For whom Zell tolls: how not to forge the next Democratic coalition.

• Author: Teixeira, Ruy
• Position: A National Party No More: The Conscience of a Conservative Democrat - The Two Americas: Our Current Political Deadlock and How to Break It - Book Review

A National Party No more: The Conscience of a Conservative Democrat By Zell Miller Stroud and Hall, $26.00

The Two Americas: Our Current Political Deadlock and How to Break It By Stanley B. Greenberg Thomas Dunne Books, $25.95

These two books have a couple of things in common. Both argue that the Democratic Party needs some fundamental changes, and both invoke the spirit of John F. Kennedy. But they diverge sharply in describing where they want the Democratic Party to go. Stanley Greenberg, a prominent Democratic pollster and consultant who helped guide Bill Clinton to victory in 1992, argues that the Democrats are on the verge of a political breakthrough from the stalemate of "the two Americas" They can achieve that breakthrough, he believes, by advocating a bold program which moves toward the "opportunity society" envisioned by John F. Kennedy. But Sen. Zell Miller (D-Ga.), a former Georgia governor and Democratic apostate, argues that his party is on the verge of a complete meltdown and can only save itself by turning drastically to the right and becoming more like, well, JFK--which in Miller's opinion looks much the same as becoming more like Zell Miller. One thing we know for sure: They can't both be right. Let's try to sort it out, starting with the Miller book.

A National Party No More would be a bit easier to discuss if it was entirely a bad book. But it's not. The first quarter or so, which describes Miller's childhood and his rise in Georgia politics, is really interesting. Talk about retail politics: Here's how Miller, then a college professor, first ran for the Georgia State Senate in 1960 at age 28: "I got up before day-break to visit the early-rising mountain families around Owl Creek, Gum Log, Scataway, Bugscuffle, Bearmeat and the other isolated communities throughout the county. I'd be back at the college by nine o'clock to teach my first class. There was an old custom that if you woke up a man at night, it would emphasize to him just how important you thought his vote was. I woke up dozens. I'd always carry a gun on those excursions because feelings ran high and I traveled alone often on dark, lonely, dirt-rutted roads."

But A National Party No More is in most ways a bad book--indeed, a rather dreadful one. Most of the chapters are a toxic combination of corny folkisms, over-the-top jeremiads against fellow Democrats, and wonky recountings of Miller's policy innovations and accomplishments. That makes for some pretty tough slogging, especially given Miller's disjointed...