Yellow Dogs

Democrats across the country have been up in arms recently over Zell Miller's seeming defection to the GOP and his disgraceful unloyalty. Give me a goddamn break. 1) We didn't whine when Mr. Jeffords came over to the Democratic side. 2) Why the hell did we want Zell Miller anyway? Miller was one of the last of the Yellow Dog Democrats, a term that has had various meanings in different regions but for white southerners was this simple: "you can never vote for the Republicans because they took away our property back in the 1860s." Thankfully, with political realignment begun in 1932 and moved forward especially in 1948, 1964, 1968 and 1972, most of these Yellow Dog Dems had left the party (the only prominent one left, Senator Byrd of WV has been forthright in his renunciation of past beliefs) and have had in fact formed the core of the Republican Party. Good riddance. These race-baiting, anti-labor, god and wife loving but servant impregnating wolves in populist sheeps clothing have been a blight on American politics since the days of JC (John Calhoun). One of my favorite ahistoricism of American politics is when Republicans try to claim the legacy of America's "Second Reconstruction" (Republicans would never use this term of course, courtesy of the greatest of great historians, C Vann Woodward, as it would offend a large section of their base that could best be referred to as Dunning School, or for the non-historian readers, big (non-film student) fans of Birth of a Nation) as their own by arguing (truly) that more Republicans voted for the 3 Civil Rights Acts of the 60s than did Democrats. Of course, they always forget to mention that within ten years 1968, all but three Democrats who were still alive and voted against the bills had switched parties and had helped solidify the modern Republican base. Zell Miller is the last of a breed, thankfully, and his "disloyalty" is nothing more than one of the last gasps of the political realignment of teh mid-twentieth century. Applaud Mr. Miller for finally joining his breathren in the comfy confines of the GOP's "big tent" and get back to the important work of truly running a campaign and (re)building a party that should not be big tent, at least if that tent includes Yellow Dogs still bitter about the war of northern aggression and loss of the idyllic plantation way of life.