Review

About the Author
Zell Miller began his career in public service in 1959 with a term as mayor of Young Harris, Georgia. In 1960, he was elected to the Georgia Senate at the age of 28. In 1974, he won the first of four consecutive terms as Georgia’s lieutenant governor. Then in 1990, Miller ran for governor and won the first of two terms he would serve as the state’s top leader.

Miller’s HOPE Scholarship program was dubbed by the Los Angeles Times as "the most far-reaching scholarship program in the nation." His pre-kindergarten program won an award for innovation from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard.

After leaving the governor’s office in 1999, Miller taught at Emory University and at his alma maters, the University of Georgia and Young Harris College. Five books have been written by Miller, including Corps Values: Everything You Need To Know I Learned in the Marines. He also served on several corporate boards before joining the Senate, where he now serves.

Excerpted from "A National Party No More: The Conscience of a Conservative Democrat" by Zell Miller. Copyright © 2003. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

"And so, Mr. Miller went to Washington. I wish I could say the experience has been like Jimmy Stewart's in 'Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.' I wish I could say that I found Washington all I had ever dreamed it to be, the place where the great issues of the day are debated and solved, and great giants walk those hallowed halls. I so wanted Robert Louis Stevenson to be wrong when he wrote, 'It is better to travel hopefully than to arrive.'

"Unfortunately, what I discovered in Washington was truth, and truth did not set me free. It simply made me mad. It filled me with anger on behalf of Americans. You might still ask why I would want to take my own party to the woodshed. The answer is simple: My conscience made me do it."

Book Description
With the growl of the Marine sergeant he was, Senator Zell Miller leaves no doubt that he believes his own Democratic Party is badly out of step with most of the country and needs to shape up or ship out.

As part of a stinging critique of the Democratic Party, Miller outlines key positions on important issues that can again make the party relevant for the entire nation. From tax cuts to welfare, gun control to the environment, the arts to education, immigration to terrorism, Miller identifies values that make sense to a growing majority of Americans.

Miller's candid analysis of the campaigns of Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton further underscores his conclusion that the Democratic Party can no longer field a serious presidential challenge.

Many party loyalists will not like what Senator Miller writes; yet his credentials are beyond question, for few Democrats have worked longer or stronger for the party and its candidates. Zell Miller has served in an elective office in each of the last six decades. When he left office as governor after two terms, he had an 85 percent approval rating, prompting the Washington Post to call him the most popular governor in the country. After getting to Washington, he became President Bush’s biggest Democratic supporter, but steadfastly refused to switch parties.

A National Party No More is a firsthand account from the enigmatic senator who has confounded his Democratic colleagues. Driven by conscience and common sense, Senator Miller names the self-destructive direction of his party and stubbornly pulls the Democratic family toward reform.

Had Zell Miller chosen a writing career instead of politics he still would have been highly successful. His latest book, A National Party No More, is like reading a nice long letter from Zell to me. Reading his clear simple prose, I often felt that I was with him on his porch in the hills of Northern Georgia or strolling through the halls of the Senate as he pointed out the problems of dealing with the neo-socialist Democrats who now rule Zell's side of the aisle.

The only difficulty I had with the book was when Zell talked about his parent's politics. His reminiscences caused my mind to wander back to my own family and the foothills of North Carolina. My parents were Democrats just like Zell's and at my birth in 1935, well before the New Deal played out, I was christened Franklin Delano. And just like Zell, as I grew up I expected to be a life-long Democrat.

But unlike Zell, I couldn't stay the course. When Democrats in the Senate accepted Ted Kennedy as one of their leaders after he had killed a young woman while he was in a drunken stupor, and then watched silently as the Kennedy’s "fixed" the inquiry into the affair, I had second thoughts about being 'one of them.' I fled to the Republican Party only to find Tricky-Dick Nixon and his den of felons.

Zell tells us that he isn't comfortable where he is but he is going to live out his days in his "old house" and for that I admire him. For thirty years now I have lived in a "new house" of political purgatory as an Independent, but it’s a mess. I want a say-so in who finally runs for office so I must constantly change my voter registration to participate in primaries. But I can effect only one side or the other and then, I seldom find an acceptable candidate on the final ticket. In reality, I end up voting AGAINST candidates more often than I vote FOR candidates.

It would be helpful to have a critique of the Republican Party from a good diehard Republican similar to Zell's analysis of the Democrats. Then, after every voter in America has read both books, we would certainly replace the lobbyist-lovers in Washington with people like Zell Miller.