Zell Miller and the Democratic Party

While on vacation, I borrowed and read Senator Zell Miller’s book, A National Party No More. This is an excellent book about the Democratic Party, their demise, and Southern politics with a little autobiographical touch thrown in for fun. Zell gets his points across and has some memorable lines. For instance when he says Pat Buchannan is so pessimistic that he "looks both ways before crossing a one-way street."

Senator Miller correctly notes that Southern men like himself a Democrats not by choice, but because it is "in the DNA." He goes through his opinions which include pro-life, pro-second amendment, and pro-education. He is a Democrat so he sees some place for Democrat stances such as a lottery to fund education. Georgia’s is the only one in the nation that actually works for education by the way. He shows how just a little common sense and focus on issues that mean something to normal folks, the Democrats would sweep through the elections as they have in the past. He shows how the only Democrtic Presidential winners in the recent past were those that would be thrown out of the party today. Bill Clinton won by having a common sense approach in the elections. He won several Southern States, but he acted against his campaign promises. Jimmy Carter won Southern states his first time around before going super liberal in office. Even JFK lowered taxes, a must for Southern Democrats. Traditional Democratic values according to Senator Miller.

Miller gives some inside info on how the Special Interest Groups run Washington on both sides of the isle. The book was written in 2003, so it pre-dates Jack Abramoff, but does mention how wives of Senators get jobs as lobbyists. He has some good ideas to save the Democratic Party. If they listen to him, they will put up former Virginia Governor Warner, support the military, lower taxes, and win the election. I do not agree with all of Mr. Miller’s political thought in the book, but it is an honest, well written, and stinging critic.