Boll weevils was an American political term used in the mid- and late-20th century to describe conservative Southern Democrats. The Democratic Party is one of two major political parties in the United States, the other being the Republican Party. ...

During and after the administration of Franklin D. Roosevelt, 'boll weevils' were part of the coalition generally in support of Roosevelt's New Deal and Harry Truman's Fair Deal economic policies, but were opposed to desegregation and the American civil rights movement. On several occasions between 1948 and 1968, a prominent conservative Southern Democrat broke from the Democrats to run a third party campaign for President on a platform of states rights: Strom Thurmond in 1948, Harry F. Byrd in 1960, and George Wallace in 1968. In the 1964 presidential election, 5 states in the Deep South (then a Democratic stronghold) voted for Republican Barry Goldwater over Southern Democrat Lyndon B. Johnson, partly due to Johnson's support of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Goldwater's opposition to it. After 1968, with desegregation a settled issue, the Republican Party began a strategy of trying to win conservative Southerners away from the Democrats and into the Republican Party (see Southern strategy and silent majority). Franklin Delano Roosevelt (January 30, 1882–April 12, 1945), 32nd President of the United States, the longest-serving holder of the office and the only man to be elected President more than twice, was one of the central figures of 20th century history. ... Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: New Deal For other uses of New Deal and The New Deal, see New Deal (disambiguation). ... For the victim of Mt. ... In United States history, the Fair Deal was U.S. President Harry S. Trumans policy of social improvement, outlined in his 1949 State of the Union Address to Congress on January 5, 1949. ... Desegregation is the process of ending racial segregation, most commonly used in reference to the United States. ... The civil rights movement in the United States has been a long, primarily nonviolent struggle to bring full civil rights and equality under the law to all citizens of United States. ... In any two-party system of politics, a third party is a party other than the two dominant ones. ... The presidential seal was used by President Hayes in 1880 and last modified in 1959 by adding the 50th star for Hawaii. ... In American politics and constitutional law, states rights are guaranteed by the Tenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, (i. ... James Strom Thurmond (December 5, 1902–June 26, 2003) represented South Carolina in the United States Senate from 1954 to April 1956 and November 1956 to 1964 as a Democrat and from 1964 to 2003 as a Republican. ... Presidential electoral votes by state. ... Harry Flood Byrd, Sr. ... Presidential electoral votes by state. ... Governor George Wallace (in front of door) standing defiantly against desegregation while being confronted by Deputy U.S. Attorney General Nicholas Katzenbach at the University of Alabama in 1963. ... Presidential electoral votes by state. ... Presidential electoral votes by state. ... Regional definitions vary from source to source. ... Barry Goldwater (January 2, 1909 – May 29, 1998) was a five-term United States Senator from Arizona (1953–1965, 1969–87) and the Republican Partys nominee for President in the 1964 election. ... Lyndon Baines Johnson (August 27, 1908 – January 22, 1973), often referred to as LBJ, was the 36th President of the United States (1963–1969). ... President Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act of 1964. ... The Republican Party, often called the GOP (for Grand Old Party, although one early citation described it as the Gallant Old Party) [1], is one of the two major political parties in the United States. ... In American politics, the Southern strategy refers to the focus by the Republican party on winning political power by securing the votes and support of those whites in the southern states (and whites in other areas of the country as well) angered and scared of the Democratic Partys growing... Silent Majority was a Swiss rap and hip hop music group. ...

Nonetheless, a bloc of conservative Democrats, mostly Southerners, remained in the United States Congress throughout the 1970s and 1980s (Conservative Coalition). These included Democratic House members as conservative as Larry McDonald, who was also a leader in the John Birch Society. During the administration of Ronald Reagan, the term "boll weevils" was applied to this bloc of conservative Democrats, who consistently voted in favor of tax cuts, increases in military spending, and deregulation favored by the Reagan administration. Type Bicameral Houses Senate House of Representatives President of the Senate Dick Cheney, R, since January 20, 2001 Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert, R, since January 6, 1999 Members 535 plus 4 Delegates and 1 Resident Commissioner Political groups (as of January 4, 2005 elections) Democratic Party Republican Party... The 1970s decade refers to the years from 1970 to 1979, inclusive. ... The 1980s refers to the years of 1980 to 1989. ... The Conservative coalition was a coalition in American politics bringing together Republicans (most of whom were conservatives) and the minority of conservative Democrats, most of them from the South. ... Lawrence Patton McDonald Lawrence Patton Larry McDonald (April 1, 1935 – September 1, 1983) was a member of the United States House of Representatives, representing the sixth congressional district of Georgia. ... The John Birch Society is an Americanist organization founded in 1958 to fight what it saw as growing threats to the Constitution of the United States especially a perceived communist infiltration and to support free enterprise. ... Ronald Wilson Reagan (February 6, 1911 – June 5, 2004) was the 40th President of the United States (1981–1989) and the 33rd Governor of California (1967–1975). ... Deregulation is the process by which governments remove restrictions on business in order to (in theory) encourage the efficient operation of markets. ...

"Boll weevils" was sometimes used as a political epithet by Democratic Party leaders, implying that the boll weevils were unreliable on key votes or not team players.

Most of the boll weevils eventually retired from office, or in the case of some such as Senators Phil Gramm and Richard Shelby, switched parties and joined the Republicans. Since 1988 the term boll weevils has fallen out of favor. A bloc of conservative Democrats in the House, including some younger or newer members as well as the remaining boll weevils who refused to bow to pressure to switch parties, organized themselves as the Blue Dogs in the early 1990s. A different bloc of Democrats also emerged in the 1990s, under the Democratic Leadership Council (DLC), espousing conservative pro-business views on economic issues and moderate views on social issues. Neither the DLC nor the Blue Dogs are known as boll weevils, and are considered by most observers to not be nearly as conservative as the boll weevils were in their heyday. William Philip Phil Gramm (born July 8, 1942, in Fort Benning, Georgia) served as a Democratic Congressman (1978-1983), a Republican Congressman (1983-1985) and a Republican Senator from Texas (1985-2002). ... Richard Craig Dick Shelby (born May 6, 1934) is an American politician. ... Blue Dog Democrats are social and economic conservatives and moderates in the United States Democratic Party. ... See also 1990s, the band Germans dancing on the Berlin Wall in late 1989, the symbol of the cold war divide falls down as the world unites in the 1990s. ... The Democratic Leadership Council is a non-profit corporation[1] that argues that the United States Democratic Party should shift away from traditionally populist positions. ... Conservatism or political conservatism is any of several historically related political philosophies or political ideologies. ... In politics and religion, a moderate is an individual who holds an intermediate position between two extreme or radical viewpoints. ...

See also

• Blue Dog Democrats
• Conservative Democrat
• Dixiecrats
• New Democrats
• Reagan Democrats
• Republican/Democrat In Name Only
• Southern Democrat
• Yellow dog Democrats
• Gypsy moth Republicans