Poythress: GOP talk of secession is childish ‘cowardice’
David Poythress, a Democratic candidate for governor, just posted a video that takes on secession and the Republican party.
The former head of the Georgia National Guard notes that none of the four GOP candidates in favor of nullification have ever donned a military uniform. The word “cowardice” is carefully applied.
Poythress may not have much money, and his video may be distributed only over the Internet. But if I’m any judge of rhetoric, the general may have just put a lid on any further discussion of the subject — by laying the issue out in stark terms that make the political danger of dwelling on it very clear.
Ken Edelstein over at Atlanta Unsheltered puts the matter more cogently at Atlanta Unsheltered:
Republican realists, who want to make sure they hold control of the Governor’s Mansion through 2011’s redistricting, would be wise to worry that secession talk — or something like it — create a Terri Schiavo moment for the Georgia GOP. And, of all places, you have to go to the right-wing blogosphere to actually hear voices intent on pulling the candidates back from the brink.
The Poythress transcript is below. See the video here:
Says Poythress:
“For years, Georgia’s eighth grade students read in their history books about our state’s decision to secede from the United States back in 1861. Today, our students need only look at a daily newspaper to see that talk of secession isn’t just a thing of the past.
“Some Republican candidates for governor are embracing it today. In fact, four of the six Republican candidates recently said they would support Georgia seceding from the United States of America.
“This is outrageous. This is absolutely disgraceful. It’s a slap in the face to every patriotic American, to anyone who has served under the American flag, and to those brave Georgians who have fought and died for our country in Iraq.
“As commander of the Georgia National Guard, I prepared and sent our troops to fight in Iraq and Afghanistan. Before that, I served in Vietnam. And if called, I would do it again, because I love this country and everything it stands for.
“Democracy and freedom aren’t free. They aren’t even cheap. Our American form of government certainly isn’t perfect. But it sure beats the heck out of anything else.
“What really offends me the most is that none of these Republican secession candidates ever wore, for a single day, the uniform of our country, ever carried a weapon, or heard a shot fired in anger. Not one ever put their life on the line to protect our freedoms and liberties.
“But they recklessly call for secession from America. They would, in effect, ban the American flag, and end the Pledge of Allegiance. They would say to the world that when they don’t get their way, they quit.
“That’s just childish. That’s cowardice, not leadership.
“Many of us don’t agree with everything that Washington politicians do, but that doesn’t mean that Georgia should secede from America. Real leadership means we work towards common-sense solutions to protect American values, not just quit our country because we don’t agree with other Americans.
“United we stand, divided we fall. Know this, when I’m governor of Georgia, I won’t cut and run from America. I’ll stand tall and proud under the American flag. Because when I say the Pledge of Allegiance, I mean it.”
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29 comments Add your comment
Natalie
May 20th, 2009
1:59 pm
Oohh, that’s good. I like the “cut and run”
ByteMe
May 20th, 2009
2:00 pm
Hear Hear!!
Don’t know a thing about Polythress, but I hope he doesn’t turn into a “Pander-bear” on other issues the way the Repubs have rolled over for the nutty secessionistas.
retiredds
May 20th, 2009
2:03 pm
David Poythress, I support your view 125%. The cowards you speak about are why many in America are turning away from the Republican Party. I hope I never end up in the same restaurant with one those yellow-bellied fools because I will get up and walk out, but not before letting everyone in the restaurant know that the secessionist baboons are the reason for my leaving as I don’t want my space contaminated by such trash.
Janet
May 20th, 2009
2:09 pm
Finally! Thank you for addressing this issue. I, too, felt it was outrageous and disgraceful. It was an embarassment to the State as a whole.
Jim Callihan
May 20th, 2009
2:16 pm
The late, Great Jerry Clower once told a story about Ol’ Marcell who had treed a coon and fought that rascal for hours. Along comes Jerry and shouts “what can I do?” “Just shoot up amongst us…one of us has got to have some relief!”
America is in great distress and the “nut jobs” are running the asylum.
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x9cem9_americas-message-to-her-people
“Got to have some relief…”
DW
May 20th, 2009
2:16 pm
Wow…. I’m VERY impressed! The flag and Pledge of Allegiance mentions really did it for me.
ladyliberty
May 20th, 2009
2:36 pm
Interesting video and transcript. Too bad it’s so PHONY and dishonest.
He deliberately twists constitutionalism and equates nullification of unconstitutional restrictions/mandates/expenditures with secession.
The GA candidates have not called for secession. They have called for restoration of the 10th amendment of the bill of rights. I welcome the return to the core bill of rights.
Perimeter Progressive
May 20th, 2009
2:40 pm
right on! this is what we’ve been saying for a long time.
Uncle Jessie
May 20th, 2009
2:45 pm
As a veteran myself I suggest you read the constitution and pay particular attention to the 10th amendment. There is a reason related to it for Jefferson Davis, Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson being carved onto the side of Stone Mountain. Some folks say the constitution is jest a piece of paper, what does you say?
Chris Broe
May 20th, 2009
2:51 pm
Georgia did secede once………………once!
Keith
May 20th, 2009
3:20 pm
It’s hilarious to watch the looney left once again distort and twist and try to make nothing into something. What the right is satying is “America, adhere to the 10th Amendment!” Washington has strayed so far from what the founders intended it’s going to take a swift jerk of the reins to correct things.
Rob
May 20th, 2009
3:54 pm
I count… 5, at least 6 straw man arguments in that statement. Nice.
BPJ
May 20th, 2009
4:05 pm
I’m sure the swiftboat slime will try to defame this fine American!
As for the resolution that the 4 GOPers said they would support, read it. It’s not just some generalized mumbling about the 10th Amendment; it actually lays out several conditions under which the Union would be considered dissolved, at least by the my-party-lost-an-election-so-I’m-gonna-pick-up-my-ball-and-go-home crowd.
BPJ
May 20th, 2009
4:13 pm
Well, I count 5 or 6 straw candidates running for the Republican nomination so far.
Revisionist History
May 20th, 2009
6:02 pm
All of arguments based on the 10th amendment are intellectually bankrupt. I am surprised you all had the mental capacity to type your responses. The issue of nullification was settled in 1832. States are not allowed to defy the federal government. If you all want to believe otherwise that fine, but no reasonable Constitutional scholar would agree with you.
The right of succession from the Union was settled in 1865, by the most costly war in our nations history.
If you believe in succession or nullification I suggest you leave this country and not let the door hit you on the way out. Since all of the developed world is socialist in your eyes I am not sure where you all would go.
The REAL GodHatesTrash, Superstar
May 20th, 2009
6:22 pm
Lincoln was wrong. It would be great for the rest of the country if you hillbilly trash would just leave.
Nobody gonna stop you this time.
Cindy Sue Causey
May 21st, 2009
1:43 am
Sorry, can’t get past the point that GOP is being slammed for doing all in their power to save a Life, Terri’s.. Guess that’s not to be unexpected, though, from an entity that is encouraging eugenics in the guise of health care rationing……….
Warmest from Talking Rock..
Will Jones - Atlanta
May 21st, 2009
5:42 am
Poythress better step up to the plate and take a chop at something that matters beyond the local loons of the Cote Droit. Obama got elected because he let it be known in “Audacity of Hope” that his genuinely presidential demeanor and intellect embrace the reality shared by the voiceless and outraged: Bush and Cheney committed 9/11.
In a nation of sovereign individuals it is necessary that we “format” The Franchise so that ALL recognize Truth by The Creed: the “laser beam” shot across History and the globe which defines the miracle of America.
Tory or Whig? The conflict of the ages was writ clear in Our Founding, and has never changed.
Are you for the Few, or the Many?
E Pluribus Unum – Are we, by the Infinite Power which rules all destinies in the Universe, a Righteous Nation, in Truth and Justice, or are we anything else? There is only one America, one Nation, One “Divine Providence.”
At a time when telegraphy permitted those far away to communicate and initiate action, Roman Catholics from St. Paul’s Roman Catholic church on Capitol Hill plotted to assassinate President Lincoln six days after Lee surrendered at Appomattox, and killed him when it became clear by his orders to Grant that his would be a conciliatory and gentle re-Union, as opposed to the papist carpetbagged “Reconstruction” that followed.
Twin Fasces, the symbol of the greatest evil in the world – the Anti-Christ as identified by Our Founder – were then nailed to the front wall of the House of Representatives by the militarily victorious German, Irish, and Italian Roman Catholic veterans who had swept into office.
The National Guard, historically the refuge of politically connected cowards “playing Army,” or in David Poythress’ case “Air Force lawyer,” on weekends and at summer camp – hence a leadership cadre tempered by their dodging Vietnam with Bush willing to go along with his 9/11 false war – also adopted Fasces in their symbolism.
Max Cleland is the only 9/11 Commission who had the courage and integrity to refuse to condone or legitimize evil. All Georgians can read the book he had been issued beforehand which proves the treason every candidate for public office should at least, prudentially, reference…as did Obama…to signify awareness of the One Reality We, the People, share with Divine Providence. All is revealed. The Truth is known and knowable.
Do Georgians want “more of the same” from those who have prospered serving evil?
Max Cleland doesn’t want to be Governor of Georgia. We must make him so to bring the honor his life represents to us and to our children. He will lead in righteousness. His needs are fulfilled, but his voice must be heard…for our posterity’s sake.
Who will “stand in the gate” for America? Greencarders seeking citizenship willing to obey the orders of the co-opted and the treasonous?
Those orders must be issued by those elected to holy office whose lives prove their integrity.
Max Cleland’s quitting the cover-up for Bush’s and Cheney’s treason, easily proven as the treason it was by downloading “The New Pearl Harbor,” or reading new, even more articulately stated proofs, is the sign the People of Georgia need to know he is a leader on the right side of history who is living by The Creed.
Annuit Coeptis – Those who tolerate evil, continually dwelling in unrighteousness, are not endeavoring within the blessings of Divine Providence. Many of John Wilkes Booth’s accomplices were arrested, tried and executed, but Rome won anyway, for a time, as demonstrated by their “Fifth Column’s” continued success through Rockefeller/Bush’s creation of Big Oil through unredressed murder and arson, Organized Crime’s takeover of Big Media during the Circulation Wars a hundred years ago, and the establishment of the unconstitutional Federal Reserve Bank/Internal Revenue scheme to “filch wealth” from the People through such policies as are now being forced upon President Obama by the Roman Anti-Christ cancer yet to be extirpated in America.
John Kennedy got rid of the patently corrupt fiat money for private profit Fed scam, fraudulently enacted by representatives of the Vatican’s bankers in America, and ordered us out of Rome’s slave plantation in Indochina. Rome’s operatives in the Knight of Malta-led CIA killed him for it the same way Roman Catholics killed Lincoln.
What has David Poythress done to remove the Roman Anti-Christ from America?
The Rights and Liberties which define the epitome of life on this planet, enshrined in Our Creed and Constitution, are given to us by G-d’s grace through Our Whig Founders’ anointing. Dr. King and Kennedy are the “two martyrs lying unburied in the street.” Vengeance is Mine, saith the Lord, I will repay.
Booth and ex-nun Surratt got theirs. When will Bush and Cheney hang? When will their sectarian faction of traitors be stoppered? When will fascist plutocracy’s grip on the People’s sovereignty be severed?
Illegal immigration, as invasion for conquest, is a published, openly known stratagem for an “end game” for Rome in Our Country, by the same Fifth Column George Bush identified as his “base,” the Roman Catholic “elite.” What has Lawyer Poythress had to say about it?
Max Cleland has lived a life we can teach our children to admire and follow. Why else make elect those in authority over us?
Evil must be punished for America to be free. The Whole Truth and nothing but The Truth is all every true American needs to decide who to elect.
G-d has permitted that Bush’s and Cheney’s treason be revealed to all willing to know. Do we in Georgia want to be led by hypocrites, cowards, and treason’s fellow-travelers?
Let’s elevate Max Cleland again, not because his ego or faction demands it, but because it will make us look good to G-d…and isn’t that what every credal, fundamental American should want?
Death for Treason
Will Jones - Atlanta
May 21st, 2009
8:12 am
I need to find my assistant Bruce and have a one on one.
Will Jones - Atlanta
May 21st, 2009
8:58 am
“Name-thief” You are pathetic…and accursed.
At Last a Rational Candidate
May 21st, 2009
9:24 am
I’m voting for David Poythress. Everything I’ve read from/about him reflects a reasonable and honorable man. There are so many pols who owe their allegiance only to PACS and campaign money “bundler,” and who will say and do anything to get elected. Georgia desperately needs someone with maturity, the courage of his convictions and the stregth of character to oppose the outrageous pandering and craziness of so many of these Republican candidates.
Larry
May 21st, 2009
10:15 am
Hey Poythress, all your flag waving is way out of place in a country that has done a 180 and turned away from everything we have fought for for centuries. I do believe in personal liberty; and, if large numbers of my countrymen want to continue down Obama’s, Pelosi’s, Reid’s, etc. path to fascism and destruction, that’s fine. Just don’t ask me to go down with them. Secession by sovereign states is an answer; not necessarily the first or best one, but we have to consider it. 2/503 173Abn 67-71.
Jim Callihan
May 21st, 2009
10:22 am
From the “Revisionist” (speller) who imposes them-self on equal base with Constitutional “scholars”:
“The right of succession from the Union was settled in 1865, by the most costly war in our nation(’)s history.”
Maybe the spelling “error” was no error at all, but more of a Freudian slip? After all, no other financial entity from “that day” forward has succeeded like the federal government (aka “Union”) of the United States. I’m not even sure the Vatican wields so much global power and wealth (especially when you include the Federal Reservist global network).
But what about “we the people”? Loss of liberty? Subjects of the worlds greatest heist (still on-going…initiated by Gramm/Clinton, set in motion by Bush II and finalized by dual Brit Citizen Soetoro)?
Wake up America – this is not a “party issue” because we ain’t invited to the party we’ve paid for…and will continue to pay for over several generations.
A humorist said long ago (Will Rogers, not sure?):
“Government is a goldshaft – they get the gold, we get the shaft.”
And it never changes – no matter which “party” is in power; until the people rise up in genuine revolution…
DaveDawg
May 21st, 2009
11:32 am
Well said. Republicans are spoiled brats. I like this Poythress fellow.
Will Jones - Atlanta
May 21st, 2009
11:43 am
Unless we build on Obama’s election and pursue the internal treason which committed 9/11, et al, we are “stopgapping” and whistling past the graveyard of civilizations.
Cleland has proved himself a full man and more by quitting the 9/11 Commission coverup, with millions of others of us. If the shirkers and dodgers are permitted to continue we’ll lose the momentum we’ve just gained.
Download a free copy of “The New Pearl Harbor,” by a scholar of proven integrity, if you’ve not been given over to a reprobate mind incapable of hearing the truth.
BigJohn
May 22nd, 2009
12:01 pm
Way to go David Poythress! Those who would harm the state of Georgia and the country for their own political gain need to be called out!
I’m sure they have never had to comfort the family of a soldier who died protecting their freedom.
…from one of your Republican supporters!
Will Jones - Atlanta
May 22nd, 2009
7:12 pm
None of the real Will Jones’ of Atlanta post here. This is just the place where a homophobic bigot rants unfettered.
David Stewart
May 27th, 2009
12:40 pm
As an Gulf war vet I would love to see Georgia try and leave the Union I would dawn my old uniform so fast and welcome the opportunity to execute as many of you traitors as we came across. Woman and men it wouldn’t matter too me and BTW.
Hey, LadyLiberty YOU ARE wrong Constitutionalism means:
Constitutionalism is descriptive of a complicated concept, deeply imbedded in historical experience, which subjects the officials who exercise governmental powers to the limitations of a higher law. Constitutionalism proclaims the desirability of the rule of law as opposed to rule by the arbitrary judgment or mere fiat of public officials…. Throughout the literature dealing with modern public law and the foundations of statecraft the central element of the concept of constitutionalism is that in political society government officials are not free to do anything they please in any manner they choose; they are bound to observe both the limitations on power and the procedures which are set out in the supreme, constitutional law of the community. It may therefore be said that the touchstone of constitutionalism is the concept of limited government under a higher law.”[
Ykmdatdn
June 22nd, 2009
3:29 pm
q8Ionw comment3 ,