Prior to moving to the South, I had heard the term ‘Blue Dog Democrat’, and knew that it referred to a group of conservative Democrats, but had never much concerned myself with why Blue Dog meant conservative.
Well, on one of our first trips to NOLA, while window shopping in the French Quarter, I passed an art gallery on Royale Street filled with paintings by George Rodrigue, all of which were of blue dogs. It turns out that there were two Democratic congressmen from Louisiana, Tauzin and Hayes, who founded the Blue Dog Coalition, and each had paintings by Rodrigue on their walls. Both of the two representatives later switched to the Republican Party, believing that the dominance of the liberal wing of the party did not give them a voice in determining policies.
There are currently 53 members of the coalition. What I’m going to be looking at for the next 3-4 months are a few questions:
1. Are Blue Dogs consistently more conservative across a variety of issues than other Democrats?;
2. If not, are there some issues that induce congressmen to call themselves Blue Dogs than others?; and
3. Are Blue Dogs closer to Republicans or Democrats generally, and on the issues listed in #2 above?
My own tentative story is that some of the 53 Blue Dogs are not very conservative, generally. They instead refer to themselves as Blue Dogs to appeal to some of their constituents, who would prefer a moderate-conservative representative. I’ll let you know in February what I found out. In the meantime, maybe some of you could let me know what you think.
November 17th, 2009 at 7:54 am
Very clever question. Majority of the voters don’t care enough to research their local representative so the “blue dog” label is easier to transmit to the voters then a set of believes. That is why the Republican-Democrat brand is so hard to beat by a third party - it is harder to comprehend. In the NY23 race the republican who dropped out of the race received more votes then the difference between the Dem and the conservative. Voters just picked Republican - although it was an empty vote.
November 17th, 2009 at 9:41 am
The whole blue dog concept is a myth, they don’t really exist. How many blue dogs voted for the cap and trade bill? How many voted against it only as political cover? The so-called blue dogs vote along party lines 9 times out of 10 and only vote against it when they have enough cover to do so.
November 17th, 2009 at 2:53 pm
What would you call a 19th century Democrat, red, white and blue? When the Pilgrims came to North America, they emphasized the importance of legitimate individual self-interests. Individual freedom brought us the free market, and that brought us prosperity, far in excess of any other place on earth. Today, Obama tells us the interests of community are more important than are the interests of individuals, and a majority of Americans voted for him. He has put American government in opposition to individual freedom, the free market and, consequently our prosperity. He is sinking America’s identity into the rest of the world where 80% of the people are struggling just to survive day to day. The rest of the world objects to America having only 5% of the world’s people, yet using 25% of the world’s wealth. They, and Obama, believe America is unfair and he is busy apologizing for us. This is described in THE CHANGING FACE OF DEMOCRATS on Amazon and http://www.claysamerica.com.
November 17th, 2009 at 3:58 pm
Blue Dogs are liars. Simple as that.
November 17th, 2009 at 5:10 pm
And then our Republican Congressman, Cao,votes for the healthcare bill and he is a Republican!
November 17th, 2009 at 5:58 pm
He deserves to lose, Greta.
November 17th, 2009 at 5:59 pm
my dog is black. she runs like the wind.
blue dogs ? never seen no BLUE dog.
i feed my dog “progressives” for lunch.
November 17th, 2009 at 6:43 pm
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