How to deal with DINOS? How to decide?

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Only, for clarification...

Peole like Zell, I mean. Do we need every Dem we can get, or are we better off offering some primary opposition?

The stakes are so very high now.

Note: define DINO as YOU see fit, as far as I'm concerned.

Edit for emphasis: DINO by YOUR definition! Thank you.

Do you mean someone that doesn't fit your idea of a democrat?
You may not like it, but Zell Miller exactly fits the bill of the southern democrat from his generation.

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Anyway, welcome to DU.

That, by todays standards, Nixon GOVERNED as a 'moderate liberal'.

His progressive policies didn't really fit the mold of either political party at the time. Even though Bryan ran with a Populist platform as the Democratic nominee in 1896 and 1900, the party machinery was still much in the hands of conservatives.

Teddy didn't really have loyalty to either party. That's why he was such an awesome President.

BTW I'd vote for him just because of the "Bull Moose" speech.

I'm sure others have called you on that, and FDR, if that's who you mean, is the father of the modern Democratic party, so he would be no DINO, especially on entitlements and other liberal mainstays.

but no Dem I know of would have spoken at the opposition's convention.

I repeat, I invited the reader to define a DINO for themselves. I call Zell a DINO, your mileage may vary.

No true southern Democrat, no matter how far to the center, would ever bash the Dem nominee at the REPUBLICAN convention.

like Zell Miller who gives a pro-Bush speech at the REPUBLICAN convention? That was pure, simple zealotry....not an example of an old-fashioned Southern Conservative (or Northern Conservative) Democrat.

A real southern democrat from his generation wouldn't support a Republican President.

majority of dems--so he's pretty useless to us. so is lieberman.

i think we need to run progressives against them and then get the true democrats into office.

can it be done?

speaks to the economic issues facing people who work for a living is a great idea; in other districts it is not. Hillary Clinton is one example: her district is highly yuppiefied, so her DINO/DLC economics represent them very well.

You have to know your district, know how hard Bushonomics has hit them and how little Clintonomics actually helped them.

Then shake off all those advisors the DLC provides, and try to beat the DLC candidate now in office.

is a Democrat who votes the Bush agenda over 90% of the time. Someone told me this was the voting record of Blanche Lincoln during her first term in office. What I've done about it is to write her about my concerns. I've found that she will respond to letters and appears to actually read them. When she does something positive, such as on SS, I write and praise her as well. I've noticed that now that she's been voted a second term, she's taking more Democratic stands.

then to vote for the most liberal in the general election, even if the most liberal is a Zell style DINO. You take what you can get.

There are exceptions, though. A Democrat who goes so often against his party that he or she hurts the party, as opposed to simply pissing me off with a few votes, may be better treated as a LORD (Left On Road Defeated). Zell crossed that line. No point in giving Party money and time to someone who campaigns completely for the other side.

Of course, the less control we have in Congress, the less we have to lose by cleaning out the dead wood and starting to build from scratch. Not there yet, but we may be after 2006.

Living in the Democratic People's Republic of Illinois (my bartender's title, not mine) I have limited firsthand info, but you always support the party, if for no other reason that you might need a DINO or two to put the party over the top in either house of congress.

Better a DINO than any Republican.