"LIBERTY—DIXIE’S GIFT TO AMERICA"

By James Ronald Kennedy

“Can we the people of the South regain our lost freedom?” The answer to this question could change the course of modern history! What mortal being could accurately answer such a question? Millions of people could answer it—they are called Southerners. We the people of the States have the ability to answer this question with a resounding “YES the Southern people can and will, once again, be a free people.” The possibility is certain but only we can alter the probability. The solution to the question of freedom or continued servitude to the Leviathan state i.e. the current Federal government, rest not with our oppressors but with us.

What Happens If We Keep Doing What We Have Always Done?

If we keep doing the same things that we have always done, then we will end up with what we have always had! More meeting-eating-and-retreating is in store for all “conservatives” who pin their hopes on business-as-usual politics and contemporary “conservative” organizations. The past century has been a century of conservative failure. Liberals/socialists have proposed numerous schemes to; socialize our society, destroy our communities and weaken the influence of traditional Christian values in our families. Each attack from the left was followed by great laminations from the right but after the liberal/socialist gained their victory “our side” never counter attacked! For example when the liberal/socialist faction proposed an income tax, conservatives complained bitterly but after the passage of the 16th Amendment the conservative movement conveniently forgot about their prior howls of protest. When the liberal/socialist establishment under FDR first proposed to socialize retirement savings conservatives cried aloud and warned about the loss of reserved rights. But as soon as it passed conservatives quickly began to use promises of increased Social Security payments as a means to garner votes in upcoming elections. Whether it is gun control, bussing, affirmative action, high taxes, run-away government, inflation, fiat currency, prayer and Bible reading in public—regardless of which liberal/socialist victory you can point to our conservative leadership has never fashioned a strategy to regain our lost rights, much less carried through with an overthrow of liberal/socialist encroachments upon our reserved rights. It hasn’t happened and it won’t happen—unless we make it happen!

A Southern Future of Liberty

All great deeds or movements are preceded by a grand and audacious vision. If we can dream it we can do it! Ask the people of the Baltic States who wrung their liberty from the tenacious tentacles of the Soviet Union. Southern activist must be imbued with the bold vision of the day in which we the people of the once Sovereign States reclaim our rights as guaranteed under our original Republic of Republics. Our goal must be to use peaceful, non violent political and social civil disobedience to overthrow the current liberal/socialist political system and replace it with one based upon the principles of liberty and limited government. To accomplish this we must stop playing the liberal/socialist political game, using their rules and refereed by their officials. We must present our enemy with a challenge he has never before dealt with but one that he cannot ignore.

A Liberty Based Society

At meetings all across the South I have heard speakers eloquently bemoaning the evils of our current liberal/socialist society. But how often do we hear speakers offer a solution and a description of what our society would look like once we overthrow the current liberal/socialist order? The story about what will be right in our future presents a much more appealing story than endlessly reiterating what is wrong with our current and past society.

So what will Dixie’s Liberty Based Society look like? How will we describe this future society to our friends and neighbors? We all know what we don’t want but do we have a clear vision of what we want? When asked to choose between the devil we know and the devil we don’t know most people will elect to maintain the status quo! Therefore if we plan to ask the majority of Southerners to vote to overthrow the current liberal/socialist political order we had better first convince them that there is a much better society awaiting us.

The Dimensions of a Liberty Based Society

The first prerequisite for a Liberty Based Society is addressed toward the individual citizen. Our Society is composed of numerous local communities. Local communities are composed of social gatherings of individuals—usually in close knit family groups. To assure maximum liberty individuals must insist upon a high standard of civility for themselves. Self control, self discipline and allegiance to the local community reduces the need for government intervention and reinforces the social standards by which the community is self-regulated.

The second prerequisite for a Liberty Based Society is an adherence to the principle of non interference, especially as it relates to government. In our society “civil rights” are protected equally by prohibiting interference with the free exercise of our rights. But “rights” must be enjoyed equally by all individuals not granted by government to groups and exercised at the expense of those individuals who are not members of the “protected” group. For example, the right of association or non association is protected by forbidding government, mobs or individuals from interfering with the right of individuals to freely choose with whom they prefer to associate.

The third dimension of a Liberty Based Society is a healthy skepticism of government. We endorse our Founding Fathers belief that those who are least governed are the best governed. We acknowledge the fact that government cannot give something to one person without first taking it away from another person. We understand that governmental interventions in our social or economic life always result in detrimental consequences for we the people but (not surprisingly) said governmental interventions always help to assure the re-election of incumbent, business-as-usual politicians and the enrichment of those special interest and business groups that have close connections with said politicians.

The fourth dimension of a Liberty Based Society is the recognition of the inherently immoral nature of socialism in all of its diverse manifestations including contemporary liberalism. Liberalism/socialism with its requirement of high taxation is tantamount to legalized looting of working peoples’ income-property by the political class. In our Liberty Based Society total taxing authority for all government (State, Local and Federal) will be no more that 10% GDP—conservative estimates is that currently direct taxes consume approximately 20.8% of GDP. Add in indirect taxation arising from inflation, unfunded Federal mandates, and the cost of complying with onerous Federal regulations and we now approach 50%!

The Federal government will be limited and controlled by we the people of the Sovereign States. The two primary techniques used to control the Federal government will be a constitutional amendment (States’ Rights Amendment) that specifically acknowledges the right of the Sovereign State to nullify onerous Federal laws, court orders, guidelines, etc or to secede from the authority of the Federal government if necessary to protect our reserved rights. In addition the current capacity of the Federal government to impose indirect taxation on citizens via fiat currency driven inflation will be removed by returning to the principles of sound money i.e. backed and redeemable in gold. Absent deficit spending our elected leaders will be forced to raise taxes to expand government. Any tax increase will be subject to nullification by we the people of the Sovereign State. Every issue that we currently complain about: Gun control, EPA Wetlands Gestapo, EEOC Nazis, public prayer, lack of non arbitrary voting qualifications, reverse discrimination, bussing, high taxes all issues will be subject to the will of we the people of the Sovereign State.

Liberty Lost—Liberty Regained

As a group we (Southern activists) spend an inordinate amount of time “preaching to the choir.” The vast majority of people who are reading this do not need to be convinced that America’s current liberal/socialist political system is an enemy of liberty. We all know that we want something better—whether we have articulated it or not—what we want is a society based on the American tradition of self-reliant liberty. This liberty distinguishes itself from license because the people who compose our society are internally governed by a traditional spiritual faith.

As a group we understand how our rights were gradually eroded, generation after generation, by political and commercial interest that found it politically expedient to enlarge the powers of a central government that they controlled to their advantage but to our detriment. As a group we understand that anti-Federalist like Patrick Henry were right when they warned Americans not to trust their liberty to the watchful care of men who had a vested interest in despoiling us of our liberty. The one thing that we do not have is a strategy to overthrow our current liberal/socialist political masters and replace the society they have foisted upon us with a Liberty Based Society.

Vision—Strategy—Victory

“Where there is no vision the people perish.” Our Liberty Based Society will provide a clear vision of a better future; a future where men, women, and children can excel to the full measure of their God given potential; where government is so light it is almost transparent; where merit, thrift, and hard work are rewarded; and where society is constantly enriched by individuals freely participating in an unhampered free market. Yet, the question remains as to how do we transform this vision currently seen by only a small, select few into a clear vision shared by the majority of Southerners—not to mentioned many of our non-Southern fellow advocates of liberty?

We will transform our current small numbers into the numerical majority of Southerners by a process that will lead to the contesting of the 2008 GOP Presidential nomination across the South and several non-Southern States! Our purpose will be to hang the neo-conservatives and business-as-usual conservative leaders on the horns of a dilemma—endorse our States Rights constitutional amendment in their 2008 platform and nominate our candidate as their Vice Presidential candidate or else we will pull out of their party and run for President on a third party ticket! The third party Presidential campaign will in fact be a plebiscite for Southern Independence. But to get to that point we have five years of hard work ahead of us. Where do we start?

First we announce the vision to the select few (this short article is part of the effort—a full length book by the same title will be published in 2004). A group of one or two thousand activist who are willing to put prior differences and personal ego aside can, with the next four years, create a Southern based movement that will overthrow the current liberal/socialist political system and establish a Liberty Based Society.

Once the core group of activist is identified the next step is to begin the conversion phase in which we introduce our vision to conservatives who are not currently apart of the “Southern movement.” No more “preaching to the choir” we will now be actively engaged in “evangelizing” for the Cause. Over the next four years we will contact a minimum of 10,000 conservative voters in each of our sixteen Southern States. Our aim will be to introduce them to our audacious vision and in the process convert many of them from blindly following failed conservatism into advocates for the establishment of a Liberty Based Society. Prior to the beginning of the 2008 GOP presidential nomination campaign we will have a base of at least 1000 activists (not to mention several thousands of supporters) in each Southern and several non Southern States.

The next step will be to use the GOP presidential nomination campaign as a vehicle to “normalize” the idea of overthrowing the oppressive liberal/socialist political order and replacing it with a Liberty Based Society. By the end of the 2008 Presidential campaign every household in America will be well aware of our vision for a better society. The vision that today is unknown will have become normalized and even politically viable—at least as far as we the people of the South are concerned!

What’s In It For Me?

At first glance the prior question may seem selfish but it is a legitimate question. There are scores of loyal, hard working, Southern activists who would like to participate as a candidate for public office as part of the political effort to establish a Liberty Based Society. The 2008 Presidential campaign is designed to normalize the idea of liberty—it is not designed to win either the nomination or the third party presidential election—but we no longer play by their rules and as such we define wining as any effort that promotes and spreads our vision of a better society to Southerners. Regardless of who we select as our candidate for 2008 he will go into the campaign knowing that he will not win—at least by the traditional definition of “wining.” But he will prepare the way for others to contest State and local elections after 2008 and they will win! The purpose of the 2008 effort (and all those activities necessary in the next four years for a successful political campaign in 2008) will be to set the stage for countless Southern activists working within their States to overthrow the liberal/socialist political order within their respective States.

Our post 2008 strategy will be to capture political control of Southern States and use them to initiate a campaign of non-violent political and social civil disobedience. This campaign will be designed to force the Federal government to continually demonstrate to (1) the people of the South, (2) the people of America, and (3) the people of the world the unconstitutional and oppressive nature of our current liberal/socialist Federal government. Before we are finished we may find out that instead of creating a Liberty Based Society for sixteen Southern States—the vast majority of the States will want to join our Confederacy! And that, after all, is Dixie’s gift to all Americans—an opportunity to regain their lost estate of Liberty.

Deo Vindice

Ronnie Kennedy