Those of us who weren’t alive in the 1960s have likely seen clips from television and movies showing Right-wingers chastising hippies and liberals over their long hair, casual demeanor and less-than-formal dress. Conservatives also often used rhetoric about how liberals were traitors and should leave the United States. Pro-Vietnam War veterans complaining about how Jane Fonda was an enemy of America immediately comes to mind. The Left was then the rising counter-culture, which went on to be destroyed in the 1972 US presidential election but take over the Democratic Party and progressively acquire more influence and power in society.

My how things have changed from the days when The Beatles’ haircuts scandalized establishment conservatives and delighted counter-culture liberals!

Recently, the League of the South, a Southern nationalist organisation, unveiled a billboard with the message of ‘secede’ in front of the State capital building in Tallahassee, Florida. Dr Michael Hill, League president, described the motivation for Southern independence, writing in a recent article, ‘If the South is going to survive, especially against a flood tide of massive Third World immigration and leftist attempts to destroy her very cultural and political foundations, she is going to have to seek her independence and govern herself.’ On the day it was unveiled, League members recorded a short video in front of the billboard to promote the effort.

A Tallahassee businessman and former school teacher, Todd W Byars, found the video on YouTube and made several ironic comments. The irony comes from the fact that Byars is a Leftist who has spoken before the Florida legislature against charter schools and at an Occupy rally in 2011 and Defend the Dream rallies in 2012. At that last demonstration Byars appeared in professional attire and chided Tea Party activists for not being intellectual and for mis-spelling words on their signs. He took a similar approach in attacking the Southern nationalists who appeared in the video promoting the ‘secede’ billboard. He commented ‘Get a haircut and a get a job you bums!!’ To make the role reversal complete Mr Byars then wrote, ‘If you nutjobs want to Secede so bad there is nothing keeping you here in the USA. Move. Cancel your citizenship. You are the minority in Florida, even among white folks, and you are gonna lose big time in the Fall Elections.’

Yes, we seem to have come full circle in some ways.