So go back to 1988.
Perry was part of the Democratic Party and trying to find leadership roles.
Gary Hart drops out. Who is left to support?
Michael Dukakis
Jesse Jackson
Dick Gephardt
Paul Simon
or one of several others with little chance for success.
Zell Miller, another conservative democrat, saw the options the same way Perry did. He certainly was one of the more conservative democrats. As did several others.
http://www.ourcampaigns.com/RaceDetail.html?RaceID=55210&ShowAllEndorse=Y
Thank you, I remember 1988 very well. With all due respect to Zell Miller, he did earn the moniker of “Zig-Zag” for a reason, and that being he was all over the map. First he was Conservative, then he was a liberal, then he was Conservative again. While he was “fine” when he went to the right, he was hardly a stable element. Unlike in Texas, the Georgia Democrat party was close to 2 decades away from collapsing. Perry jumped ship just as it was sinking, and that was pure, unadulterated opportunism. If the TX GOP were at the same point in 1988 as the GA GOP was (or the TN GOP, which was dead, and had been since after Watergate until 1994), Perry would’ve remained a Democrat for a long, long time to come. He could’ve just as effortlessly been Clinton in ‘92 (or his running mate) or Gore 2000.
I expect that kind of flipflopping and opportunism in the Democrat party, but I don’t trust those that come over to the GOP, especially when they still cling to their same behaviors and actions. This guy is no reformist and no small-government type. He’s just another establishment pol we see in both parties. He’s fine with talking tough at election time, just like Gore’s “Conservative” schtick, but yet it just doesn’t match the walk. You see why many of us remain thoroughly unimpressed.