Michael Peroutka, a radical Christian Reconstructionist and until recently an active member of the neo-Confederate group League of the South, won a seat on the Anne Arundel, Maryland, County Council last week.
In reporting this news, we and other outlets used the term “neo-Confederate” to describe Peroutka’s ideology, including his apparent support for Southern secession. In an interview on the anti-government radio show Liberty Roundtable shortly after the election, host Sam Bushman asked Peroutka about these reports, to which he responded that he doesn’t even know what “neo-Confederate” means.
“It’s interesting how they create these terms and we don’t even know what they mean,” Bushman said. “Look, a Confederate, if you want to talk about ‘southern pride’ so to speak, or whatever, would be that you’re against the federal government and the violation of states’ rights, if you understand kind of the idea behind it. But a neo-Confederate? That would be kind of like you’re a fake Confederate or a wannabe Confederate.”
“If anything, I want to be just a true Confederate,” Peroutka replied.
He added that it is just a “code word” that’s “meant to stir up hatred against us.” Groups like Right Wing Watch, Peroutka added, think “Michael Peroutka’s a threat because he believes what Jefferson and Adams and Washington believed.”
Earlier in the program, Peroutka credited God for his county council victory and agreed with Bushman’s hope that God would allow him to change the minds of his fellow council members who were educated to be “socialists” by “government schools.”
