A National Party No More

Rating:
Summary: Old School Democrat
Review: It's easy to pick out the democrat reviews of this book. They're the one's that claim Senator Miller isn't a dem. anymore, or never was.
The fact of matter is, he's the kind of democrat they should strive to be. I was a democrat, but I was cured by Jimmy Carter and subsequent dems of that.
Sen. Miller is a man of conscience and knows his party has left him behind.
Both parties have problems, but the dems are the one's who have tried to turn our counrty in a feel good place where no one says anything negative to anyone at anytime, and where the government runs everything. And oh by the way shut up and send us your taxes because we know better then you how to spend it.
After reading this book I realize my own defection was the right thingk to do. Sen Miller won't though for his own personal reasons.
This book is for the democrats who still think for themselves, and don't have a knee jerk reaction to critiicism.
Democrats!!!-----Get rid of Michael Moore and embrace Sen Zell Miller.

Rating:
Summary: Oh Democratic Party Where Goest Thou?
Review: I can identify with Zel Miller. My background as the daughter of Irish and Russian Jewish immigrants made me a Democrat by default. The great Democratic Party of the nineteenth and early twentieth centures gave hope to the poor. I use the past tense because I vote Republican now.

Senator Miller is a loyal Democrat in spite of some of the reviews on Amazon. He believes in government helping the people in the best sense of Jeffersonian democracy. His family have been loyal Democrats since the middle of the nineteenth century. He doesn't recognize present day Democrats as the party of his forbears, and neither do I.

The Democratic Party at the federal level is the slave of special interest groups especially the abortion lobby. In spite of rhetoric to the contrary, all the judicial nominees who are well qualified in every sense have been voted down by unconstitutional filibuster because of their perceived opposition to Roe vs. Wade.

Two other high powered lobby groups are the education lobby and the enviromental lobby. The NEA opposes vouchers. As a result, millions of inner city blacks and hispanics are trapped in decaying schools with inferior teachers and curriculum. The Democratic Party used to boast it defended the defenseless and the oppressed. Tell that to the kids who are being denied a quality education by their elected Democratic representatives.

One little area in Alaska, ANWAR, cannot be drilled for oil because the Sierra Club and others oppose us. Gas prices go up for Joe Sixpack because of the Democrats and leave our country dependent upon foreign oil.

Zel Miller is not so much a conservative as a traditionalist. His experience in Washington has filled him with disgust at his own party which has abandoned the Red States--states that include the South and most of the Midwest.

It would be nice if the Democrats would listen to one of their own before it is too late. I don't see that happening soon. Tom
Daschle, Ted Kennedy, Chuck Schumer et al. are living in their dream world where Republicans play golf and are rich and evil. They play the class warfare game, the racial game, the abortion card, and we are all the losers.

Zel Miller points out that John F. Kennedy was strong on defense and lowered taxes. John F. Kennedy also carred the South.

No Democrat is going to carry one Southern state in 2004.

A National Party No More!

Rating:
Summary: This Man is a Republican!
Review: I don't care what this man say's he is a Republican! plain and simple, anyone who would side with the boob running this country is a Republican. "I was born a Democrat" he claims, the only thing he was born to be is an ignorant clown! and the only thing missing from this wretched book is the dueling banjos playing every time you turn the page. Zell Miller is a stupid loutish southern hillbilly and a disgrace to the Democratic party. Where are the centrist Democrats and Republicans? and why aren't they writing books? instead of all these radical nihilistic boor's(Ingraham,Coulter,Savage,Hannity).

Rating:
Summary: Still a party. Miller's just not invited.
Review: Zell Miller was, by all accounts, a tremendously popular governor and statesman. He was also one of the Old South Democrats.

What people seem to forget is that political parties and ideologies are always in flux. The Republican party is the party of Lincoln, but Lincoln wouldn't recognize the party today as the one to which he belonged.

Likewise, the Democrats of the South (most of whom became Democrats precisely because Lincoln WAS a Republican) used to be fiercely conservative types.

That's no longer the case. As the Republicans move farther and farther to the right, the Democrats are slowly abandoning the milquetoast centrist attitude and embracing the Howard Dean/Wesley Clark version of liberal disenfranchisement. That's what Miller dislikes. Like an earlier reviewer wrote. Miller would be wise to embrace the Libertarian party, rather than whine about the legacies of Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter.

Rating:
Summary: The people who really need to read this book, won't.
Review: I really enjoy Mr. Miller's plain-spoken methods. A quick read, this book covers a variety of topics and is never monotonous. At times this book transcends politics with good old-fashioned common sense. Personally, I enjoyed the segment about accepting responsibility for your own actions, which is what a lot of people fail to do in our society.

Variety is the spice of life, as they say, and the variety in politics is what makes things interesting, but Mr. Miller is correct in his assessment of the Democratic Presidential candidates and the leanings of the Party today. A little less special interest pandering, and a lot more caution would temper the candidates "anger" and possibly make them a more appealing party once again to voters they have lost in the past.

Rating:
Summary: Zell Miller and Regular People
Review: "You hardly ever see a pickup truck in Washington, D.C." Senator Zell Miller explained. "They're scarce up here and that's why I'm concerned the pickup owners of this nation might get screwed in all this gas guzzler talk about SUVs and vans."

How many websites at the U.S. Sentate have a quote like this one on their front page? I bet that the answer is "one" - Zell Miller's. The point of his comment is concern about everyday people in the United States, not people who drive Lexus SUVs, not movie stars, and not CEOs of large corporations. He is concerned about regular people who I see in abundance driving their pickups to work at 6 A.M. on Atlanta's freeways.

If you think that the quote from Miller's website is stupid, idiotic or just uncouth, you will not like this book. If you think that the line of argument is interesting, whether or not you agree with it, you will find Miller's book on the Democratic Party interesting.

Miller's concerns and principles, including their personal origins and their implications, are made simply and forcibly in A National Party No More. I found the book to be a fascinating read. I came away from the book wishing that I knew him - he surely is an interesting man. I also came away sad for our country - someone with his set of principles does not quite fit in at the Republican Party and definitely does not fit in at the Democratic Party.

A National Party No More is not an analytical discussion of the Democratic Party's problems and solutions to those problems. It does explain the problems faced by the Democratic Party in the South and explains why conservative southern Democrats are a vanishing breed. (Senator Henry Jackson was a conservative, northern Democrat, but there have not been a lot of them since World War II and none on the national scene since his passing.) In fact, my guess is that there is exactly one office holder who is a conservative Democrat in 2004, he is not running for re-election, and he wrote this book.

Rating:
Summary: Completely lacks integrity
Review: Okay, lots of conservatives are jumping on this one, "Look even a Democrat is turning on his party." Okay first let's get one thing straight, Zell Miller is NOT a Democrat. The only thing Democratic about him is the "D" next to his name. Want proof, here is a direct quote on the reason why he even claimed to be a Democrat from Hannity and Colmes:

COLMES: ...you're going to vote for George W. Bush in the upcoming election. You've approved his tax cuts. You've been leading the charge on war development. You supported Ashcroft for attorney general...I could go down a list of positions you've had that are conservative positions. Why are you a Democrat?
MILLER: Because I was born that way. I try to get into that in this book. There in the southern Appalachian Mountains where I come from, you were born a Democrat or you were born a Republican.
COLMES: It's got nothing to do with where you stand on the positions?
MILLER: Well, not exactly because back then in Georgia politics, practically everyone ran in the Democratic primary.

So his main reason to be a Democrat was because EVERONE else was and he was raised that way. Wow, talk about a lack of ethics! He has shown what a weasel he is (which is even more like Republicans).

Look Zell, you can say whatever you want about the Democratic party (we liberals actually SUPPORT freedom of speech), but don't try to pass this off as an "insider's" look into the Demcratic party. My real concern with the Democratic party is how the DNC could even put up with this charlatan.

Rating:
Summary: Great Historical View of Dems
Review: Zell Miller brings 50 years of democratic politics to this excellent analysis of where the party is today. His personal history, well told, helps us understanding why, today, he is fed up with the special-interests' control of his party. The book is full of down-home anecdotes, great inisights into previous presidential campaigns and first-hand knowledge of how the system can destroy a candidate and a party. I highly recommend this book - it is lively and entertaining as well as educational!

Rating:
Summary: A National Party No More
Review: Zell Miller is a political icon in the state of Georgia. He has spent 28 years serving the people of Georgia. I have not always seen eye to eye with him, but I have been pleasantly surprised with his service in the US Senate. He was appointed, then elected to fill the remainder of Paul Coverdell's term in the Senate after Coverdell died. "A National Party No More: The Conscience of a Conservative Democrat" has a special message to the Democratic party in America. Zell Miller has been a Democrat all his life, and he writes that he is a Democrat in the mold of FDR, Harry Truman, LBJ, Richard Russell, Herman Talmadge, and Jimmy Carter. His message is rather simple. The national Democratic party has forgotten about the South. He points out that in 1972, 1984, 1988, and 2000 that the Democratic candidate for president carried no state in what he calls the Old Confederacy. In 1968, the party carried only one state and only Georgia went for Jimmy Carter in 1980. In all those years the Republican was elected president. In 1976, Jimmy Carter carried 10 Southern states and won. Bill Clinton carried four states in 1992 and 1996 and he won. The reason that the Democrats are doing so badly in the South is that they've become too liberal. Dean, Kerry, Ted Kennedy, and the like never come to the South to campaign for a Senate or House candidate because they are too liberal. He says that unless the party moves more toward the center, they will continue to lose the White House. The 11 states in the "Old Confederacy" now have 153 electoral votes. That is a huge lead the Democrats are giving the Republicans each year. Zell's book is well written and conveys his views on what is wrong with his party. And to show that he practices what he preaches, Zell has endorsed George W. Bush for president in 2004, and will even campaign for him. "A National Party No More: The Conscience of a Conservative Democrat" is highly recommended.

Rating:
Summary: Rights of the Individual
Review: In his book Mr. Miller states he believes a person should be allowed to use another person's body without that persons consent. What next Mr. Miller? Mandatory kidney donations? Repeal of rape laws? Do the Democrats a favor Mr. Miller and join the GOP, or, better yet, retire.