Excepting that the South fought for slavery and rural feudalism, their nostalgia is libertarian. Is that the enduring emotional charge behind flying the Confederate flag? Hoyt Axton recorded I’m a Good Old Rebel as being a “song of the Civil War,” but the spirit is decidedly Post.

I’m a Good Old Rebel
 
Oh, I’m a good old rebel, now that’s just what I am.
For this here land of freedom I do not give a damn.
I’m glad I fought against it, I only wish we’d won.
I ain’t asked any pardon for anything I’ve done.
 
I hates the Yankee nation and eveythin’ they do.
I hates the Declaration of Independence too.
I hates the glorious union, ’tis dripping with our blood.
I hates the striped banner, I fought it all I could.
 
I rode with Robert E. Lee for three years there about.
Got wounded in four places and I starved at Point Lookout.
I caught the rheumatism a campin’ in the snow,
But I killed a chance of Yankees, and I’d like to kill some more.
 
Three hundred thousand Yankees is stiff in Southern dust.
We got three hundred thousand before they conquered us.
They died of Southern fever and Southern steel and shot.
I wished it was three million, instead of what we got.
 
I can’t take up my musket and fight ’em down no more,
But I ain’t a-goin’ to love them now, that is certain sure.
I won’t be reconstructed, I’m better now than them.
And for that carpetbagger, I don’t give a damn.
 
Oh, I’m a good old rebel, now that’s just what I am
And for this Yankee nation I do no give a damn.
I’m glad I fought against her, I only wish we’d won.
I ain’t asked any pardon for anything I’ve done.