Customer Reviews

A National Party No More: The Conscience of a Conservative Democrat

5 star:		(78)
4 star:		(30)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(11)
1 star:		(49)

 

 

Zell Miller's book is a portrait of a man basically betrayed by what used to be a truly NATIONAL party. Instead, Miller shows us a Democratic party dominated by extremists, and hardly recognizable as the part of JFK.

Miller comes across as a man with values weary with disillusion. In that sense, this is one of the saddest and most touching politcal books I've ever read. It appears that there is no room left in the Democratic Party for a moderate or conservative viewpoint. Have we come so far now that liberal is synonomous with Democrat? Must you take the morally perilous road in order to placate your party?

Be he conservative Democrat, disillusioned Independent, Zell Miller and his book are a throwback to an earlier era where country and beliefs where held above fringe groups and the "nothing is wrong unless it's Christian, military, or pro-life in nature" mentality.

Where is there for a compassionate man who believes in a strong America, a moral party platform, and compassionate social system left to go?

I have not read the book; and, thanks to the reviewers' descriptions, I'll most likely not purchase nor read it.
Hence, the neutral, 3-star rating.
A correction, though, to the first Spotlight Reviewer's comment on Senator Jeffords' switch: Jeffords is from Vermont, NOT New Hampshire. Please...give us SOME credit up here in NH.

This is not a book about what is wrong with the Democratic party - it is about what has gone totally berserk with the Washington establishment bowing at the altar of special interest groups - both in the Democratic and Republican parties.

This is a book about moral values and standing up for what is right no matter what party you affilate with. And if you use these principles to govern by, things will generally turn out for the good.

But as long as out current Washington leadership (all of it) continues to march us along the path of socialism, we are going to continue see the degradation of our government and society as a whole.

Zell Miller did quite a lot for his state and his country so it's disappointing to find him writing a book whose main premise is essentially that all of the nation's ills are caused by Democrats and/or liberals. Really, Senator, you are better than that! Anyone who is concerned about the truth as much as the Senator should know that truth is not the sole property of one party. The conservative cause and Republican Party certainly has no room to talk about who owns the truth.

What's even more disappointing about this book is that it appears that Sen. Miller either a) realizes his time is almost up and the book allows him remain in the national limelight and/or b) is a politician who feels left behind by the times and wants to make one last fight.

In the end, truth (or at least honesty) is also missing from this book. If your conscience is bothering you, Senator, isn't it a bit disingenuous to remain a democrat when you could easily move to the republican party?

Certainly, the democrats and those ultra liberals among the middle of the road members or main stream liberals have much to answer for and the Senator doesn't get to the heart of any of it. Why did they blindly support Bush in entering the Iraq War? Why has no one challenged the current administration on its problems with the truth (Enron, Halliburton, No Child Left Behind, etc.)? Why do democrats turn their backs on members of their own party who are pro life when they have long been known as the champion of those who cannot help themselves (and who better needs such help than an unborn child)? There are certainly many mainstream democrats whose views are not at the extreme and yet who oppose the policies of the current administration. In writing this book, Sen. Miller appears to assume that EVERY democrat is out there which is far from the truth.

Sen. Miller goes to great lengths to discuss how the democratic party is not in synch with the rest of the country. The problem is that he provides little basis to show that mainstream America has become ultra conservative. Certainly, his views have changed and grown further right over time and certainly there are many like him that have grown more conservative. However, when the 2000 presidential popular vote largely favors the more liberal candidate doesn't that contradict his argument? The Senator basically ignores that.

In truth, Sen. Miller, neither party owns the truth. It is as elusive to the republicans and conservatives as it is to democrats and liberals.

I admire Zell Miller for calling himslef a Democrat. But it is easy to see how he has sold out to the Bushees. He says he admires John Kerry's service in Vietnam, but questions his ability to run the country. Now he questions everything Kerry has done and stood for, and won't criticize a single thing on the Bush agenda. I am saddened that an American Senator will so willfully sell out and criticize many issues he once stood for such as health care, and higher education, in order to discredit one of his own colleagues who believes in the things Mr. Miller once supported.

The man sees his power waning. and is now seeking to kiss the feet of the right wing hate mongers. It is pure trash and should be ridiculed in that manner. The man is an ugly little toad who has no sense of what a joke he is. He is being used by the right wing for their own purposes. But soon he will be like that other example of virtue, Paula Jones, be thrown out with the republican trash!

Zell Miller's story of his life and his rise in the Democratic Party is a great and interesting read. It is a story of rising above one's place in the world, above one's prejudices and finally above one's political affiliation to get where he needs to be.

The story itself however is more compelling than the message that the party has basically become a secular religion. This in itself is not surprising as the shared moral values of the country for right or wrong disappeared when the shared source of said morals was removed from secular society in the late 50's and early 60's.

His epiphany that the Democratic Party no longer stands for what it once was is only shocking in its lateness. This is something that I discovered back in '92 (leaving the party at that time) but he can be forgiven for the tardiness of this discovery since he has been high in the ranks for so long that he missed the forest from the trees.

I don't think this is a timeless book it is relevant now but will likely not stand the test of time. I would recommend it only as a story of Miller's life

In A NATIONAL PARTY NO MORE, Senator Zell Miller explains his disenchantment with his own Democratic Party and why he has, over the years, sided far more with Republican values. What distinguishes Miller's book from the many other and similar screeds that lash out at the opposing side is his penchant for using homilies and folksy metaphors to indict a liberal way of life that he sees as having strayed greatly from the time-honored Democratic values of presidents Roosevelt, Truman, and Kennedy. Miller opposes gun control, abortion, and the current tendency for liberals to see America as a sociological petri dish from which unwanted bedrock changes can be instituted using what he sees as a twisted reading of the Constitution. Miller spends much of his book hiking down a Georgia memory lane. He learned first hand how to go out and get the vote by meeting with innumerable country folk, most of whom are well capable of distinguishing between a hand and a hand out during troubled times. Miller's writing style matches his philosophy-an easygoing belief in the ability of his constituency to pull themselves up by their bootstraps. However, he does not do enough to probe why his belief in self-sufficiency is inherently preferable to the leftist belief that tossing money at problems is the best way to solve them. Still, A NATIONAL PARTY NO MORE is a thought-provoking attempt by an admittedly old-fashioned political warrior to comprehend why this nation is fast approaching an election that will pull this nation in a direction that will be either disastrously wrong or confidently right.

In this excellent book Mr. Miller lays out how the democratic party has veered dangerously off-course.

The problem in this book is in no way unique, it is a problem as old as organizations. It is a problem which befell the predecessor of the Republican Party known of in history books as the "Whigs". Like the Whigs the Democratic Party of today is not centrist enough in nature to sucessfully obtain/hold onto power. While the comparision is not perfect in that there was only one Whig President, its policies and idealogies were out of step with those of most American's within its time. For it was not until Lincoln himself a former moderate whig that the sucessor to the Whig's party were able to began a rapid ascent towards greater political power.

Like the Democrats the Republican Party has faced similar bouts of internal division/decay which opened the door for the decades long accendency of the Democrats after 1932.

Two problems loom large for the democrats these consist of what the role of government , followed by internal division following the convention of 1968.

While many american's like the social programs such as (Social Security/Medicare)they are increasingly leery about the idea of expanding the waist size of the current government for other programs like (National Health Care). Indeed many favor minor modifications to ensure stability of current programs as opposed to the creation of major expansions. In addition enthusiasm for new programs is muted by a public that knows full well who is going to have to pay for them.

More troublesome for the democratic is the idealogical shift in the party since the 68' convention. Prior to the 68' convention you could be pro defence, support tax cuts and hold judeo-christian values.

Now an increasing tide of former democrats feel so unfairly maligned they are unlikely to return to the party for a generation or more if that.

Indeed this is where the book hits the problem squarely on the head. The book correctly outlines how 1968 broke the donkey's back. Based on the party reversing itself on key principles supported by most americans such as (strong national defense, interventionism in places like S Korea, Berlin, etc) and (Lower Taxes as inacted by J.F.K in the early 60s). To create an posionious atmosphere for moderate/mainstream democrats to rise to the surface.

While Kennedy and to some extent Clinton knew how to harness the center within the party. Poor and undisciplined leadership have created a crisis of leadership and allowed an opportunity for the ghosts of extremism from 68' to rise to the surface.

Alas if the party fails to correct its current course and fails to adopt centrist policies a decades long isolation from political power if not outright extinction is a very real possibility.

As a successful Georgia politician, Zell knows why the Democrats have lost their way south of the Mason-Dixon line. As a writer, Zell tells his story in a direct, plain-spoken, and engaging way.

The early chapters are chronological and biographical, and the later chapters spotlight issues where Zell thinks the national Democratic party and their Southern constituents part company. Finally, Zell closes with some analysis of the successful and unsuccessful presidential candidates.

The chapter breaks are logical and the material is well organized but some details are needlessly repeated. A good editor could have improved this work with just one more draft. Despite this flaw, the book will still help you know Zell, and help you know why the Democrats have lost their way south of the Mason-Dixon line.