perspective on why voting your conscience makes practical, real-world sense, read “Voting Strategy 2004 – When the Lesser of Two Evils is No Longer An Option“. Although this was written for the 2004 election, the principles still apply. In the interest of disclosure, I played a major role in writing this document.

Today, of all days, is when the Confederate flag should be proudly on display. We fly a large 4′ x 6′ Confederate flag (the “standard” flag is 3′ x 5′) year-round at our home. Today is when we will replace the now-faded flag with a new one, and respectfully dispose of the old flag that has served so well. It will be neatly folded, placed on concrete paver, and burned. Cremation or burial are honorable ways of disposing of a flag that is no longer in presentable condition. If burning or burial cannot be done for some reason, another way of disposing of a tattered flag is neatly folding it, wrapping it in something, and then placing it in a trash container. It should never just be tossed in the trash as though it were just a scrap of cloth.

For the past several years, we have hosted a Confederate Independence Day dinner for friends. Unfortunately, we had to call it off for this year due to my wife having surgery on her hand. Next year though, we will resume our annual Confederate Independence Day dinner.

Is the repudiation of the Confederate flag reason enough to reject a candidate for something as important and all-encompassing as the presidency? On its face – no, it is not; while it is important to many of us, given the problems that this nation is facing, the Confederate flag is pretty low on the priority list even for those of us who actively support The South. It is, however, grounds for crossing a candidate off the list if things like honor and dependability and reliability have any meaning. If he is willing to throw the heritage of Southerners under the bus in order to try to win additional support from the Left (and that is extremely doubtful), then what else is he willing to do? Will he stand up for what is right when faced with vocal opposition? If his flip-flop on the Confederate flag is any indication, he will not. That kind of political pandering to Cultural Marxism is clearly a deal-breaker for me as it should be for anyone who considers the character of a man to be more important than the details of his position on a particular issue. Even those who despise the Confederate flag would do well to consider the full ramifications of what Rick Perry has done. Their cause might be next.

If we don't respect our Flag, then how can we expect others to?

This photo is said to be from the 2011 Reunion, South Carolina Division, SCV. Now, I understand that there is some historical precedent for writing on a Confederate flag, and I am certain that this was done from a lack of knowledge and not from malice. That being said, we should know better than to treat our flag this way – but we don’t because we have not been taught.

The Confederate flag is not just a piece of cloth that one would write on to commemorate something. That is just a short step away from graffiti. The Confederate flag is not a cheap table cloth that one would set a Styrofoam coffee cup on.

When I say that this was done not with malice, but from a lack of knowledge, we really have only ourselves to blame. Without a set of rules and guidelines, we cannot expect people to know what is and is not acceptable use of the Confederate flag. There no widely-accepted code of etiquette for the Confederate flag as there is for the united States flag. The key phrase here is “widely-accepted”. There IS such a code, but it is largely unknown.

The Code of Confederate Flag Etiquette was a project of the Confederate Colonel forum in 2008. Confederate Colonel has since changed from a web forum to the current blog format, but at that time, we had a large pool of dedicated Southrons who took this on as a group project. I started by writing the basic document based on several existing flag codes. That was published on the forum, and members added their comments; we finally ended up with something we felt would give our flag the respect it deserves. It has been amended based on suggestions from reenactors, and I am confident that it will continue to be updated as we learn more.

We started with the basic idea that the Confederate flag is not merely an historical relic, but the flag of a nation. Not a nation that used to exist over a century ago and was defeated, but a real nation that, while defeated militarily, never formally surrendered or dissolved as a governmental or (more importantly) a social entity. Some may argue against that point, and we acknowledge that there are reasonable arguments against it; however, we decided that given the choice, we would err on the side of respect for a people and the flag that represents them. The Confederate flag still represents the Southern People.

In the previous post, A Southern Nation, I presented the case that The South is a nation. As such, the symbols of that nation are due the same level of respect as the symbols of any other nation. With that as a basic premise, we began with the regulations concerning the flag of the united States of America. Part of that basic premise includes the idea that the Confederate flag is of equal stature with the flags of other nations when displayed within the borders of the united States. When displayed at the same time and place as the united States flag, the Confederate flag should be treated in the same manner as the flag of other nations such as England or Canada or Australia. I will point out that, in the interest of not causing undue controversy, I never display both at the same time. That is my own personal decision though.

The Code of Confederate Flag Etiquette is a resource that I hope will be used to prevent the unintentional dishonoring of the flag of the Southern people – the flag that our ancestors fought and died under, and the flag that the Southern people live under. It deserves to be treated with respect.

Why do we still dwell in a place 150 years ago, yet still have the ambivalence to exist in modern times? Why can’t we just let it go? Are we still mad that we lost? Do we still dislike people in the North? All are valid questions; the answers are deep-rooted within us and not what you’d expect.

You see, it’s not that we’re still fighting it, it’s that we’re having to fight it again. It’s not even Northerners we’re fighting this time, it’s the liberal left, and their professional victims, who have provoked us this time with one of the most evil propaganda onslaughts of sophistry and hate speech that makes the cold war with the late Soviet Union seem like a lovers quarrel.

Up until the late 1980’s, the most beautiful and popular of all the Confederate flags, the rectangular ‘Southern Cross,’ could be seen in schools and on TV and on businesses and other pop culture institutions and it was all just part of the nostalgia. The civil rights movement had eventually been embraced by enough of America, black and white, throughout the country, and the entire nation began to gel as a well-oiled machine the way America was meant to.

It was right around the turn of the decade into the upstart computer-age of the 1990’s when certain organizations that used to be good, and who were supported by most of the country, suddenly decided to remind black people that whitey still hated them. (a lie, of course)

Why would they do such a thing after all we had accomplished? Why paint this picture that nobody helped minorities at all with their plight? Why focus on only the fraction of a percent of the population that were still racists? I am well aware there is still a disproportionate amount of minorities who are poor, but why stop the momentum we had built as a country?

Any good journalist, politician, businessman or police investigator will tell you the same thing – “When in doubt, follow the money.”

“Circumstantial, but very persuasive evidence” as we call it, finally surfaced about a once shining civil rights group who suffered a crushing blow, not from hate groups or white people or Southerners, but from corruption within. They were hemorrhaging money and needed some way play their victim cards from a fresh angle to spur more support and donations.

The rebel flag must have been quite the tempting target. When attacked with the use of the flag by the remnants of hate groups that once numbered in the millions, and popular Yankee revisionist history we were all taught, the plan worked perfectly and made corrupt people rich.

Their attacks were successful enough that they attracted the rest of the left since the South is primarily a conservative Christian nation within a larger nation, diverse in their faith. By the grace of God we wield a vast amount of political power in these united States, which is one more reason for the lefty’s to despise us.

The people who hate the South, wanting to vilify her are not only the race-baiters, but also the people who hate Christians and natural law and conservatism and traditional gender roles, etc. They are bitter and decrepit creatures, emotionally and psychologically unstable, who are so miserable that they anguish for someone to blame for it, as if that will help them. As if silencing any one who could offer valid counter-arguments against their sophistry would make their nihilistic humanist ideology right.

Telling Southerners that they must live with the label of ‘traitors’ and ‘racists’ unless they put that flag away and curse their honored dead is akin to telling blacks that they must be segregated and disenfranchised again unless they accept the ‘nigger’ label, and admit that they are inferior, or telling Jews to publicly admit they are the ‘spawn of Eve and Satan’ and line up for tattoos or else we will exterminate them with gas. It’s all the same ridiculous and abhorrent hate speech, only this time it’s spewing from the pie holes of the left.

So there you have it in a nutshell.  We are backed into a corner and are compelled to fight for our honor and dignity.

I leave you with a few select quotes from President Jefferson Davis on the subject:

“Truth crushed to the earth is truth still and, like a seed, will rise again.” (This is where we get our little catch phrase, by the way)

“We protest solemnly in the face of mankind, that we desire peace at any sacrifice, save that of honor.”

“The contest is not over, the strife is not ended. It has only entered upon a new and enlarged arena.”

“The principle for which we contend is bound to reassert itself, though it may be at another time and in another form.”

To us, these few lines are eerily prophetic.

Deo Vindice.