Southern manifesto.(Book Review)

A National Party No More: The Conscience of a Conservative Democrat By Senator Zell Miller Stroud & Hall, 256 pages, $26

In his latest book, Democratic Senator Zell Miller takes his party out behind the woodshed and applies the willow branch. The senator opens with stories of his youth that shaped his moral and political values. He acknowledges his debt to his mother, his wife, and the Democratic Party, to which he remains staunchly loyal. But Senator Miller believes his party has lost its way, beholden to special interest groups and liberal causes that do not represent mainstream America.

Senator Miller is one of a dying breed--the conservative Democrat. As he spells out his political positions in chapters targeting key election issues, he reveals he has much in common with Republicans. He favors cutting taxes (and reducing spending). He hates the obscene exhibits sponsored by the National Endowment for the Arts. He opposes gun control. And he favors drilling for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. No wonder the Republicans wanted him to switch parties when they lost their majority in the Senate.

Miller reminds Democrats that Thomas Jefferson, Andrew Jackson, and John Kennedy were all tax cutters. He warns Democratic would-be Presidents against abandoning the Bush tax cuts or announcing new spending programs, because such measures will cost them votes. He believes cutting the capital gains tax would not only help the American middle class invest in the stock market and save for retirement, but also increase tax revenues. Most emphatically, Miller would like to replace the income tax with a simpler flat tax or consumption-based tax.

Although he does not use the term, Senator Miller is essentially pro-life. He believes modern ultrasound technology "has proved the unborn baby is human" and that Roe v. Wade will be rejected as surely as was Dred Scott (a monumental comparison for a Senate Democrat). In both decisions, Miller suggests, the Supreme Court misdefined human life in order to reach a desired political result.

Miller grew up around guns, and though he instituted an instant background check in Georgia that prevented convicted violent felons from purchasing firearms, he views gun ownership as an important means of protecting freedom. lie co sponsored the ...