The most unusual candidate for S.C. Senate this year may be Ron Wilson, the national commander of the 30,000-plus-member Sons of Confederate Veterans.
Running as a Republican for an Anderson County seat in Tuesday’s primary, Wilson openly promotes the right of secession. He also wants to have “Confederate Southern Americans” designated a specific minority group, like Hispanics or African-Americans.
“Confederate Southern Americans are a separate and distinct people,” Wilson said in a statement posted on the Internet. “As a people, Confederate Southern Americans are tired of being the ‘whipping boy’ for the rest of the country’s racial problems.”
Wilson, an Easley resident, did not respond to repeated requests for an interview.
However, in his Internet posting, Wilson has qualified his remarks on secession. While he believes states have the right to secede from the Union, he said he is not “in any way an advocate of modern secession.”
The Southern Poverty Law Center, an Alabama-based group that monitors what it calls the “Radical Right,” has placed Wilson on a nationwide list of “40 to Watch.”
“Wilson has radicalized the Sons of Confederate Veterans,” said Law Center spokeswoman Heidi Beirich, who called Wilson a “neo-Confederate.” By that, she said she meant someone who wants to return to pre-1860 United States and is dismissive of slavery.
http://www.thestate.com/mld/thestate/8844744.htm
If this guy is elected I will be amazed.