As a fellow Southerner, a former Democrat, an erstwhile supporter of Barry Goldwater, and a current conservative Republican, I can vouch for what Steven says here.
Regards,
Jerry Moos
Houston, TX
> On 11/08/2003 09:12 PM, "Atrikerider@aol.com" <Atrikerider@aol.com> wrote:
>
> > Well, I suppose that I could look it up but what is a yellow dog
Democrat?
> >
> > Paul Patzkowsky
> > A descendant of Prussian Mennonites who left Russia after Catherine the
Great
> > to become Holy Rollers and Baptists. Considered radical by my
Evangelical
> > friends and a red neck by my Boulderish neighbors.
>
>
> Until the civil rights movement, the Democratic Party was very popular in
> the South, because it was NOT "the party of Lincoln" ...
>
> The origin of the term was that a Southerner would vote for a yellow dog,
if
> it ran on the Democratic party ticket.
>
> William Safire's "New Political Dictionary" says that the term goes back
to
> the 1928 Presidential election. Alabama Sen. Tom Heflin (a Democrat)
bucked
> the party line, and backed Republican candidate Herbert Hoover, because
the
> Democratic party nominated Al Smith, the governor of New York and a
> Catholic.
>
> While Heflin supported Hoover, others from Alabama stuck with Smith and
> popularized the line, "I'd vote for a yellow dog if he ran on the
Democratic
> ticket." This was during the days when voting Republican in the South was
> considered heresy, a view that lasted pretty much until Barry Goldwater
came
> along in 1964, during the height of the civil rights movement.
>
> SLS
> SLC
> UT
>
> --
> Steven L. Sheffield
> stevens at veloworks dot com
> veloworks at worldnet dot ay tea tee dot net
> bellum pax est libertas servitus est ignoratio vis est
> ess ay ell tea ell ay kay ee sea aye tee why you ti ay aitch
> aitch tee tea pea colon [for word] slash [four ward] slash double-you
> double-yew double-ewe dot veloworks dot com [four word] slash