Guest
Contributor
Zell Miller
Zell Miller
is United States Senator from Georgia.
 Abandoned
Democrats turn backs on South...
[Zell Miller] 9/23/04
Many of
my Democratic friends seem more interested in shooting the
messenger than in considering the message. So perhaps we
need to go back and review the facts:
- In 44 years, no Democrat has won the White House unless
he had a platform that could sell in the South.
- In 40 years, no Democrat has won the White House unless
he was from the South.
- So how do today's national leaders in the Democratic Party
respond to these two irrefutable facts? Simple: Run everyone
out of the
party who is moderate or conservative, and therefore, run
the Democratic Party out of the South.
Here are some more facts:
- In 1980, the South (Virginia, Kentucky, Arkansas,
Oklahoma and all states below) had 26 U.S. senators - 20 of
them were
Democrats and just six were Republicans.
- In 1980, the Senate swung toward Republicans, but
then back to Democrats in 1986.
- By 1994, the South had 17 Democratic senators and
nine Republicans.
- 2004, the South has 17 Republican senators and just
nine Democrats.
- In 2005, there's
a good possibility that ratio could go to 22 Republicans
and just four Democrats.
So the facts are that the Republican and Democratic strength
in the U.S. Senate in the South has completely reversed in 10
years. By next year, Democratic senators in the South could be
one-fifth their strength in 1980.
At the exact time the South is growing in both population and
power, the Democratic presence in the South has dwindled drastically.
See why I call it a national party no more?
When John Kennedy won in 1960, the South accounted for about
one-fourth of the Electoral College vote. Today, the South accounts
for almost one-third of the Electoral College - 31 percent. That
gain in the South's vote share is equal to Ohio's share.
And so all at the same time, three things are happening: The
South is becoming more powerful; it is trending Republican; and
it is absolutely essential to the election of any Democratic
presidential candidate. But when I argue that the party must
stop driving out moderate and conservative Democrats, I am somehow
a traitor?
This lifelong Democrat can no longer ignore the consequences
that the soft defense and weak foreign policy views of the national
Democratic Party have on my children and grandchildren. And that
was what my speech in New York was all about.
One day, there will be a rebirth of the Democratic Party in
the South, a rebirth where there is room for moderates and conservatives
and where there is a place for a John Kennedy Democrat who believes
in a strong national defense and cutting taxes. Today is not
that day. CRO
This
piece first appeared
in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution
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