The South Will Rise Again
April 15, 2010 at 8:55 pm 9 comments
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Though the War Between the States, otherwise known as the Civil War, has been over for close to 150 years, a remnant of the Confederate ideology still thrives, particularly in the South. Nostalgic for a past gone with the wind, the South continues to challenge the federal government on issues pertaining to civil rights as it relates to States’ rights and the Tenth Amendment. Emancipation, integration, civil and voting rights, Medicare, and health care reform are benchmark legislation enacted by Congress that not only defines a civilization, but emphasized the federal government’s longstanding constitutional power to impose civil standards on the States. Nevertheless, federal sovereignty remains a point of conflict for those who subscribe to the Confederate ideology; the age-old challenge on grounds of a violation of the Tenth Amendment has not changed since mid 1800s.
Historically the Confederate ideology has crippled the nation’s ability to move forward, to progress as any civilization would, regardless of its constitutionality; nonetheless this is a nation of law and precedent, therefore public policy must fall inline with the Constitution and the intent of the Framers. Why law and precedent: because the Constitution is the supreme law of the land and the Supreme Court rules on the intent of Constitution as the Framers understood it to mean. Thus, the matter must be settled with respect to the Constitution, Courts, and the Framers’ intent.
Ever since the beginning of the health care debate, which resulted in law, tensions and grumblings surrounding the powers of the federal government have been brewing. Already stoked from an electoral walloping Confederates probably would not have liked in 2006 and 2008, but a walloping Confederates should be very familiar with, the political atmosphere has turned for the worse. Vitriol and talks of secession now clouds the debate. The War Between the States has begun once again, and again the first shot was fired from South Carolina.
You lie!
The United States Federal Government vs. The Southern States et al
The bulk of the disagreement with the federal government’s actions lies with the Tenth Amendment and whether the federal government has the constitutional right to regulate commerce, private property, or regulate anything that is not explicitly defined in the constitution such as education.
To answer that question a close inspection of the Framers and their actions on this topic must be scrutinized, keeping in mind that the original constitution included the Tenth Amendment which limited the role of the federal government. Therefore, any action or actions by the Framers that directly or indirectly acts on this question must be heeded.
Granted the Framers of the original constitution were not around to opine the recent health care reform law, Medicare, or integration, however, they were alive during times of slavery. In slavery times, persons who were categorized as a slave, usually people of African descent, where considered property, no different than livestock. Furthermore, the laws governing slavery also indirectly validated the proprietorial rights of slave-owners, some more than others.
Now concerning the Tenth Amendment and the 39 Framers’ perspective on the role of the federal government, 23 out of the 39 voted directly on the issue of slavery, its limitation or its abolishment, the most famous legislation being the Ordinance of 1787. Furthermore, 21 out of the 23 voted in the affirmative to prohibit slavery in some form or fashion, whether it was for control, regulation, or abolishment. In addition to the 23 who voted on the issue of slavery, out of the remaining 16 Framers, Jefferson, Hamilton, Paine, Washington and Franklin advocated for the prohibition of slavery – Washington signing the legislation into law that prohibited/regulated slavery in the states. Therefore, being the authors of the Constitution including the Tenth Amendment, had these Framers believed that the federal government or any line that divided the powers of the federal from local [state] government violated the constitution, they would not allowed these actions or laws [Acts] to pass.
It is clear based on history that Congress does have the right to regulate private property and its commerce [commerce in general], but history also indirectly affirms the federal government’s right to legislate on issues related to the freedom and happiness of all its people.
The Confederate ideology is the virus that denies this part of United States history. The Confederate ideology is not akin to a particular party, it is party to any political party that embraces that element of the South. Upon inspection of history, whether democrat or republican, anytime the leadership of any particular party is rooted in the South, senate majority leaders or House Speaker, that party holds the mantle of the Confederacy. This explains the Democrats, rather Dixiecrats, who were against civil rights and later migrated into the Republican Party, the most influential being Thurmond and Helms; and it explains why the Republican Party of today resembles the likes of the Confederacy.
For more information, including the names of all the Framers who voted directly on the regulation of slavery and a much, much better presentation that I am able to present, please visit http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/292556-1&start=26 or go to cspan.org click video library and search Lincoln’s Right Makes Might Speech by the Cooper Union and the New York State Archives Partnership Trust on February 23, 2010.
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Related Posts:
Palin Must Distance herself from the Tea Party http://wendygdphillips.wordpress.com/2010/04/10/palin-must-distance-herself-from-tea-party-%E2%80%93-or-else/
Republican Manifesto: http://keironjackman.wordpress.com/2010/02/02/the-republican-manifesto-2010-2012-beyond/
Republicans Rewrite Tea Party History http://keironjackman.wordpress.com/2010/01/07/republicans-rewrite-tea-party-history/
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1.
waltinseattle | April 16, 2010 at 8:46 pm
GHetting a rise out of the south:
Once bit, no… twice bit- the war, reconstruction….It is no wonder the south is still shy. We never got around to the psychological issues of the was and aftermath. We are no where near past Nam, not even up to speed with the “War of Northern Agression.” Soldier’s Disease, which was my introduction to social amnesia in action, is a great example. I can say it was a factor in family dynamics even as my family moved from the hills and went North to Jobs in the earlier half of the last century.
So I can easily believe they have a rosy, a fake, and a nostalgic history , a false memory syndrome to be very precise. So do Yankees? They wrote the history books that exonerated them, that for generations dismissed, by inattention, all the faults they committed, the ones justified by winning and “preserving” the union.
Where’s my dog, you should ask. My dog is standing by me and trying to avoid this free for all scrap in main street. I am a Northern intellectual sympathizer of the Tea Movement, some degree of a supporter and participant in that movement. Not a southern clansperson, in either possible meaning. A states righter in the mold of the Sagebrush revolution, if anyone remembers them. An environmentalist, though I like Lord Monckton much more than Gore.
So my dog, he ignores the left or right extremists and knows all actions draw a diverse audience and , if left open, also draw some unsavory participants. Some have bad forms of rabies, its true. Some from every background have rabies. I’m tired of “who would have thought, right here in River City……whatever sin only “they” could possibly dream up” has shown it’s head.
each day,Pogo is truer than ever- “and the enemy is- us.!”
I was reading in a history of whiskey book, and the story was the night beforer the end of the Civil War, and both sides had joined in conviviality to settle the terms to be signed next day at the ceremony. A Southern Gen, well lubed, was holding forth on international law—yes, the courts of Euriopeans!!!!—as to examples and direction. No one thought it worth exclaiming on in the sense that they would today. No one condemned him. Comments were about how up to date and lucid were the arguments…..
back when we were world citizens not reactionary isolationists? 150 years of disproving the concept of progress is my take.
2.
Pat Hoekstra | April 18, 2010 at 2:41 pm
Why would a mature rational adult keep dogs in their pack that have rabies? It’s a deadly catagion that is completely preventable.
I advise you to distance yourself from the rabid memebers of the Tea Party movement. Why in the world would you tolerate them anyway? What do they bring to the Party except rabid hatred?
The “South” will never rise agian. Liberals, Progressives and other Union Patriots will defeat their defeated army again, and they will be defeated as many times as its takes to make the Hostiles act with civility and reason. Lincoln stated it correctly, “Right Makes Might.”
I have a friend in Mississippi, an Evangelical who defends her right to be uneducated and wishes that the rest of the country would leave MS alone so that they can be as ignorant as they want to be. She has even said that ignorance is bliss.
To me, every kid has a right to a decent education, one which is fact-based, not faith-based. I don’t care whose kid it is, they deserve a chance to compete with others schooled by reason, logic and our collective body of knowledge.
The concept of states rights is as out-dated as buggy whips. We are One Nation, Indivisible.
3.
Sir James | April 19, 2010 at 9:48 pm
Wow Pat.
Very interesting and some what a very disturbing post for a supporter of the constitution and defender of our God given rights to read.
Most of us people of the south are a very morale and constitutionally minded people.
Ignorant and Free will never be. Remember that Pat, for the path you are on ( what you support, etc ) will lead to your slavery and to the slavery of others.
Get your facts straight, not every thing is as it seems, there is more to what meets the eye than what you and others are seeing or from what you have learned in school. Waltinseattle I think has it right. Very well siad to you sir. your post was awesome!!!
From what I’ve read in your post Pat you are being the hostile one towards others who have a difference of oppion. Why such hatred? Logically why would you seperate yourself from a Tea Party person? Would’nt you want to know where they stand and talk rationally with them and by doing so come to some sort of understanding?
Out of curiousity have you read the cummunist manifesto by Karl Marx? What exactly do you support?
Just trying to have a friendly conversation with you.
Thanks for your time.
Sincerely and respectly,
Sir James
4.
Liz Kaplan | April 19, 2010 at 12:30 pm
I enjoyed this.
http://themodernmajorgeneral.com/2010/04/18/maybe-they-just-want-to-belong-confederate-history-month-and-the-tea-party/
5.
keiron Jackman | April 19, 2010 at 8:17 pm
Thanks Liz, your name is familiar to me and I was wondering if you ever attended UF
6.
Elizabeth Kaplan | April 20, 2010 at 2:02 pm
No, I went to Brown. The weather in Florida would have been way too pleasant…
7.
Wilhelmina Banaszek | April 25, 2010 at 8:13 pm
Generally I do not post on blogs, but I would like to say that this post really forced me to do so, Excellent post!
8.
John | May 8, 2010 at 2:47 pm
The south will rise again.
The confederate rednecks will take the rest of puny america hostage until obama signs power over to the confederates.
9.
Chandler | June 5, 2010 at 10:55 pm
Pat your comment is crazy. You say that your liberal northern patriots will defeat the south and force us to act with “civility and reason”. Meaning that you would force your ideals upon us making your ideal word not a democracy. We have the right to believe what we will.
Also you say that every child has a right to an education based on facts not on faith, but most of the text books that are used typically express an opinion not a fact. You so glorious paint President Lincoln who only created the emancipation proclamation to give yall yanks something to fight for; he did not do it becasue it was the right thing to do. Also there are several quotes from Lincoln of him expressing his believe that blacks will never be given the right to vote. Yet these quotes will never be found in one of your textbooks teaching people the facts.