Rick Perry: A Reflection of the Neo-Confederacy in America

Republicans are a different breed today comparable to sixty years ago. Recently Texas Governor Rick Perry announced his entry in running for the Presidency of the United States. Perry from where I sit is a reflection of what is wrong with America, in particular the modern Republican Party. In many respects, they are very similar to the democrats of the pre and post-civil war era.

Perry is looked at by his faithful followers as the second coming of Christ, who will purge the sins of a nation under the leadership of Barack Obama. But dressage aside, one must call him for what he is, a throwback yahoo from the era of the confederacy who wants to see his state succeed from the union, and for god measure commemorate that time in history with a license plate honoring the confederate states and army.

Perry is a man of many contradictions. On the one hand he is an uber-globalist who has raised taxes and fees in Texas multiple times over his ten year career to the extent of massively growing the size of government, government spending and government debt in the state. A true plutocrat, he has even attempted to make young women all over Texas to be injected with the Gardasil vaccine. Although this is from a republican perspective, the same things they hate in an Obama, they can live with because the worse side of him which many applauded is his neo confederate political efficacy and locution - similar to Christian conservatives and Tea party stalwarts who continue to announce their desire to “take America back.”

This is the central premise of neo-confederates. In fact many of these patriots believe they would be better off if their states seceded from the Union. Especially in the south, where the intimation of secession is clear from Representative John Fleming to the Governor of Texas Rick Perry.

Perry made national headlines in 2009 when, during a speech to a Tea Party group in Austin, he suggested the rationale for Texas seceding from the union. This assertion is typical of the Governors political positions given his admitted being a member of the “Sons of Confederate Veterans." Evidence is noted in a document, published by the League of the South on its website DixieNet.org. Prior to his entrance into the race for the presidency, Perry rejected more than $500 million in federal stimulus funds and has been highly critical of President Obama's stimulus package.

Now some would say its all talk and rooted in historical fact, given Texas, the nation’s second biggest state was its own nation for 10 years before joining the United States in 1845. Perry is not alone; neo confederates in Georgia have also made similar assertions.

Georgia’s Senate Resolution 632, available for review online on the Georgia General Assembly’s Web site, and describes the circumstances under which the Georgia Senate believes, according to Republicans, that the state might be justified in seceding from the Union. The resolution affirms “states’ rights based on Jeffersonian principles; and for other purposes.

WHEREAS, the Ninth Amendment of the United States Constitution states "[t]he enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people" and the Tenth Amendment states "[t]he powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people."

In Tennessee, Rep. Zach Wamp, a Republican House member running for governor of Tennessee, is making a strong play for the crazy portion of the Volunteer State GOP primary electorate. He told Hotline OnCall that the new healthcare law might spur some states to secede from the Union.

Perry is ridiculous at best and crazy at worse. Last I read advocating the forcible dissolution of the union is a form of treason. Strange huh, given this man described Ben Bernanke, the Federal Reserve Chairman appointed by his fellow Texan and former President George W. Bush as “treasonous.” I guess like many in the GOP, especially in the South, they still hold on to the wish fulfillment of the south rising again.