As you know, this is July 4th weekend when we are supposed to celebrate our US independence from Great Britain and the birth of the American constitutional republic. While millions of Americans will indeed enjoy the holiday - the limited constitutional republic established by America's Founding Fathers "IS NO MORE"! It has sadly been destroyed and replaced with an all powerful Washington empire.

On this day, there are two political events that will celebrate and promote both independence and an end to our dependence on Washington and for the return to the American Dream of our Founding Fathers. Today, on the West coast in California, the Libertarian Party is holding it's 8th national political convention. They will nominate my friend Harry Browne as their presidential candidate and I'll probably vote for him. But let's face it, the Libertarian Party while an educational success has been a total electoral failure.

But I'm here today to announce there is a new political force using new political tools on the horizon. We are here in Charleston, South Carolina to say to Washington and the world. - We have had enough of America's closed two party monopoly system of politics. We have had enough attacks on our history; our culture, our flag and we want our republic back!

We are tired of too much government, too much taxes and the loss of most of our personal, financial and economic liberties. We will use the democratic political process, the constitutional right of state secession and the Internet to win back self-determination, limited government and independence for all the people of Dixie.

It is appropriate that the Southern Party's first convention be held here in the city of Charleston. We all know this grand city is where the first secession convention was held back in 1860. Also this is the place where Lincoln created his illegal Fort Sumter incident to justify war and the invasion against an already independent Southern nation and her civilian population. To me, the spirit of Charleston represents far more than her brave history during the War for Southern Independence. The history of Charleston also closely parallels the history of an occupied Dixie.

This city's civilian population was under siege and terror bombed by Northern warships for a much longer period than either Stalingrad or Leningrad under attack by the Nazi's during World War II. Much of this city laid in ruins from the bombing and great fires that swept Charleston but the city survived. A few years later, an earthquake comparable in size to the Great San Francisco Earthquake again shook the very foundations of Charleston but she survived. As you tour the city, you can still see the earthquake bolts used to correct shifted walls and collapsed foundations. Around ten years ago, monstrous Hurricane Hugo slammed into the city with a direct hit and still she survived and prospered.

This history of surviving trials and adversity is a very similar experience to what our occupied nation, the Confederate States of America has endured since Lincoln's illegal invasion of the Southern States. The Confederacy was defeated and occupied by the overwhelming industrial might of the Washington Empire. Our nation and governmental institutions were occupied and ruled by non-elected military dictators loyal only to Washington.

Remember the payment of all private debts and those by the states and Confederate government used to support "The Rebellion" (their term not mine) were made illegal and unpayable in order to impoverish the vanquished Southern people. It was not until the 1970's that our standard of living again reached the prewar level of the 1800's. We were disenfranchised and not allowed to vote just as unfairly as Southern African Americans were denied the right to vote by the "white only" one party rule of the Southern Democratic Party.

Let us never forget that Washington's unlawful military occupation and reconstruction also created a racial divide that has been used first by the Republican Party (The Party of Lincoln) during reconstruction, later the Democratic Party played the evil race card through the early 1960's and again today the Republicans are using our ethnic origins to divide, conquer and win elections here in Dixie. We are here today to put the politicians of both major parties on notice. You cannot divide and conquer us any longer. Southerners are a people not a race, we are a nation not a mere group of provinces under the thumb of Washington bureaucrats and we will be free!

Here in Charleston, 140 years ago - Lincoln started the war by an illegal occupation of Fort Sumter out in Charleston harbor. This war killed over 600,000 Americans, North & South, East & West, white, black, Native American and recent immigrants. A war of invasion aimed primarily at civilian targets against an independent nation created by the Sovereign States that had the legitimate, constitutional right to withdraw from the United States.

To quote an earlier honorable Lincoln, before corrupted by power and controlled by the corporate special interests - that had to destroy an independent South or lose profits and trade to a low tariff, low tax Confederate States of America.

Any people, anywhere. Being inclined and having the power, have the right to rise up and shake off the existing government, and form a new one that suits them better. This is a most valuable, a most sacred right - a right which we hope and believe is to liberate the world. Nor is this right confined to cases in which the whole people of an existing government may choose to exercise it. Any portion of such people, that can, may revolutionize, and make their own of so much of the territory as they inhabit. --Abraham Lincoln, January 12, 1848 speech in Congress

But as we have learned by reading history or watching today's politicians, Lord Acton was right - Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely, and the result was Lincoln's terrible five year war. Yes and all of this is in the past. As Washington apologists say - You lost the war now get over it.

Ladies and gentlemen, far more was lost in the War Between the States than just the lawful independence of the Confederacy. Many historians trace America's fall from constitutional republic to an aggressive, centralized empire to Lincoln's War. The United States went into the war a decentralized constitutional republic and came out a federal Washington empire that continues until this day to expand and threaten the remaining rights, property and liberty of every American citizen.

Since Lincoln's Fort Sumter incident, presidents have routinely lied to the American public in order to start wars and advance the power of the federal government. It worked at Fort Sumter in 1860, it was used in our treaties with Native Americans as we violated every treaty resulting in numerous Indian wars and conflicts. It was useful in the Hurst newspaper plan to wage war against Spain and annex Cuba and the Philippines. In recent history, the lie was used to fabricate the fake Gulf of Tonkin Resolution to get America into the Vietnam War. Finally, in the last few years it was used against Serbia in our terror bombing of that tiny little country that dared to say "no to Washington".

What has happened to our Founding Fathers American Dream of limited government, a neutral foreign policy and decentralized constitutional republic? It has been replaced by the Washington empire controlled by a closed two party Democratic and Republican Party monopoly. This is why all of us are here today. What can the Southern political movement do to turn defeat into victory?

Let's face facts - Southerners are daily victimized by cruel "redneck jokes" and characterizations by political leaders like Clinton and his hatchet man George Carval as "trailer trash" etc. The press, television and the movies enforce this Washington propaganda stereotype that all the people of the South are ignorant, stupid, prejudiced and second class citizens. This type of malicious attack on our people would be a hate crime against any other group in the United States today but all Southerners are "fair game" in this war of political correctness and total cultural war against everything we in the South hold sacred.

The political establishment wants to destroy our heritage, rewrite our history, bulldoze our monuments, burn and destroy our flag and make illegal the moral and religious values we hold dear. What is the future of a people that cannot celebrate their history, fly their flags or even hold a prayer to our God at a sports event?

See the flag of our nation - The Third National Flag of the Confederacy. I want to ask you why do they hate this sacred Cross of St. Andrew so much?

Did it ever fly over a single New England slave ship? No!

Was it ever flown by soldiers that helped exterminate almost 90% of the native American population? No!

Was it ever carried by the Klan in the largest KKK march in history up in Washington DC during the early 1900's? No!

Has an air force under this flag ever killed a million Vietnamese in carpet bombing during the Vietnam War? No!

Did it ever conduct atomic bombing on an already defeated Japan or firebomb German cities during World War II? No!

Has it led recent invasions and bombing of Serbia, Grenada, Panama, Haiti, or Somalia? No!

Has a government under this flag ever promoted millions of abortions and murders of the innocent unborn? No!

Did it ever end prayer in public schools and now even prohibit student led prayer at sports events? No!

Did this flag ever replace God, Christian morality and the Ten Commandments in our schools with secular ideas and government propaganda dished out in the place of reading, writing and arithmetic? No!

Has any Confederate flag ever taken 50% of your annual income in taxes when Social Security and Medicare are considered and up to 80% of your estate at death? No!

Did our flag ever let Washington SWAT teams to use poison gas outlawed by the Geneva convention for military forces and then burn alive over a hundred innocent mostly women and children in the Waco compound? No!

Finally, have sharpshooters under this flag and on the Washington payroll targeted and murdered an innocent wife and baby in their cross hairs at the government operation at Ruby Ridge? No!

So, I want to ask all of you here today, why does Washington and the big business, financial and political elite's hate this flag so much?

The answer, because our flag is the symbol of resistance to big government, empire and federal power. Washington is the only super power left today with US troops in over 140 nations. Secession and smaller, more efficient governments will be the rule in the new 21st Century. They fear our flag, they fear our movement, they fear the desires, hopes and dreams of America's founding fathers, our Confederate ancestors that dared challenge their empire. Brothers and sisters of Dixie - make no mistake - although small in numbers - they fear us here today!

To quote from the Roman Emperor in the recent movie Gladiator, how many of you saw the movie? Remember when the Romans were trying to subjugate another Germanic tribe that wouldn't take orders. Sounds familiar? The emperor looking down at the battle said, "A people should know when they are conquered". The Confederate Nation (a nation within a nation today) is currently occupied, our heritage and history are under attack but I want to ask each of you here today - are you conquered?

Your reaction to this statement, our flag are the symbols of resistance to Washington that they must destroy. This is why everything Southern and Confederate is under attack by total cultural war from Washington.

This is why most of us are here today at the first Southern Party national convention. Our Confederate founding fathers and America's founding fathers both fought for the same ideals of limited government, state & local sovereignty and low taxes.

Since Roosevelt's fascist "New Deal" during the turbulent 1930's, conservatives and libertarians wanting to hold back the "goose step" march of a growing Washington federal government have failed to stop the advance. We have supported hundreds of lobbying groups and organizations. Both major political parties and numerous third parties all with one result - failure! The same outcome has been taking place regarding our defense of Southern heritage and symbols. We wait for the next attack on our flag, conduct a defense, generally lose the fight and then wait patiently for the next attack - all the while apologizing for our resistance to tyranny.

Southern ladies and gentlemen - what is wrong with this picture? The problem is we have always fought on the defensive against big government and now to defend our Southern heritage. We have played by Washington's rules in a rigged political game that always guarantees our defeat!

Remember this, no war has ever been won by fighting a total defensive strategy. This gives the enemies of liberty the opportunity to pick the field of battle. It is no wonder we lose every major battle to defend liberty and limited government in this country. Also, it is not enough just to advocate the status quo rather we must offer an alternative to the politics of failure that have contributed to defeat after defeat for the last 70 years. The solution to big government is unified political action combined with the legitimate, constitutional tool of the threat of secession.

Today in Columbia, South Carolina the Confederate Flag comes down. This is a defeat and don't you let any other heritage organization attempt to convenience you other wise and is because of this failed strategy I've described earlier. Now many in the press, your politicians and your local Chamber of Commerce will compare this total public relations and marketing failure on our side to Robert E. Lee's defeat at Appomattox. I'm here to tell you today, to hell with a surrender at Appomattox, this is Dixie's "Pearl Harbor" - our wake up call to come together, stand together, organize together and turn the tide against those that would wage total cultural war against Dixie.

If we have learned anything from the South Carolina flag defeat - it is that we can not depend on elected Republican Party representatives in the Congress or at the state and local level to defend either Southern heritage or the limited government principals of America's lost republic. Let's face it, except for a few gallant exceptions, the Republican Party is just half of the American closed two party monopoly - no more and no less. Our nation has been led down the road to more federal power and less liberty by this rigged, closed two party system. While Republican rhetoric might sometimes embrace our goals of limited government - their actions show they are usually part of the problem and certainly not part of the solution.

The solution is political action but certainly we can count on few already elected officials to represent our interests. We have the Constitution Party on the ballot in a few states and we have the Libertarian Party that has been around since the early 1970's. Again, while an expensive educational success for liberty and the free market, it has been an electoral failure.

I believe the political solution is pro South candidates running on the Southern Party ticket when practical and in non party races and on the primary and actual ballot in other parties is the answer. This includes the Republican, Libertarian, Constitution, Reform and yes, maybe even an occasional Democratic Party race or two. The entire Constitution, Southern nationalist and heritage movement must create a broad cadre of candidates and political action that will promote our message at the national level in the media and electorally at the state and local level.

Our candidates should run in all political parties to help promote the message of free markets, a limited federal government and self-determination for Dixie. We can lead the way here in Dixie and show all Americans that the key to a return to the constitutional republic as established by Thomas Jefferson, George Washington and James Madison, our founding fathers will never be found in trusting or supporting the elected officials that have sold their souls and honor to the closed two party monopoly. It will never be found in third parties that never win elections.

We must build our own cultural, heritage, political and media resources that will get our message of hope, liberty, low taxes and limited government out all across the South. We must utilize existing institutions when possible, create new ones when necessary, as is an avowedly Southern oriented political party.

All Southern heritage, history and political organizations including the Sons of Confederate Veterans, the League of the South, the UDC, HPA and others including conservative and libertarian allied organizations must work for a common purpose and toward a common goal. More importantly for us here in Dixie, the different factions in these organizations must put Dixie and the Constitution first and their own agenda's, egos, personal power trips, and individual organizations second or we will surely loose this total cultural war against everything Southern and Confederate that is being waged by the Washington political establishment.

Why do they hate us and our Southern heritage so? How many times have I been asked this question after a speech or in private by the people of Dixie that just want to be left alone to solve our problems, raise our families and worship our God? What great sin in Washington's eyes have we committed to deserve this cultural war against Dixie?

The simple answer is we once resisted the Washington Empire and almost won. No other nation and no other people can say this. It is a historical fact! Washington's weakness today is the constitutional right of secession, the Internet and our dedication to the cause of freedom and liberty for every Southerner regardless of race, creed, color or religion. They know it and I'm speaking here today to make sure you know it.

Make no mistake, this battle will cost money. Those of us in the Southern nationalist movement and even including our conservative and libertarian allies will never be able to raise the money necessary to compete with the powerful special interests that support big government, corporate welfare and their growing control over our life, liberty and property. We simply can't play their rigged political game by their changing rules and hope to win.

To win, we must show that we have more than rhetoric on our side. We must show that we can produce results. Education isn't the answer it's an excuse for inaction. The solution is to show the millions that want to halt Washington, defend our proud Southern heritage and return to the American Dream of our founding fathers that this dream can only be accomplished by threatening the legal, moral and constitutional right of state by state secession in state constitutional conventions. This is the case in the South, in the North and out West.

The threat of secession as a political tool to control an over bearing and out of control central government is the solution to big government and tyranny around the world. It has worked for Quebec, it is working in Scotland, Wales, Northern Italy, the Isle of Man and it will work for Nevis, and British Crown territories like Bermuda, Grand Cayman, the Turks and Caicos Islands. I'm here today to tell you that it will also work to free Americans all over the United States from a too large, too powerful federal government.

The time of large empires, centralized, heavily indebted nation states is over today in the 21st century. Large nation states cannot compete in the 21st century age of information, financial and ultimately political freedom that will come from the Internet and a service based economy. Over 135 years ago, Robert E. Lee saw the future of the Washington empire when he stated, I fear the liberties of our country will be buried in the tomb of a great nation.

That is what has happened to the once great, free republic - the United States of America. Yes, America is still a great nation, a powerful nation but it has also degenerated into an empire. What we have today is a nation of provincial states ruled by a dictatorial, parasitic evil city state called Washington DC. It is no different than Rome in the ancient Roman Empire. What would Washington, Jefferson or 80 years later, John C. Calhoun, Jefferson Davis or Robert E. Lee do if they were in our situation today? What course would they follow? Everyone here knows the answer. Remember the Declaration of Independence. When in the course of human events…..

Let us begin here today, to lead Dixie, the United States and the world back to liberty, smaller and more responsive government and self determination. Who will take the first step and stand up against the Washington Empire? We will, the much maligned, occupied people of a short lived nation that was trampled under, destroyed, occupied and buried just like other peoples and nations that dared resist the Washington empire during the 19th and 20th century.

The South Will Rise Again and now its our turn to show the world that the American Dream of free markets, liberty, limited government and opportunity is not dead. It has just been buried for over 135 years by the Washington Empire. Our day is coming. The rebirth and resurrection of Dixie and the constitutional republic of America's patriot founding fathers will again be reestablished on the earth.

Remember the constitutional right of secession is the ultimate political tool against big government and a closed political monopoly. We don't have to play by their rules and working together with the benefits of the Internet will give us victory. Let us all get started to make this happen in our lifetimes.

How many of you were in the Montgomery, Alabama earlier this year at the League of the South Flag Rally? Raise your hands. Remember the feeling when thousands of Southerners began spontaneously to yell and chant INDEPENDENCE NOW! This is the legacy, God willing - we must leave our children. The choice for every American today is Washington Empire or Independence. There is no middle ground.

Thank you for asking me to speak here today at your convention. God Bless You & May God Save the South and America's Constitution.

Ron Holland

Ron is a member of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, the League of the South and the Southern Party. He is an investment consultant and is always available to speak to heritage organizations and financial conferences on a wide variety of investment, free market, history and political topics. He may be contacted toll free at 1-888-560-8779, by e-mail at Ronholland@compuserve.com or at his extensive web site at www.ronholland.com