-Caveat Lector-
> SOUTH WANTS DEVOLUTION FROM US
>
>
> AS A BAND of conspirators, they were ultra-respectable, just a
> couple of hundred college lecturers, schoolteachers and small
> businessmen brought together by a common grievance and a common
> hope. But their gathering this weekend in the hill country of
> North Carolina has the potential to change the face of America.
>
> In signing into being the Southern Party, they have embarked on
> the first organised political challenge to the sway of the North
> since the surrender of the Confederate general Robert E Lee in
> 1865.
>
> And while they recognise that their ultimate aim - independence
> for the South by peaceful, constitutional means - could take
> generations or never happen at all, they cite the recent success
> of devolutionary movements elsewhere, including in Britain, as a
> reason they cannot just be dismissed as a crowd of irresponsible
> nostalgics.
>
> The scene in the select resort village of Flat Rock was the
> epitome of the southern idyll: a vast weathered gazebo on the
> lush lawn of a glistening white southern mansion; the heat of the
> summer sun fanned by a cooling breeze.
>
> A few of the men wore grey Confederate uniforms, a few of the
> women wore crinolines, but the new political activists who had
> paid $50 (pounds 33) each for the privilege of assisting at the
> birth of "their" party mostly wore the costumes of today - summer
> suits and dresses.
>
> As befitted a southern gathering, proceedings opened and closed
> with prayers - "Lord, show us the direction we need to go"- but
> the climax was the ceremonial presentation of the flags of 14
> southern states and the signing of the "Asheville Declaration",
> named after the nearby city. It was endorsed by volleys of musket
> fire across the valley and loud "hurrahs".
>
> The leading light of the new party is George Kalas, the son of a
> Greek immigrant father and a mother of staunch Confederate stock,
> and just 37.
>
> For him, and the party's three other founding fathers, the time
> is right for the South to assert itself.
>
> Registered in Houston, Texas, the party is already organising in
> all 18 southern states, and so much advance interest was shown in
> this weekend's founding rally that people had to be turned away.
> To the devoted southerners, their beloved and maligned South is
> resurgent. Southerners hold many of the most important offices of
> state. Interest in Confederate history is at record levels,
> judging by a slew of films, the popularity of visits to
> battlefield sites and amateur participation in Civil War re-
> enactments. Last year's anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg
> inspired more than 18,000 people to wear period costume to fight
> it all over again.
>
> A large part of the rationale for the new party is economic
> self-confidence. "The South is becoming strong again. We're
> becoming a financial giant again, and that's why we're here,"
> Jerry Baxley, the party's vice-chairman, told the assembled
> throng in his opening speech.
>
> What many see as the moral bankruptcy of the Washington "regime"
> is another powerful ingredient.
>
> The most compelling reason cited by the party's founders for
> their timing, though, is what they see as the stunning success of
> nationalist movements in Canada and Britain. "Thirty years ago
> they [the political Establishment] were laughing at the
> Quebecois. Ten years ago they were laughing at the population of
> Wales and Scotland for advocating their own parliaments. They're
> not laughing any more," said one enthusiast.
>
> Mr Kalsa said: "We couldn't have done this 10 years ago.There
> would have been no media interest." And he credited the Internet
> with "making it a more level playing field" for non-establishment
> groups.
>
> A new South could be seen as unrealistic, especially in view of
> the fervent opposition of black Americans to anything that smacks
> of the traditional Confederacy.
>
> But while the new party's platform builds on the complex of
> southern sympathies and resentments, it makes a determined effort
> to strike out the racism.
>
> When Mr Kalas enumerated its guiding principles - for: devolution
> and moral leadership from politicians; against: abortion, gun
> controls and federal taxes - his denunciation of racism drew a
> volume of applause second only to his rejection of the tax
> system.
>
> "There is no room for those who harbour racial malice towards
> their fellow southerners," he said. "The politics of race have
> reached a dead end." The Southern Party, he said, "is an idea
> that all southerners should be proud to embrace".
>
> There remains, however, a distinct ambiguity, enshrined in the
> party's careful choice of flag.
>
> The "third" Confederate flag belongs to the late period of the
> Civil War when black volunteers were taken into Confederate ranks
> - showing, according to Mr Kalas and the others, that an end to
> slavery was an accepted precondition for the survival of the
> Confederacy.
>
> This is not the standard Confederate flag. It is red and white
> and banishes the blue starred cross to the upper left-hand
> corner. But the cross is still there.
>
> And adapting the old to sit well with the new is not easy. After
> the last prayer, a voice rang out: "Hey, Ron! Put `Dixie' on."
> And a scratchy recording of the song of the Confederacy, largely
> proscribed at public gatherings for its racist overtones, rang
> out across the lawns.
>
> At first hesitantly, then taking heart, the Southern Party's
> initiates began to sing, waving their "third Confederate" flags
> aloft in time.
>From the Independent (UK)
A<>E<>R
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