Is the Democratic Party clueless about the modern South?

Jewish World Review ^ | Oct. 21, 2003 | Bill Cotterell

[SJackson]

Toward the end of his new book about why the Democratic Party has lost the South, Sen. Zell Miller, D — Ga., tells of a Georgia neighbor whose mule had ears so long they scraped the ceiling of his small barn.

The man jacked up the corners of the building and shoved flat stones under it, backbreaking labor that made the ramshackle barn even more unstable. Miller suggested digging out a few inches of the dirt floor, instead.

"Son, it ain't the mule's legs that's too long," the farmer replied, "it's them ears." When Miller retires next year to the mountain town of Young Harris, Ga., leading Democrats in Washington and Atlanta won't miss him. He has not only supported President Bush's tax cuts, war policies and judicial nominees, but has also told off his party in terms that families, corporations or politicians normally confide only to counselors behind closed doors.

"A National Party No More," is subtitled "Conscience of a Conservative Democrat," but the tagline could have been "No-Brainers We Can't Figure Out." Miller, who served four terms as lieutenant governor and two as governor, says that — like his neighbor with the barn — his party has a mule — like belief in the wrong approach. (Click HERE to purchase. Sales help fund JWR. )

"The biggest problem with the party leadership is that they know nothing about the modern South," Miller writes. "They still see it as a land of magnolias and mint juleps, with the pointy-headed KKK lurking in the background, waiting to burn a cross or lynch blacks and Jews." He focuses on the 2002 mid-term elections and the defeat of ex-Sen. Max Cleland, D-Ga., who was leading U.S. Rep. Saxby Chambliss until the final days of the campaign. That's when congressional Democrats — absent Miller — lined up behind the government employee unions and fought Bush's creation of the new Department of Homeland Security.

Miller, who campaigned for Cleland and made TV ads with him, wasn't surprised that the GOP cast the issue as a test of patriotism — and never mind that Cleland had lost both legs and his right arm in Vietnam.

The first thought on people's minds when the nation was attacked, was not, "Gosh, I sure hope those new federal employees have collective bargaining rights … " A former Marine Corps rifle instructor, Miller believes the correct response to people who want to kill us is to kill them first. His party's presidential contenders, he frets, prefer asking the United Nations to issue stern warning resolutions.

[docmcb]

Greatest line is Zell speaking of Kerry posing with a surfboard tucked under his arm: "It made me wonder, are there more surfboards or shotguns in America?"

[Leisler]

"... the correct response to people who want to kill us is to kill them first" Bump!

[Republican Red]

I like Zell's line about Dean:

"Clever and glib, but deep this Vermont pond is not."

[blam]

"Miller believes the correct response to people who want to kill us is to kill them first. His party's presidential contenders, he frets, prefer asking the United Nations to issue stern warning resolutions."

As a son of the south, I say, yup.

[TEXASPROUD]

Checked out your site, nice shotgun, nice dog, good Rebel Yell.

[FreedomPoster]

ping

[Gringo1]

Other than Zell Miller and Sam Nunn, yes, they are clueless. The Democrats(outside of the cities anyway) are way more conservative than these whackos who are running for President.

[alloysteel]

The Democrats, as a post-Jimmy Carter party, have pretty much abandoned the South. The fiction that the "Former Occupant of the Oval Office, 1993-2001" represented anything about the South as a region was perpetrated by the power centers in the Northeast and the Left Coast. As a job, being governor of Arkansas was not all that lucrative, but the potential for guiding a few additional perks to yourself was a tantalizing prospect. And it gained ingress to a circle perhaps even more select than the US Senate, the caucus of governors. The "Former Occupant of the Oval Office, 1993-2001" worked the room among the Democrat governors well, and at times seemed to be the seasoned pro. He developed an almost Machiavellian talent for finesse and parsing of meanings, which made him seem to be a more intelligent and learned person than he was in reality. But what he represented was not the South, old or new. He was a usurper who set out to hijack the Democrat party, and he was extraordinarily successful. The Democrats are still in trall to him and his venomous viper of a spouse.

[Reaganwuzthebest]

The democratic party is out of touch with the whole country. The only people they appeal to these days are the very poor... they have nothing to offer anyone else but tax, spend, and take away everyone's rights.

[Leisler]

That's an old picture. I have more pounds and less teeth. Dog is old and grey and spends weeks at a time surgically attached to the wood stove. Mostly he just eats and farts, making the flames flare. One night I was asleep on the couch when flames hit the ceiling, lighting up last winters Christmas hangings. Burnt the hair right of old Dog's beehind, him running around crying. I've never given him a can of baked beans since.

[Steely Glint]

You can get more significant results feeding your dog black beans.

My Dalmatian + a can of black beans = major gas attack

[RippleFire]

bump

[.cnI redruM]

So how do reasonably intelligent Dems get to run as reasonably intelligent human beings when they try and go national? There has to be something other than a total electoral whitewash that would disentrench a few of the dumber liberal intrest groups.

[visitor]

not totally true... what about the rich that depend on the dems for their income and agenda?...rto

[Reaganwuzthebest]

not totally true... what about the rich that depend on the dems for their income and agenda?...rto

Yes that's true, there is still the bleeding heart rich elite who are drawn to the democratic party. It is they who are squeezing the middle class into oblivion wherever they get power. California is a perfect example.

[RobbyS]

Clinton is the type of Southern liberal who only feels comfortable in the North. Like Rather et al.

[RobbyS]

The elite in our society are much more liberal than the people.

[Dan from Michigan]

It's not just the South. It's almost all of rural America.

Bush even won the UP of Michigan and West Virginia which are very historically democrat. He also won the NE part of the state as well, also historicaly democrat like the UP.

The dems currently are the party of Big Cities over 100,000, government unions, inner cities, and the elitist type crowd that has billions but don't want you to have any. That's about it.

[Dan from Michigan]

Forgot the pro-aborts, and gun grabbers.