Rep. Allen Boyd - Or How I Learned to Stop Complaining and Love the Blue Dogs

From Alan Brock:

First, What is a Blue Dog Democrat? Wikipedia defines Blue Dog Democrats as social and economic conservatives and moderates in the United States Democratic Party, tending to be economic populist and social conservatives. Often a Blue Dog Democrat supports the Democratic Parties social programs (Social Security) but not all of the social issues (Pro-life instead of pro-choice). But as always, the Democratic Party is a big tent and you find different levels of support among the Congressional Blue Dogs for different conservative issues; they don't necessarily have set issues or a platform that they all agree on.

If you read the link in the Title Bar you will read an article from the Tallahassee Democrats that discusses these Blue Dog Democrats. They aren't these DINOs (Democrats In Name Only) that some people treat them as, they are strong Democrats who work hard to help further the Democratic Agenda. All but one of the Blue Dogs vote the party line over two thirds of the time!

Congressman Boyd does an Excellent job at representing our expansive and diverse district, stretching from the cost of Walton County deep into the northern section of our state (to Suwannee, Lafayette and Dixie, and I would be glad to bet that as long as he wants the seat it is his). District 2 is one more safe Democrat Seat in the Congress and when we only have 202 of the 435 seats it is important that we hold onto every one that we can.

Why am I bringing this up today? Because more and more people keep sharing with me their displeasure with Rep. Boyd's voting record and especially his stance on Social Security. Thanks to several commercials that ran in constant rotation here in Tallahassee we know that Rep. Boyd is the only Democrat who activity supports private accounts for Social Security. This is similar to what President Bush talks about all the time, but it isn't the President's plan. I called Rep. Boyd's office in DC to make sure that I understood Rep. Boyd's stance on Social Security. Rep. Boyd DOES NOT support the president's plan. His office told me one of the main reasons that Rep. Boyd doesn't support the President's plan is "because the president doesn't have a plan". The administration keeps spouting rhetoric instead of developing an actual plan. Representative Boyd is supporting a bipartisan bill that has been out there since 1996, and he has been a co-sponsor since 1999. There are foreseeable problems with social security and he has been politically brave enough to try and develop a system to preserve a program that many of us take for granted or at least want to take for granted when it is time for us to retire.

I have had a lot of people tell me that they feel that we should run someone against Rep. Boyd, or that he 'should just go ahead and switch parties'. This frustrates me, I cannot imagine how it must make the representative feel. He is a proud Democrat. Rep.Boyd has sided with the Republicans/conservatives on some issues, but if he got frustrated and decide that he no longer wanted to deal with the complainers and decide to take the foolish advice of switching parties (and I am sure that there have been enticing offers)....Then he wouldn't vote with the Democrats at all any longer. He is a good man and he votes the party line when he needs to, he helps ensure that our important issues get passed.

I am glad that our Congressman is a Democrat, one that does an excellent job of representing his North Florida District and I will continue to vote for Allen Boyd as long as he wants to be our Democratic Congressman.