."Dadgum democrats ? We purt' near run them varmints all off"
Posted on 04/23/2005 12:22:18 PM PDT by quidnunc
In consecutive days last month, Alabama lost two legends from a disappearing movement — Southern Democrats powerful in Washington because of their party's majority and powerful back home because of their tendency to buck it.
Look around Congress these days and you'll find few conservative Democrats in the mold of the late Sen. Howell Heflin or Rep. Tom Bevill. Those who remain are almost as likely to represent the Midwest or Great Plains as the once-solid South.
According to Congressional Observer Publications, only one current member of the U.S. House voted against his party at least a third of the time last year. That was Democratic Rep. Collin Peterson of Minnesota.
In 1998, there were 13 in that category — including eight Southerners — and three of them opposed Democratic leaders more than half the time.
"The Southern Democratic wing of the party has been dying since the 1960s," said Larry Sabato, a University of Virginia political scientist. "It's not comatose. It's dead. It's buried."
Virtually all those maverick-more-than-not lawmakers have either joined the Republican Party or retired. Most dramatic of all was retired Democratic Sen. Zell Miller of Georgia, the keynote speaker at the 2004 Republican National Convention, who voted with President Bush's party a staggering 94 percent of the time last year.
Remaining Southern Democrats with the most conservative voting record would argue that the movement made famous by Heflin and Bevill and resurrected by Miller is alive and well. But even they acknowledge times are different.
For one thing, Republicans have ruled the chamber for more than a decade. Thus, some conservative Democrats in search of majority clout have found it through switching parties. Others scoff at the idea.
-snip-
(Excerpt) Read more at decaturdaily.com ...
Thanks for pointing him out. Minnesota Freepers, you know what to do.
."Dadgum democrats ? We purt' near run them varmints all off"
Ford has duped people into thinking he's a "conservative" Democrat. Granted, he's not a raving socialist like Pelosi or Barney Frank. But conservative? Check out some of these interest groups ratings:
NARAL [pro-abortion]- 100%
American Taxpayers Union - 14%
NAACP - 80%
Human Rights Campaign [gay rights] - 100%
NEA [school union] -91%
League of Conservation Voters - 90%
NOW - 100%
NRA [in 2002] - 0%
Conservative?? Pluh-eese!
Did I miss something?
You missed nothing.
Conservative Democrat" had become an oxymoron practically everywhere except for the South, and they stayed alive there for so long only because FDR, in his wisdom, had courted the fathers and grandfathers of the core of Bible-Belt Democrats that voted nationally for liberal institutions, but delivered back home on the religious-conservative needs of their constituents.
Now that rural electrification and industrialization of the South has come full circle, the alliance between the New Deal and Southern conservatives has largely faded into history.
MSM misinformation: "Rep. Harold Ford, D-Tenn., a leader among the new breed of conservative Democrats"
Actual ratings: " American Taxpayers Union - 14%
NAACP - 80%
Human Rights Campaign [gay rights] - 100%
NEA [school union] -91%
NOW - 100%"
LOL! Yup. NOT A CONSERVATIVE.
He's a Liberal who is not rude, orverly partisan, nor insane, and poses as a moderate to fool the folks back home.
If Harold Ford is a "conservative Democrat" (Oxy-Moron?) I am a Japanese aviator.
Bon-za-i-i-i-i!!
Boyd of Florida, Bishop and Marshall of Georgia, Bozwell of Iowa and Ike Skelton of Missouri could be described as conservative/moderates. The first four were man enough to serve in uniform, and this is a good thing regardless of party.
Conservative Democrats didn't so much leave their party as they had been abondoned by them.
Exactly. This should have been titled with an "OBVIOUS" tag. Everyone knows that liberals have the reins of the Democratic party; even the diehard "conservative" democrats are dropping out.
How long do you think it will be before the liberals start calling people like Zell "DINOs"? :)
"The Southern Democratic wing of the party has been dying since the 1960s," said Larry Sabato, a University of Virginia political scientist. "It's not comatose. It's dead. It's buried." Larry Sabato.
See gang, Larry DOES get something right once in a while.
It's already happening; it is just as often that Zell Miller is called a DINO as Arlen Specter and others are called RINOs.
There aren't many other DINOs; most of them have jumped to the GOP where they belong.
A "conservative" should have at least 70% from at least most of the right-wing groups, and less than 30% from at least most of the left-wing groups. (If there is one exception, that is sometimes OK depending on the group - i.e. someone who has some environmental credentials but is a staunch social conservative)
That's why the democrats are so in favor of illegal immigration, to repopulate the democratic party in the South. Give illegals amnesty and that's exactly what will happen.
If they so badly want to come to America, why don't they file and go through the system and do it fairly to prove their worth (or lack thereof)?
I don't know how ANYONE can support illegal immigration! Especially when there are legal options!
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