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Thomas Fleming (born 1945) is a traditionalist Catholic writer, former president of the Rockford Institute, and former editor of Chronicles: A Magazine of American Culture , a monthly paleoconservative political magazine.
Fleming has been described as a leading figure in developing neo-Confederate ideology. [1] [2] [3] He was a founding member of the League of the South, and a founding editor of Southern Partisan magazine in 1979, but later left both organizations. [1]
Thomas Fleming was awarded a doctorate in classics from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, completing his dissertation on Attic Greek lyric poetry, and until joining a series of conservative groups, taught Latin at a small, private middle school in South Carolina.[ specify ] [4] In addition to editing, Fleming has written on topics concerning the literature of pagan Greece as well as political issues.
Fleming was introduced to the paleoconservative public by Robert W. Whitaker of South Carolina in 1982.[ citation needed ] At that time, he was invited to contribute to Whitaker's book, The New Right Papers, [5] which put together ways whereby conservative populists could be elected to office through an alliance of people from both parties in the Republican Party. [6] [ third-party source needed ]
Fleming was a founding member and board member of the League of the South, from which he was reported to have resigned in 2002, [7] as well as an affiliated scholar of its educational arm, the League of the South Institute. [8] [ third-party source needed ] He was a founding editor of the Southern Partisan magazine in 1979, with Clyde Wilson. Its masthead included "a range of conservative figures from old segregationists to New Right leaders", as described by the academics Euan Hague and Edward Sebesta. [1] He left in 1983 after disputes at the magazine. [1] In 1985, after the death of author Leopold Tyrmand, Fleming became editor of Chronicles Magazine. [1] In 1988 he co-wrote The Conservative Movement with Paul Gottfried.[ third-party source needed ]
As of June 2015, Fleming retired as editor of Chronicles magazine, [9] but continued contributing articles on an occasional basis. As of the July 2015 issue of Chronicles, the magazine's former Senior Editor For Books, Chilton Williamson Jr., became editor for the publication. [10] In December 2022, Fleming returned once more to Chronicles to take the mantle of editorship at the magazine.[ citation needed ]
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Fleming has been described as a leading figure in developing neo-Confederate ideology. [1] [2] [3]
Criticizing mass immigration into the United States, Fleming, in an essay in Immigration and the American Future, wrote that American elites peddle a form of propositionalism:[ third-party source needed ] "This abstract approach to assimilation derives, ultimately, from the conviction - as naive as it is chauvinistic - that America is an exceptional country, one not rooted in blood, soil, and kinship, but a nation 'dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal'. Proponents of this are quick to label the more old-fashioned view, that the nation is a metaphorical extended family, as bigotry, but no amount of repetition or rhetorical extravagance can disguise the dangerous logic that is at work. If I love my country because it is mine, I must be loyal to it, even when I disagree with its policies, but I do not necessarily regard it as superior to everyone else's country, and I may have no inclination to say that all other countries, to the extent that they are legitimate and worthy of respect, must approximate my own." [11] [ excessive quote ]
He then explains how this type of American propositionalism impacts immigration: "But that this is exactly what the advocates of the "propositional nation" do insist upon. The United States is not only the best nation in the history of the world, but also it is the beacon to all mankind, the natural home of all the good and decent people in the world and the enemy to all regimes that deny their subjects equal rights. Thus, by the same argument, a propositional nation is obliged to open its borders to strangers "yearning to breathe free," but it is also justified in engaging in endless crusades to impose its propositions on the rest of the world." [12] [ excessive quote ]
Chronicles Magazine often runs news articles of interest to the old right.[ third-party source needed ] Writing on Congressman Ron Paul and his bid for the presidency, Fleming wrote: "Dr. Paul has his zany side: He believes in the Constitution of the old American republic, and he actually thinks it has some relevance for America today. God bless him, I would vote for him if only for pretending to embrace such a heartwarming fantasy. As it is, I am convinced he believes what he says. (His candor and sincerity alone are enough to disqualify him as a serious presidential candidate in these United States.) Paul not only wants, in principle, to restore the republic but also opposes the continued erosion of states' rights and U.S. sovereignty." [13] [ excessive quote ]
Like Paul, Fleming favors non-interventionism and has criticized the neoconservative foreign policy. [14] [ third-party source needed ]
Fleming affirms the Roman Catholic doctrine of papal supremacy and has urged the Eastern Orthodox Churches to submit to the immediate, universal jurisdiction and absolute authority of the See of Rome.[ third-party source needed ] He notes, "The Eastern position, from fairly early on and down to fairly late, was unequivocal in acknowledging the primacy of the Roman bishop, and even today most Orthodox bishops and theologians I know concede that if the Church were reunited, the heir of Peter would preside over the meetings of the patriarchs – indeed, in some Eastern ecclesiastical disputes in recent years, appeals have been made to the Pope." [15] [ excessive quote ]
Fleming has made several controversial statements regarded by some as racist in nature, although he denies that he and most paleoconservatives support racism. Examples of incendiary comments include the following statements taken from his columns in Chronicles :[ third-party source needed ]
The Southern Poverty Law Center has listed Fleming as a key intellectual in the neo-Confederate movement. [18] In a 2002 article on the paleoconservative trend in right wing politics, the SPLC stated: "While mainstream neo-conservatives are tight with the GOP, so-called paleocon intellectuals have carved a niche for themselves as staunch, old-right traditionalists who romanticize the pre-civil rights era South. Fleming, who is Chronicles' editor, has gone so far as to describe the 19th century Ku Klux Klan as a 'national liberation army.'" [19]
Fleming has strenuously denied these allegations, writing: "It is an easy trick of propaganda to portray all natural affections in the dark colors of prejudice. Why would anyone like the South if it were not for slavery and Jim Crow? Who but an antisemite objects to the slaughter of the (semitic) Palestinians? Only a communist or a Jew would oppose the Führer. . . . The average American does have a conservative heart, but his mind has been so addled by bad teachers, bad books, and bad ideas that he often feels guilty if he prefers to limit his charity to his neighbors, if he resents the money squandered on public schools, if he does not share in the general glee over the massive immigration that is transforming the country of his fathers into something he cannot recognize. He is easily intimidated when the left condemns this vague, inchoate mixture of family loyalty and patriotism as the bigotry of the "extreme right." In fact, the ultraleft Southern Poverty Law Center is always railing against "right-wing extremism," by which they mean everyone to the right of The New Republic —up to and including Matthew Hale. . . . Why should any conservative care if he is attacked by the leftists of the SPLC and ADL or those of the New York Times ? These people have lies in their mouths, blood on their hands for the great genocides of the 20th century, and guilt on their consciences for the seduction of the innocent and the destruction of our civilization. Our task, as our late friend Mel Bradford put it, is to remember who we are and stop our ears against the siren songs of the revolutionists, which have proved to be not the anthems of a new dawn but a message of hate and filth that leads to destruction." [20] [ excessive quote ]
Paleoconservatism is a political philosophy and strain of conservatism in the United States stressing American nationalism, Christian ethics, regionalism, traditionalist conservatism, and opposition to Israel. Paleoconservatism's concerns overlap with those of the Old Right that opposed the New Deal in the 1930s and 1940s as well as with paleolibertarianism and right-wing populism.
Paul Edward Gottfried is an American paleoconservative political philosopher, historian, and writer. He is a former Professor of Humanities at Elizabethtown College in Pennsylvania. He is editor-in-chief of the paleoconservative magazine Chronicles. He is an associated scholar at the Mises Institute, a libertarian think tank, and the US correspondent of Nouvelle École, a Nouvelle Droite journal.
Llewellyn Harrison Rockwell Jr. is an American author, editor, and political consultant. A libertarian and a self-professed anarcho-capitalist, he founded and is the chairman of the Mises Institute, a non-profit promoting the Austrian School of economics.
Samuel Todd Francis, known as Sam Francis, was an American columnist and writer known for his paleoconservative and white nationalist views. He was a columnist and editor for the conservative Washington Times until he was dismissed after making racist remarks at the 1995 American Renaissance conference. Francis would later become a "dominant force" on the Council of Conservative Citizens, a white supremacist organization identified as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center. Francis was chief editor of the council's newsletter, Citizens Informer, until his death in 2005.
Paleolibertarianism is a libertarian political activism strategy aimed at uniting libertarians and paleoconservatives. It was developed by American anarcho-capitalist theorists Murray Rothbard and Lew Rockwell in the American political context after the end of the Cold War. From 1989 to 1995, they sought to communicate libertarian notions of opposition to government intervention using messages accessible to working and middle-class people of the time, and combining libertarian free market views with the cultural conservatism of Paleoconservatism, while also opposing protectionism. The strategy also embraced the paleoconservative reverence for tradition and religion. This approach, usually identified as right-wing populism, was intended to radicalize citizens against the state. The name they chose for this style of activism evoked the roots of modern libertarianism, hence the prefix paleo. That founding movement was American classical liberalism, which shared the anti-war and anti-New Deal sentiments of the Old Right in the first half of the 20th century. Paleolibertarianism is generally seen as a right-wing ideology.
Chronicles is a U.S. monthly magazine published by the Charlemagne Institute and associated with paleoconservative views. Its full current name is Chronicles: A Magazine of American Culture. It was founded in 1977 by the Rockford Institute. Today, the journal is published by the successor organization Charlemagne Institute. Since 2021, Paul Gottfried is the editor-in-chief.
Neo-Confederates are groups and individuals who portray the Confederate States of America and its actions during the American Civil War in a positive light. The League of the South, the Sons of Confederate Veterans and other neo-Confederate organizations continue to defend the secession of the former Confederate States.
Peter Brimelow is an American white nationalist and white supremacist writer. He is the founder of the website VDARE, an anti-immigration site associated with white supremacy, white nationalism, and the alt-right. He believes that "whites built American culture" and that "it is at risk from non-whites who would seek to change it".
Virginia Deane Abernethy is an American anthropologist, activist, and white nationalist extremist. She is professor emerita of psychiatry at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine. She has published research on population demography and immigration. She ran for Vice President of the United States in 2012 alongside Merlin Miller for the American Third Position, a party that promotes white nationalism.
The League of the South (LS) is an American white nationalist, neo-Confederate, white supremacist organization that says its goal is "a free and independent Southern republic".
Michael Joseph Sobran Jr. was a paleoconservative American journalist. He wrote for the National Review magazine and was a syndicated columnist. During the 1970s, he frequently used the byline M. J. Sobran.
Clyde Norman Wilson is an American retired professor of history at the University of South Carolina, a paleoconservative political commentator, a long-time contributing editor for Chronicles: A Magazine of American Culture and Southern Partisan magazine, and an occasional contributor to National Review.
Southern Partisan is a neo-Confederate online magazine based in Columbia, South Carolina, United States. It is focused on the Southern region and states that were formerly members of the Confederate States of America. Founded in 1979 as Southern Partisan Quarterly Review, its first editor was Thomas Fleming. From 1999 to 2009 it was edited by Christopher Sullivan. After 2009 it ceased print publication and is now only online. It has been called "arguably the most important neo-Confederate periodical" by the Southern Poverty Law Center.
The Occidental Quarterly is an American magazine published by the Charles Martel Society. Its stated purpose is to defend "the cultural, ethnic, and racial interests of Western European peoples" and examine "contemporary political, social, and demographic trends that impact the posterity of Western Civilization".
Lawrence Auster was an American conservative essayist and self-described "racialist" who wrote on immigration and multiculturalism.
Neoconservatism and paleoconservatism are two major branches of the American conservative political movement. Representatives of each faction often argue that the other does not represent true conservatism. Disputed issues include immigration, trade, the United States Constitution, taxation, budget, business, the Federal Reserve, drug policy, foreign aid and the foreign policy of the United States.
The Rockford Institute was an American conservative think-tank associated with paleoconservatism, based in Rockford, Illinois. Founded in 1976, it ran the John Randolph Club and published the magazine Chronicles. In 2018 the Rockford Institute merged with the Charlemagne Institute, which became the new publisher of Chronicles. The Charlemagne Institute describes itself as "leading a cultural movement to defend and advance Western Civilization, the foundation of our American republic."
Taki's Magazine, called Takimag for short, is an online magazine of politics and culture published by the Greek paleoconservative commentator and socialite Taki Theodoracopulos and edited by his daughter Mandolyna Theodoracopulos. It has published articles by far-right figures such as Gavin McInnes and the white supremacist Jared Taylor; the white supremacist Richard Spencer was an early Taki's editor.
The Political Cesspool is a weekly far-right talk radio show founded by Tennessean political activist James Edwards and syndicated by the organizations Liberty News Radio Network and Accent Radio Network in the United States. First broadcast in October 2004 twice a week from radio station WMQM, per Edwards it has been simulcast on Stormfront Radio, a service of the white nationalist Stormfront website and as of 2011 is broadcast on Saturday nights on WLRM, a blues and southern soul radio station in Millington, Tennessee. Its sponsors include the white separatist Council of Conservative Citizens and the Institute for Historical Review, a Holocaust denial group.
Arthur Kemp is a Rhodesian-born writer and the owner of Ostara Publications, a distributor of racist tracts, who was from 2009 to 2011 the foreign affairs spokesperson for the British National Party. He was born in Southern Rhodesia (Zimbabwe) and worked as a right-wing journalist in South Africa before moving to the United Kingdom in 1996.
After leading Chronicles: A Magazine of American Culture for over 30 years, Dr. Thomas Fleming is retiring. His last issue as editor is the June number.
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