Posted on 11/12/2003 1:59:47 AM PST by Cincinatus' Wife
NBC's The West Wing introduced many politically challenged Americans to a group of U.S. House members called "Blue Dog Democrats."
Their claims to fame, or infamy, are their fiscally conservative voting pattern, their toadying up to Republicans and their mission to drag what remains of the liberal wing of the Democratic Party kicking, punching and screaming back to the squishy center of U.S. politics.
Enough about Blue Dogs.
Over the years, when I have called myself a "Yellow Dog Democrat," I always am amazed that so many folks have never heard the term. Here is a simple definition of Yellow Dog Democrats: If the only candidate on the Democratic ticket is an old cur yellow dog running against a highly regarded Republican, we would vote for the yellow dog. Period. A handful of Yellow Dogs may actually like some Republicans, but hardly any of us trust Republicans to run government, especially the federal government. We are, according to Just Politics, "unswerving" party loyalists.
Political writer Taegan D. Goddard offers this derivation of Yellow Dog: "The term comes from the 1928 elections. During the election, Sen. Tom Heflin of Alabama refused to support fellow Democrat Al Smith. Instead, Heflin chose to support Republican Herbert Hoover, who would go on to become president. Many Alabamians disagreed with Heflin's choice and in retaliation popularized the line "I'd vote for a yellow dog if he ran on the Democratic ticket!' "
Besides being Southerners, the main characteristic of Yellow Dog Democrats is their liberalism, which knocks out the likes of Sen. Joe Lieberman, who supported many of George W. Bush's un-American policies, including his overthrow of a sovereign nation. Yellow Dogs still believe that liberalism is nature's greatest creation - after sex and the grapes from which red wine is made.
Devotion to liberty - as expressed in Ben Franklin's famous words - is always in the middle of the Yellow Dog's feeding dish: "They who would give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." Obviously, then, Yellow Dogs have nothing but contempt for the current administration in the White House, an administration whose attorney general's idea of liberty is the FBI's unfettered right to wiretap the homes of those with whom he disagrees.
Yellow Dogs, being liberal, believe that America has real classes of disenfranchised residents - African-Americans, homosexuals, farm workers - whose rights need protecting and honoring.
Which gets me to another point: Who are these Yellow Dog Democrats anyway? My own guesswork tells me that far fewer white males count themselves as Yellow Dogs than just 10 years ago. Jews, too, who used to be a stable bloc, are increasingly deserting the party. The same is true of Hispanics, and not just Castro-hating South Florida Cubans. Many Chicanos in California, Central Florida and elsewhere now vote Republican. A large number of Arabs, who once shunned the GOP, voted for Bush. Go figure.
As always, the most loyal Yellow Dog Democrats are African-Americans. Oh, sure, you hear big mouths, such as Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson and NAACP leader Kweisi Mfume, go on about blacks not letting the Democratic Party take them for granted. But such talk is showboating nonsense. Blacks have hardly any reason to get in bed with Republicans. The modern Democratic Party (I am not talking about "Dixierats") expresses our values, our goals, our aspirations. The Democratic Party has done the most for us.
The Republicans' racist inner core repels blacks, many seeing the old beloved party of Lincoln as their contemporary enemy. Far from taking African-Americans for granted, the Democrats long ago made our quest for civil rights the bedrock of many policies. The Democratic Party is black America. You do not take for granted that which you are. You simply are. Blacks are Democrats. Yes, yes, J.C. Watts, Clarence Thomas, Condi Rice, Colin Powell and others have cast their lot with the devil, but their action does not mean that the rest of us should lose our minds, too. We know who our real friends are. And they are not in the GOP.
Blacks did not become Yellow Dog Democrats accidentally. They found a home, a place where they knew that bleeding hearts would do the decent thing - even if the decent thing had unintended negative consequences. I cannot recall a single time that Democrats planned how to abuse blacks. Without trying, I can think of many ways that Republicans have been intentionally cruel to blacks and other groups.
No one should be surprised that most blacks are Yellow Dog Democrats.
I don't recall these Yellow Dog RATS gripin' when Clinton massacred thousands of innocent Kosovars in overthrowing the sovereign nation of Yugoslavia.
"Yellow Dogs still believe that liberalism [aka Socialism] is nature's greatest creation..."
Ignorance is bliss...MUD
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