Donnie Kennedy

Walter Donald "Donnie" ("Don") Kennedy (born 1947) is a neo-Confederate American author and historian from Mississippi and a respiratory therapist. Kennedy formed an exploratory committee for the 2008 Republican presidential nomination as a conservative Southern candidate.

Family and medical career

Kennedy and his twin brother James Ronald (Ronnie, Ron) were born in Copiah County, Mississippi, in 1947. Each received a bachelor's from the University of Louisiana, Monroe. Kennedy also attended Mississippi Baptist Medical Center School of Respiratory Therapy, and Charlotte Memorial Medical Center School of Anesthesia in Charlotte, North Carolina. His degree is in nursing, and he has worked as a Registered Respiratory Therapist (RRT) and a Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist (CRNA); he also founded and sold a respiratory therapy business.

Kennedy and his wife Betty have four children and ten grandchildren.

Political career

With his brother, Kennedy authored five books on Southern heritage, and edited, annotated, and republished "A View of the Constitution" by William Rawle, an 1825 textbook used at West Point that took a favorable view of secession. He frequently comments in radio and TV interviews, including an appearance on Oliver North's talk show. He has called for a new Southern secession to escape the "overgrown and unresponsive" federal government. He helped found the League of the South in 1994 and remains on its national board. Like several members of the League of the South, Kennedy has been criticized for what is seen as racism by the Southern Poverty Law Center.

Kennedy formed a Republican Party exploratory committee for the 2008 presidential nomination in August 2007, using the slogan "Reclaiming Liberty in our country!" His platform concentrated on states' rights and state sovereignty, such as in questions of healthcare, environmentalism, and social welfare; favors the free market, the right to keep and bear arms, and government acknowledgment of Biblical worldviews; and opposes abortion, failure to enforce immigration law, income taxation above 4%, the draft, and inflation arising from increases in money supply. He withdrew his candidacy and his exploratory committee on December 11 2007, announcing his campaign had "taken the word about Southern Rights into a national venue for the first time since Appomattox" and looking forward to "much that needs to be done during this election season".

Works

With Ronnie Kennedy:
*"Myths of American Slavery" ISBN 1-58980-047-8
*"Why Not Freedom!: America's Revolt Against Big Government" ISBN 1-56554-152-9
*"The South Was Right!" ISBN 1-56554-024-7
*"Reclaiming Liberty" ISBN 1-58980-275-6
*"Was Jefferson Davis Right?" ISBN 1-56554-370-XWith Al Benson, Jr.:
*"Red Republicans and Lincoln's Marxists: Marxism in the Civil War" ISBN 0-595-89021-0

External links

* [http://electwdkennedy.com Walter D. Kennedy G.O.P. Presidential Exploratory Committee]
* [http://www.kennedytwins.com Kennedy's Home Page]
* [http://www.splcenter.org/intel/intelreport/article.jsp?pid=845 Southern Poverty Law Center]