From an OD reader:
“Hello,
I’m very familiar with the Alt-Right, White Nationalism, Southern Nationalism, etc. And from what I’ve seen, ethnic / regional nationalism tends to work better than racial nationalism. It draws a better crowd and is easier for the average ‘normie’ to grasp.
However, as far as I know there aren’t any ethnic nationalist movements in America outside of Dixie. For example, the ‘Northwest Front’ is essentially an internet based movement and it desires to create a White proposition nation (which is basically what America started as, and we can agree that ended poorly). I understand that the South is your main focus, but would you please consider writing an article describing how those of us in the rest of the country might go about creating our own ethnic / regional movements?
I believe that with the rise of #CalExit, that this might actually get a bit of traction.”
If you search the OD archives, you will find this an issue we started to explore in 2011 and expanded on in the years that followed. There was about a year there when we discussed little else but regional ethnic and cultural differences.
Anyway, the discussions we had here in the past were drawn from David Hackett Fischer’s Albion’s Seed: Four British Folkways In North America, Joel Garreau’s Nine Nations of North America, and Colin Woodard’s American Nations:
I later found that The New Encyclopedia of Southern Culture: Geography focused on the same theme of cultural geography in the South.
Of course, Dixie is only the most well known of the American Nations, and there are subregions within Dixie (Deep South, Greater Appalachia, New France/Acadia, Tidewater). Naturally, we have the strongest sense of national identity because of the War Between the States, Reconstruction, and the Jim Crow South.
How do you create your own regional ethnonationalist movement? Here in the South, all we are doing is embracing our own ethnic and cultural distinctiveness. We are embracing a real existing culture, not an abstract proposition nation. My advice would be to research the history of your region, learn how it was settled, how its unique culture came to exist, and focus on activities that stoke a national consciousness.
Behind the #Calexit movement, for example, is the underlying reality that The Left Coast/Ecotopia is experiencing a national awakening. Now that the Dixie coalition (Dixie + Far West + Midlands + The Foundry) is coming to power in Washington, the Yankeedom coalition (Yankeedom + El Norte + The Left Coast) has been cast out of power. They’re on the outside looking in through the window.
For most of the early 19th century, the South was “America” and New England was the deviant region. From War Between the States until the mid-20th century, New England and the Midwest were “America,” and the South was the black sheep region. The American Nations have always formed coalitions to jockey for power in Washington. All of American history is the eternal clash between rival White sub-nations.
In the 2016 election, The Midlands and The Foundry switched sides in the American Game of Thrones, joined forces with the Dixie Coalition (Dixie + Far West + Breadbasket/Heartland), and elected Trump as president. The pundits didn’t see it coming because they are generally morons who don’t understand the cleavages in White America. There are several White Americas, not one, and each has its own history and values.
If you live outside the South and want to create a regional ethnonationalist movement, just do what we do: start a blog or a podcast, create a Facebook group and Twitter account, create an organization, do your research, write a book, hold meetings, analyze history, politics, and current events, maybe even engage in activism.
Note: Don’t be deceived.
Trump isn’t going to “Make America Great Again.” Nothing has really changed. On the contrary, Trump will be incredibly polarizing and will likely accelerate America’s centrifugal tendencies. His presidency will sharpen national consciousness and the will to dominate in both the Acela Corridor and The Left Coast.
When Trump talks about Making America Great Again, he is thinking of the mid-20th century industrial North at the apogee of its power and influence in the aftermath of the Second World War. Those days are long gone. They are as gone as the Southern Cotton Kingdom. Wouldn’t it be interesting though to see Northern nostalgia and romanticism produce the Rust Belt’s Gone With The Wind?