Yellow Dog

In these days of "blue dog Democrats" people have forgotten the term, yellow dog democrats, but maybe it is time for revival.

My father, who passed away last week, was a true and proud yellow dog. Although he was financially successful, he came from nothing and never turned his back on those who were, like he, trying to achieve the American dream.

Ironically, my father was born in November 1928, the year the term "yellow dog" was born. During that presidential campaign, Al Smith, Governor of NY, ran as the democratic candidate, but was the first Catholic to do so. Senator Tom Heflin of Alabama refused to support the democratic candidate, backing instead, the republican Herbert Hoover - we know how the Hoover presidency worked out. Many in the South disagreed with Heflin's position, which evolved into the popular saying "I'd vote for a yellow dog if he ran on the Democratic ticket."

My father was a yellow dog through and through. He despised the Democratic party's lack of organization and cohesion, but at least knew that it truly represented America, not just some narrow slice of America, economically, socially, religiously, ethnically etc .

So now we get to the Blue Dogs and Evan Bayh or we can call him "Bye". My father knew his father Birch Bayh, a yellow dog democrat. My father supported Birch Bayh for president and truly respected him. He also supported Evan, but recognized that these were, perhaps, more politically challenging times.

Thus, when I read on le web yesterday about Evan's plan to quit rather than fight, my immediate thought was wanting to discuss this with my yellow dog father. I knew that although he understood the extreme partisan ship currently in vogue in Washington, leading to governing gridlock, I also knew that my father would be as disappointed as I was that Bayh said "Bye" instead of staying and fighting the good fight. We will not win every skirmish or battle, but the key is to win the war, the war of ideas, of caring for our country and helping our people, rather than dividing and scaring them. Maybe we need to revisit the term Yellow Dog, and what the party was about in 1928, versus where it is now.

Perhaps the parallels will be apropos - the crash in 1929 under Hoover, leading to FDR's election and democratic control of congress for many years - what did the Dems get done? How did they do it? By populism, not protecting the banks and the bankers from their mistakes and fraud.

We need to get beyond the boring, divisive talking heads of CNN and FOX, and find our common ground, and move forward to rescue main street, not wall street. In 1928, yellow dogs were populists. Let's forget about the weak blue dogs and move on. Say bye to Bayh.