Kirkpatrick Sale's Gaff(e)

Updated below on 9.29.10

"The Godfather" of the secession movement, such as it is, and head of the Middlebury Institute "think tank," Kirkpatrick Sale, has a years long history of allying with the white supremacist group, League of the South [1] . He runs a tight crew and is not one to take independence streaks lightly, at least not from those that he sees as his minions.

Here's a priceless divulgence that's come from The Source wherein not only does Sale crap all over a Canadian secessionist counterpart, Sebastian Ronin, who's something of a Fredo type character from what I've been able to find, he also then takes a nasty swipe at Harold Thomas' Ohio Republic blog. Harold's essentially a one-man band who's like a gerbil in a wheel, spitting out worthless posts about secession-is-just-around-the-corner almost daily, which is a helluva lot more than "Don" Sale can say. Otherwise, Harold's a decent, well-meaning sort who doesn't deserve such contempt from an equally ineffectual blowhard like Sale.

Sale was responding to an inquiry regarding Ronin's idea to gather "everybody together under a single umbrella" organization.

What's so telling in all of this backstabbing by Sale is what Sale is saying about the real state of the secession movement in this communication from him to his fellow flounderers:

"There have been three North American Secessionist Congresses (NOT conference - a congress implies delegates from real organizations, which is what we strove for) under the auspices of the Middlebury Institute. I decided not to have a fourth this year since I wanted to gauge the movement and find out which groups were real and active and which were only websites and individual toys.

Ronin stepped in last year and proclaimed this 2019(sic) congress, without consulting me or as far as I can see anyone else. He has no real organization, and the experience Thomas (Naylor) and I had with him when he spoke badly at the congress in New Hampshire suggests that he's a loose cannon and an uncollegial type out for his own self-hype.

I would suggest that we have nothing to do with his call for a congress--and indeed I see no sign of any real group supporting him. He has one ally in Ohio, but that's another website individual, not a real secessionist organization.

If I see signs of a revival of secessionist activity, by real groups that are active in recruiting and mobilizing, I will certainly call another congress. At the moment I don't judge the activity sufficient to warrant that, and I think it would be a mistake to waste any energy on Ronin's self-aggrandizing scheme.

That's my opinion.

Regards,
Kirkpatrick

Kirkpatrick Sale
Director, Middlebury Institute
MiddleburyInstitute.org
JKELAS@aol.com"

Three months later Sale published a more rosy assessment of secession at that weird Lew Rockwell website, but his candor in the communication above really says it all. Funny thing though is that in the Lew Rockwell piece Sale seems to like what one-man websites are doing - you know, like Thomas Naylor's one-man website and "think tank," Second Vermont Republic. Perhaps Sebastion Ronin and Harold Thomas just haven't been obsequious enough for Sale's liking.

In all probability Rob Williams' knew of Sale's self-important message, it did not make it into "Vermont Commons" Fall edition. Of course that shouldn't be surprising since truth isn't the underlying mission of a propaganda outlet like VTCommons. Instead, its ever-present "secession is just over the horizon" message was repeatedly spat out again and again in the VTCommons Fall 2010 edition.

Update: 9.29.10



Oh dear, Arnold, er Rob. I've touched a nerve, no,? You're that desperate? Spelling error? That's all you got? All you have with that is a hint of my past life. Fishing is what I still do and I think you know I've gotten a nice haul. Oddly, Herr Döktor, you even lack the sense to know that when applied to a movement political whore like Sale, the definition is of the Kinsley sort, as in,

"A gaffe is when a politician tells the truth."

You see, Rob, here in the blogosphere, when someone who is himself prone to spelling errors plays "gotcha" at that level, and scuttles out from their self-imposed walk-away to play that card and nothing else, it's a given that they've got nothing else. The edit correction to the title should give you something diversionary to talk about at the next circle jerk, er, campaign strategy session.

No, the crap you published by Sale is nothing more than the same secession-is-just-over-the-cliff stuff you've been peddling for years and of the sort he posted to the other crazies at Lew Rockwell that I mentioned. Nothing at your journal by him that corresponded to what I posted, so there was no reason to link to it. But you keep doing that ineffectual proganda thing of yours and let's just see how many votes short of 60,000 Naylor "extrapolated" that translates into.

Interesting though that you didn't link to my post so that the rest of the Sweathogs could read what I said for themselves. Oh, well. With a movement organization that couldn't fill a small classroom, I guess it's important for you to keep them from running from the building should they find out that you've been deceiving them.

I'm glad that you, Matt and the rest of Naylor's flying monkeys still have time, despite the weighty demands of campaigning, to stop by and read this blog. You might want to continue with that since there is so much more to come.