The old Confederacy was based on the right of individuals in slave-holding states to be able to maintain slavery and the right to profit from the sweat of an enslaved person. In that fight, the GOP fought against the Confederacy and it's characterization of Blacks as sub- human.  The current Confederacy is based upon perceived excesses of government power along with the loss of power to racial minorities.

Pat Buchanan tells a story of standing in the Wade Hampton Hotel in Columbia, South Carolina in 1966 with Richard Nixon. The crowd was whipped into frenzy with talk of patriotism and law and order. Law and order was Nixon's code words for keeping Blacks in their place. Nixon realized that the GOP's future was going to be based in the South.  Nixon was anti-abortion, but could accept the procedure if the offspring were the product of sexual intercourse between a Caucasian and African-American. Lyndon Johnson was correct that the Civil Rights Act signed by a Democratic President had delivered the South to the GOP. Nixon took full advantage.  The Dixiecrats found a willing home in the party of Lincoln. Barry Goldwater managed to chase African-Americans out of the GOP with his strong support of state's rights. Goldwater's state's rights were another code for keeping the Blacks in their places. Integration would only come when the Whites in power felt the need for change enter their hearts.  Martin Luther King Jr. advised against voting for Goldwater because of his stance on state's rights. In his autobiography, King opined that Goldwater himself might not be a racist, but that Goldwater would support racists in the South to gain political capital.

Goldwater is a GOP hero, but is at the core of the ethnic problem that the GOP faces. Goldwater and another GOP hero William F Buckley supported the right of individuals to associate with whomever they pleased. If this meant that Whites refused to serve Blacks in restaurants, so be it. Both men served to give moral support to segregationists.  Goldwater told Georgia activists in 1961, ought to stop chasing the votes of African-Americans and "go hunting where the ducks are." And the ducks in 1964 turned out to be white Democrats in revolt against integration. Goldwater's campaign slogan, "In Your Heart You Know He's Right," was an arrow aimed directly at them. It was a clear allusion to a prejudice that dared not speak its name. The stain on the Republican Party has never been erased. In fact the modern GOP readily embraces the Confederacy of old.

The current GOP's ties to the Confederacy are easy to find. Former GOP Senator Trent Lott is famous for his 2002 statement that segregationist, and father of an unacknowledged Black daughter, Strom Thurmond would have been a great President. Lott did face a great deal of heat for this statement, and lost his GOP leadership position. Regarding Thurmond, there is the delicate question of whether a Black servant in a White Southern household has free will to refuse the advances of a young White male who by default wields significant power over her employment.  Thurman illustrates the double standard applied by the Confederacy.  A Southern White male can take sexual pleasure in Black female. A White Northerner who was involved in a loving relationship in with a Black female is a degenerate.

Getting back to Trent Lott, in 1984 Lott called the Civil War the war of aggression in an interview in the pro-Confederacy Southern Patriot magazine in1984. Lott appeared as a speaker at the Council of Conservative Citizens (CCC) in 1992. The Council is a successor to the Jim Crow era White Citizens Councils. Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour wore a Confederate flag lapel pin during his gubernatorial campaign. Barbour appeared at a CCC BBQ in 2003.

Former GW Bush AG john Ashcroft gave an interview to the Southern Patriot in 1988 in which he praised the magazine for defending Southern patriots like Jefferson Davis, Robert E Lee and Stonewall Jackson. Missouri Governor Matt Blunt ordered the Confederate flag to be flown for a day in 2005 during a Confederate Memorial Service in Higginsville, Mo.

The above examples reflect the stance that modern Confederates in the GOP have taken, just like their hero, Barry Goldwater; these government officials have no problem associating with organizations that have a history of racial bias. Despite this fact, they will be at the forefront condemning Obama for associating with Jeremiah Wright and Sonia Stotomayor for belonging to a Hispanic organization as demonstrating racial bias.

The Confederacy viewed the Union as the aggressor. Modern GOP leadership does little to hide their views that support this Confederate ideology. National government is a monster that has to be controlled.  Government intervention is what caused the Civil War. Government intervention is also why the status of Blacks has improved. Ending slavery and ending Jim Crow was not a primary issue for the Confederacy. Life has become more difficult for Confederates because of the action of the federal government. Only a government that is weak on ethnic issues will maintain the status quo and this government is what the Confederacy prefers.. It is likely that also in the background is a concern that if minorities ever come to power, they would do the same thing to Whites as Whites did to minorities.  

As a defense, Confederates now view minorities as racist and throw the term out repeatedly. Glenn Beck calls Obama a racist. Limbaugh says the President is an angry Black man.  Sonia Sotomayor is also called a racist merely for being Latina. The racism that Conservatives see is racism against oppressed White males. In the wake of the Ricci decision which provided aid and comfort to Confederates who were tired of losing jobs to "unqualified minorities comes a decision by a NY judge that testing used by the NYC Fire Department to hire recruits, had nothing to do with how well the candidates would perform as firefighters. NYC has altered it's testing procedures and currently 38% of recruits passing the new test are minorities. Under the old test only 105 of those who passed were ethnic minorities. The judge noted that other large cities like Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia and Houston had much higher percentages of ethnic minority firefighters using different testing techniques. Ricci may provide a brief respite, but minorities know how to adapt. Confederates will again be in an uproar as they see jobs that they take as their God given right in the hands of minorities

http://www.blacknews.com/news/nyc_unfair_to_minority_firefighter_recruits101.shtml

While believing in limited government, Confederates are willing to play aggressor to any real or imaged threat. Diplomacy is not their strong suit.  Curiously the region that fought against the United States now views itself as being super-patriotic. People who attempt diplomacy first are said to place the country at risk. Southern Confederates, always willing to fight are super-duper patriotic. McCain thrilled the crowds with his "Bomb, Bomb, Bomb...Bomb, Bomb, Iran. Confederates gorged on the message to fight another war. The rest of the country recoiled.

In the 2008 Presidential election, we saw a regional divide. The majority of Southern White voters could not cast a vote for Barack Obama. Some Southerners just could not accept an African-American Commander In Chief. The birthers have found the South to be a region that willingly accepts the belief that Obama was not born in the United States of America, A poll by the Daily Kos noted that while 87% or more of those in the East, Midwest and West believe that Obama was born in the United States, only 47% of Southerners believe that Obama was born in the US. 30% of Southerners are not sure if Obama is US born.

Outgoing GOP Senator George Voinovitch (R-OH) said that the problem with the GOP is that there are too many Jim DeMints (R-SC) and Tim Coburns (R-OK). The problem implied by Voinovich is that Southern Republicans come across as ignorant and disconnected from the rest of the country.  By being seen as too Southern and too ignorant, the GOP becomes marginalized. Demint, by the way, is a staunch supporter of the Confederate flag and felt that the state capitol was an appropriate place for the symbol.

Kathleen Parker agreed with Voinovitch's sentiments in a recent column in the Washington Post.  Joe Scarborough also worries about the regional disconnect between the modern GOP and the non-Southern parts of the country. The recent spectacle of mostly Southern White Republican Senators chastising Sonia Sotomayor repeatedly over her "wise Latina" snippet didn't help the GOP's image with Latino voters. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL) who was denied a federal judgeship because of racially biased comments was allowed to be the GOP's point man in trying to derail Sotomayor's appointment. Rush Limbaugh and Pat Buchanan, who proudly points to Confederates in the Buchanan family, throwing red meat to the GOP base by saying that the GOP doesn't need the Hispanic vote continue the ethnic gulf.

http://townhall.com/columnists/KathleenParker/2009/08/05/them_dang_southerners

Republican Texas Governor Rick Perry raised the ultimate threat of the Confederacy. Perry mentioned Texas's right to secede. Approximately 50% of Texans are ready to bolt if they feel offended by the Obama administration. How patriotic can Confederates be if they are so willing to leave the Union?

The town hall bullies who shut down discourse over heath care and occasionally threaten violence bring to mind South Carolina Representative Preston Brooks who attacked anti-slavery Massachusetts Senator Charles Sumner from behind with a cane on May 22, 1856. Brooks was responding to a verbal lashing that Sumner had delivered to SC Senator Andrew Butler about Butler's support of slavery.  Brooks and Butler were relatives. Brooks could attack Sumner in such a manner because, Sumner was of lower station and therefore not worthy of the challenge to a duel. The double standard for chivalrous behavior demonstrated by Brooks appears to echo in the actions of SC Governor Sanford. Sanford can boldly state that President Clinton should have resigned because of adultery, but that he (Sanford) can remain in office.  Clinton is unworthy. Sanford is like King David.  Sanford and his C Street brethren are not bound by rules for mere mortals. Just as Strom Thurman could take advantage of a Black servant and face no repercussions, Sanford and the C Streeters feel equally privileged. The double standards for moral behavior and civil discourse are glaring. The hypocrisy is lost on the Confederates who follow in the footsteps of their forebears; rules are for the riff-raff not for the chosen.

The White South that the GOP is appealing to is the worst of the past. The GOP can continue its march towards the Confederacy at its own peril. Other White Southerners are faring rather well among African-Americans. President Bill Clinton was recently inducted into Phi Beta Sigma, a national African-American fraternity.  For all the racial temper flares between Obama and the Clintons  during the Democratic Primaries, Bill is back in the fold.

The South, per se, is not the problem (see Florida and North Carolina in the last election). The problem is the lingering aspects of the Confederacy in the South. That mentality has found a home in the former Party of Lincoln. The actions of the Confederates are chasing away moderates, ethnic minorities, and even some Conservatives. 

The Republican Party needs to reclaim its dignity and reject the Confederacy.  Take off the grey suits of the Confederacy and rejoin the Union.