Why vote for any yellow dog running as a Democrat?

[flaminbats]

Most Democrats I know don't vote a straight ticket. Partisan loyalty and straight ticket voting is more common among southern Republicans. Since 1964 those who once supported any name placed on the Democratic ticket broke ranks, and supported Barry Goldwater. One of the central objectives of the civil rights movement was to organize minorities nationwide as a powerful force within the Democratic party. For decades the few blacks who could vote supported Republicans. The Democratic bosses and southern conservatives used poll taxes and segregated primaries to limit the influence of minorities.

Martin Luther King was among the first to see that little could be accomplished within a minority party, he knew the real challenge was breaking down racial barriers preventing minorities from participating in Democratic politics. Once these barriers were broken down whites slowly began to flock into the Republican Party. In the eighties southern whites stopped being yellow dogs and became Reagan Democrats. By the time Clinton ran many of these voters backed Perot for President in 92, and Republicans for Congress in 1994.

Now the cycle is complete, Republicans are in power and our party has been reduced to a weak coalition of activists and dissidents. How can progressives and activists continue to be a force in national politics? The solution is simple..time for all members of unions, the ACLU, NAACP, antiwar activists, and Democratic leaders to jointly register as Republicans. How will southern Republicans react as minorities unite nationwide and vote in the GOP primaries? How will conservative voters respond as progressives become the new leaders within the Republican party? There is a limit to white flight, but if Democrats unite and join the Republican party only the worst fanatical neoconservative elements would abandon the party in power. Southern whites can't be forced to join the Democratic Party, but minorities and liberals can't be stopped from becoming Republicans.

If Democrats lose again in 2006, I believe this will be the best alternative. Politics is the art of the possible. Is it worth the risk, do we have the courage and unity to directly confront these neocons within the Republican party?