As reported by Crawfish, a resource for information on the Southern Neo-Confederate Movement.

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Trent Lott

Trent Lott, U.S. Senator from Mississippi, is a leading figure in the Neo-Confederate movement. He has had a regular column for several years in the Citizen Informer, a publication of the Council of Conservative Citizens, a neo-Confederate and national organization which is active in defending flags across the south and promoting Confederate activities. He is the spokesperson in the Sons of Confederate Veterans recruiting video and a member.

He was interviewed in the Southern Partisan, [pp. 44, 4th Quarter 1984]. The interviewer asked, "At the Convention of the Sons of Confederate Veterans in Biloxi, Mississippi you made the statement that 'the spirit of Jefferson Davis lives in the 1984 Republican Platform.' What did you mean by that?" Trent Lott responded.

"I think that a lot of the fundamental principles that Jefferson Davis believed in are very important to people across the country, and they apply to the Republican Party. After the War between the States, a lot of Southerners identified with the Democrat Party because of the radical Republicans we had at that time, particularly in the Senate. The South was wedded to that party for years and years and years. But we have seen the Republican Party become more conservative and more oriented toward the traditional family values, the religious values that we hold dear in the South. And the Democratic party is going in the other direction. As a result, more and more of The South's sons, Jefferson Davis' descendants, direct or indirect, are becoming involved with the Republican party. The platform we had in Dallas, the 1984 Republican platform, all the ideas we supported there – from tax policy, to foreign policy; from individual rights, to neighborhood security – are things that Jefferson Davis and his people believed in."

The rest of the article details how Southerners like himself are becoming more influential in the Republican party and his opposition to civil rights legislation for it being unfair to the south and the Martin Luther King holiday.

Phil Gramm, U.S. Senator, Texas; Dick Armey, U.S. Rep., Texas, Jesse Helms, U.S. Senator, North Carolina, and Thad Cochran U.S. Senator from Mississippi have all been interviewed in the Southern Partisan.

One of Trent Lott's major activities was the support and promotion of Jefferson Davis, late former U.S. Senator of Mississippi, and President of the Confederate States of America. Trent Lott was awarded the Jefferson Davis medal by the United Daughters of the Confederacy for his successful efforts to get Jefferson Davis' citizenship restored. A tremendous event in the legitimizing of the Confederacy in this country. Beauvior, Jefferson Davis's last residence was located in then U.S. Rep. Lott's 5th district. In the Feb. 1980, issue of the United Daughters of the Confederacy, his address to the UDC at the Confederate Monument at Arlington National Cemetery, June 3, 1979, is reprinted in full detailing his view of Jefferson Davis as a great American, the unjustness of his not having citizenship, and the process of restoring his citizenship. Even though this restoration of citizenship required a two-thirds vote of both houses under the 14th Amendment. It was not that difficult, the measure passed by overwhelming majorities in both houses. In the house less than 15 members opposed it. President Jimmy Carter, a pro-Confederate, signed it into law October 17, 1978. There was some public outcry but both the Democrats and Republicans seeking southern electoral votes supported the measure nearly unanimously. The Republicans knew what they were doing. The Democrats going back to Franklin Delano Roosevelt think that history is just old stuff, and have yet to figure out that the Lost Cause mythology and Southern conservatism seeks no less than to eliminate them.

His latest measure is to get the desk of Jefferson Davis when he was a senator, assigned to the senior senator of Mississippi. This resolution too passed the Senate with great support and little discussion.

In the latest issue of the Confederate Veteran, (No. 3 1996), he has a full page letter of congratulations to the Sons of Confederate Veterans on their 100th anniversary. Twelve other southern state governors also sent letters of congratulations.

Trent Lott is representative of the dominate political forces of Mississippi. The State of Mississippi is building a Presidential Library at the cost of millions for Jefferson Davis. Many political leaders of that state appear in the Citizen Informer and the Council of Conservative Citizens have many local chapters.

Implications

Now that Trent Lott is majority leader in the U.S. Senate, and so many strongly pro-Confederates southern Republicans are also in positions of authority, we can expect the Federal government to go back to supporting the Lost Cause mythology to further reinforce it and promote their ideas. Of course the Federal government has never completely stopped supporting the Lost Cause. There is likely to be little opposition since most liberals and Democrats and leftists don't comprehend that historical memory is important.

Maybe this November we will go to bed on election night in the United States of America and wake up in the Confederate States of America. Perhaps then we will understand the importance of statues and flags and symbols. (Hopefully I am wrong).