User:John J. Bulten/Donnie Kennedy

Walter Donald "Donnie" ("Don") Kennedy and James Ronald "Ronnie" ("Ron") Kennedy (born 1947) are twin neo-Confederate American authors and historians from Mississippi. Donnie, a respiratory therapist, formed an exploratory committee for the 2008 Republican presidential nomination as a conservative Southern candidate.

Family and medical career
Donnie and Ronnie Kennedy were born in Copiah County, Mississippi, in 1947. Each received a bachelor's from the University of Louisiana, Monroe. Donnie 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.

Donnie Kennedy and his wife Betty have four children and thirteen grandchildren.

Political career
The Kennedys authored five books on Southern heritage including the bestselling Was Jefferson Davis Right?, 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. Donnie 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, Donnie Kennedy has been criticized for what is seen as racism by the Southern Poverty Law Center.

Donnie 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 Al Benson, Jr.:
 * 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-X
 * Red Republicans and Lincoln's Marxists: Marxism in the Civil War ISBN 0-595-89021-0