That, it seems to me, is an accurate assessment, because the ideology of the Neo-Confederacy is much like many Tea Party members, many Libertarian groups, many "Christian" Dominionist groups and many extreme right-wing Republicans. And many Reaganites fit right in with their ideology.
In fact, under Reaganism, the "Southern Pride Movement" and the Neo-Confederacy has gained immense momentum. In concert with the so-called "Moral Majority" and then the "Christian Coalition" started by Southern televangelists Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson, they were joined by a whole host of other extreme right-wing groups with patriotic and religious sounding names, like James Dobson's "Focus On the Family" and numerous others.
Other groups that are part of the movement are even more blatantly political, such as the Koch brothers' founded Cato Institute and the Heritage Foundation, and they are joined on the "legal" front by The Federalist Society which has been striving to take over America's judicial system since it was founded early during Reagan's first term. That is why during the last 30 years due to the concerted efforts of all the Reaganites and all the other groups that strive to fulfill the same basic right-wing agenda, we have increasingly witnessed exactly Why the Civil War Is Related to the Current Partisan Political Conflict In America.
That title and link is to an article that discusses the history of slavery in America from 1619 in Jamestown to its being made illegal when the Thirteenth Amendment was ratified in December 1965, and it discusses the ongoing struggle by black people for equal rights and equal opportunities ever since. From the Jim Crow era to the Civil Rights movement to the Neo-Racism of the Neo-Confederacy, it points out the realities that Americans need to face.
Obvious Signs Ignored or Dismissed By the Mainstream Commercial Media
The successes of very talented, very beautiful or very athletic black Americans has produced a false sense that black Americans have "made it," and that racism is not really a problem any more -- at least not in the minds of many white people and many black people who have gained fame and fortune.
Moreover, most public figures, TV personalities, politicians and others realize that it is politically correct to not sound racist. Even right-wing extremists who prefer the old Articles of Confederation over the Constitution and are even in favor of seceding from the Union do not publicly state or reveal that they are racist.
However, the fact is that it has become increasingly acceptable to express racist thoughts and ideas in certain circles, and that has become evident in several instances. It has even been demonstrated in a growing number of ways, including the racist statements of Paula Deen, the national TV personality who demonstrates her Southern cooking skills. She was highly criticized for her use of the word "n-word," and for her defiant and shameless statement that she shouldn't have to apologize because "this is who I am." (But of course to save her career she finally issued a tearful apology, and it wasn't long before the networks forgave her and brought her back into the fold of television "celebrities.")
Similarly, Phil Robertson, the patriarch of the "Duck Dynasty," was criticized for his shameless and obviously naive, ignorant, racist statement that "before Civil Rights black people were happy." Robertson, who describes himself as a "Bible-Thumper," blamed Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Civil Rights movement for making black people "uppity" and "dependent," and he essentially claimed that it would have been better if things would have stayed as they were before that black woman Rosa Parks dared to sit in the front of the bus and be a "trouble maker."
Now of course Deen and Robertson should be forgiven if and when they are truly remorseful, contrite and repentant. But they are not. And I mention these things because Deen's and Robertson's attitudes and beliefs are more widespread than most people would think.
In fact, the effort to make the Confederate flag a symbol of pride and patriotism has only grown since 1974 when the Southern rock band Lynyrd Skynyrd made it the symbol of the new Southern Rebel and Southern Pride Movement. And it has gotten to the point where in recent years Tea Party zealots in the South have proudly and defiantly displayed the Confederate flag in demonstrations.
The Effort to Justify Racism as "Biblical"
When Phil Robertson makes racist comments while claiming that he is a "Bible-Believing Christian" he follows a very old Southern tradition that pervaded the culture of the Antebellum South, and that culture was expressed very vehemently by "Christian" preachers in the South prior to the Civil War, and especially leading up to it.
As is pointed out in the Civil War article mentioned above, in May 1861 a group of Southern clergymen seceded their churches from the Union. In December they met in Georgia to adopt an official statement to justify secession from the Union as well as justify slavery. And the most influential clergyman who had drafted the statement then became a champion of the Confederacy and one of the strongest advocates of slavery in the South on the basis of "biblical justification."
Their statement declared that: "the only rule of judgment is the written word of God." And they further declared that: "Slavery has existed under every dispensation of the covenant of grace, in the Church of God." "God sanctions it ... and Moses treats it as an institution to be regulated, not abolished; legitimated and not condemned."
To get around the Golden Rule, they declared that: "no principle is clearer than that a case positively excepted cannot be included under a general rule." And they even claimed that they were "acting as Christ and His apostles have acted before us."
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