Zell Miller

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Zell Miller

Zell Bryan Miller (born February 24, 1932 in Young Harris , Towns County , Georgia ; † March 23, 2018 there ) was an American politician from Georgia. As a right -standing Democrat he practiced from 1991 to 1999 the Office of the Governor of Georgia and represented this US state from 2000 to 2005 in the US Senate . He began to grow closer to Republicans from 2003 , particularly when he appeared at the 2004 Republican National Convention and spoke out against Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry .

Family, education and work

Miller was born in Young Harris, Georgia. Miller was raised by his mother after the death of his father and received a masters degree in history from the University of Georgia . He served as a sergeant in the Marine Corps in the 1950s . The period of service as a Marine influenced his life, as he later admitted in a book (Corps Values: Everything You Need to Know I Learned in the Marines) : “In the twelve weeks of Hell and Transformation that were the training camp of the Marine Corps , I learned the value of achieving a successful life that led and supported me on the way, which - although it was sometimes full of obstacles and detours - I always followed. "

Zell Miller was married to Shirley Carver Miller. They had two sons.

Political career

Miller was Mayor of Young Harris from 1959 to 1960 and was elected to the Georgia Senate for two terms . In 1964, he tried unsuccessfully for the Democratic nomination for a seat in the United States House of Representatives . Miller taught political science and history at Young Harris College, the University of Georgia, and Emory University .

Miller's first government experience was as chief of staff to Lester Maddox , the governor of Georgia. He was elected lieutenant governor of Georgia in 1974 and served four terms from 1975 to 1991 during the terms of Governors George Busee and Joe Frank Harris. In 1980 he unsuccessfully challenged Herman Talmadge in the Democratic primary for his seat in the US Senate.

governor

In 1990 he was elected governor of Georgia, beating Republican Johnny Isakson . In the primary, he defeated Andrew Young , Atlanta mayor . James Carville was Miller's campaign manager .

1992 Miller recommended the then governor of Arkansas , Bill Clinton , as US president. That year he gave a keynote address at the Democratic National Convention at Madison Square Garden in New York City . In two sentences, repeated over and over again, Miller said that the then US President George Bush “just doesn't get it” (“just doesn't get it”).

During his tenure as governor, Miller was a promoter of general education. During that time, he helped establish the HOPE Scholarship (pays college tuition fees for students who achieved a 3.0 grade point average in high school). On December 19, 1995, his office announced plans to spend an additional $ 1 billion on education.

In 1992, he became the first Georgia governor to publicly express a desire to remove the Confederate battle symbol from the state flag . He promoted legislation to change the flag at the 1993 session of the Georgia General Assembly, but the legislature made no changes. Miller then dropped the issue, but in the subsequent 1994 election, Miller's Republican competitor used the flag issue against him, claiming it was evidence that Miller was no longer behind Georgia's values ​​and past. Miller narrowly won the election.

The press and media later claimed that the 1994 election had strengthened his desire to prove himself socio-politically conservative. His change from a pro-choice to a pro-life supporter on the subject of abortion was considered evidence of this .

senate

Roy Barnes , Miller's successor as governor, appointed him to the Senate in July 2000 to replace the late Republican Senator Paul Coverdell . On general election day in November 2000, Miller stood for the extraordinary by-election for the remainder of the mandate. Since Miller's predecessor Coverdell was elected for a six-year term in 1998, the mandate lasted until January 2005. Miller won the by-election in increasingly conservative Georgia. Although the Democratic Party's control of Georgia's policies declined during his tenure as lieutenant governor and governor (see Solid South ), Miller continued to be popular, which shows his bipartisan appeal.

In the last few years of his career, Miller increasingly distanced himself from his party. From 2003 onwards he frequently addressed problems he saw in his own party and switched from the Democratic to the Republican Senate faction. In the 2004 presidential campaign, Miller supported Republican incumbent George W. Bush against his Democratic challenger John Kerry . Miller's speech on September 1, 2004 at the Republican National Convention , the Republican National Convention, caused a sensation . In it, to the cheers of many delegates, Miller sharply criticized the state of the Democratic Party and claimed that Kerry's voting behavior in the Senate meant a weakening of the US military. He asked, referring to Kerry, “Is this the man who wants to be in command of our US forces? US forces armed with what? Spitballs? ”Conservative commentator Michael Barone put the US News & World Report speech in line with that of US President Andrew Jackson . The speech caused severe criticism and distancing from the ranks of the Republicans, such as Senator John McCain . Miller subsequently made several campaign appearances for Bush.

In the next regular election in 2004 Miller did not run again. On January 3, 2005, the end of the 108th US Congress, he withdrew from politics. He then advised McKenna Long & Aldridge LLP and worked as a commentator for Fox News . He supported candidates from both parties, most recently in 2014 the Democrat Michelle Nunn in her candidacy for the US Senate.

Positions and controversies

Miller has long been popular among moderates, conservatives, and liberals alike. Others saw Miller as opportunistic and unscrupulous. He got the nickname " Zigzag Zell". An example of how he switched back and forth: In the 1980s, he worked for Georgia's leading anti-lottery group for two years, seeking support for a lottery during his 1990 gubernatorial campaign. Former President Jimmy Carter believed Miller had moved from being moderate in his first tenure to a "black and white Conservative" in his second term and was not a true Democrat because of his lack of ideals and contradictions. At the national level, he was often accused of switching back and forth following his decision to support Bush. For example, he accused John Kerry of weakening national defenses and "fighting against yesterday's war". At a dinner in Atlanta in 2001, however, he had said that Kerry was "one of the nation's greatest heroes, one of the most famous and greatest leaders of his party - and a good friend" who had worked to "strengthen the military." In a 2002 editorial for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution , Miller cited conditions to support the Iraq war and raised concerns from some Georgian residents: Bush should prove Iraq cannot rule itself; he should secure support from several sides; and he should assure that it is not a war over oil. A few days later, Miller voted in favor of the war in Iraq even though none of the conditions were met, and henceforth passionately supported the war while criticizing its opponents.

Miller acted as a US Senator increasingly conservative and often found himself at odds with his party; he switched from the democratic to the republican faction (caucus). In 2004 he supported the legislative proposal to expand the constitution to include an amendment that would have defined marriage as the union of two people of different sex and thus barred the path to marriage for homosexual partnerships. Terry McAuliffe , chairman of the Democratic National Committee , accused him of attacking his party to sell books and urged Miller to change parties. In his book "A National Party No More" ("No more national party"), Miller characterized himself in 2003 as the last " Truman Democrats". In February 2004, Miller attributed problems in American society to "lack of decency" and later published a book with that title ("Deficit of Decency"). He cited rap music , the desecration of the American flag, homosexual marriage and an unchristian government as examples .

After Bush's re-election in November 2004, Miller wrote an editorial for the Washington Times calling for his party to change its message because the majority of Americans could not identify with it:

"Profane socialism, high taxes, huge expenses, weak defense, limitless lawsuits and heavy regulation - this pack of beagles hasn't caught a hare in the South or the Midwest in years ."

death

Miller died of complications from Parkinson's disease on March 23, 2018 in his hometown of Young Harris .

Three former US presidents ( Bill Clinton , Jimmy Carter and George W. Bush ) attended his funeral . Clinton said in his speech that he “not only liked, but admired” Miller. Miller had "fought the good fight".

Fonts

  • 1975: Mountains Within Me.
  • 1983: Great Georgians.
  • 1985: They Heard Georgia Singing.
  • 1997: Corps Values: Everything You Need to Know I Learned In the Marines.
  • 1999: The First Battalion of the 28th Marines on Iwo Jima: A Day-By-Day History from Personal Accounts and Official Reports, With Complete Muster Rolls. Also by Robert E. Allen.
  • 2003: A National Party No More: The Conscience of a Conservative Democrat. ISBN 0-9745376-1-6 .
  • 2005: A Deficit Of Decency. ISBN 0-9745376-3-2 .

literature

  • Listen to this voice. Selected speeches of Governor Zell Miller. Mercer University Press, Macon, GA 1998, ISBN 0-86554-641-X .
  • Richard Hyatt: Zell, The Governor Who Gave Georgia HOPE. Mercer University Press, Macon, GA 1999, ISBN 0-86554-577-4 .
  • Sarah Eby-Ebersole (Ed.): Signed, Sealed, and Delivered. Highlights of the Miller Record. Mercer University Press, Macon, GA 1999, ISBN 0-86554-648-7 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Jill Vejnoska: Former governor, senator Zell Miller has died. In: The Atlanta Journal-Constitution . March 23, 2018, accessed March 23, 2018.
  2. ^ Zell Miller: 2004 Republican National Convention Address delivered September 1, 2004, Madison Square Garden, New York. In: American Rhetoric. December 12, 2017, (English).
  3. ↑ Michael Barone: The Jacksonian Persuasion. In: US News & World Report . September 2, 2004, archived from the original on November 5, 2013 ; accessed on March 25, 2018 (English).
  4. ↑ Alex Johnson: GOP backs away from Miller's blast. In: NBC News . September 3, 2004, accessed March 25, 2018.
  5. ↑ Alex Rogers: Michelle Nunn Grabs Zell Miller Endorsement. In: Time . August 15, 2014, accessed March 25, 2018.
  6. ^ Eleanor Clift: 'We Need to Heal': Jimmy Carter on the vituperative state of American politics, his latest book — and what advice he would offer the next president. In: Newsweek online. November 2, 2004, archived from the original on November 3, 2004 ; accessed on March 24, 2018 (English).
  7. ↑ SJRes.40 - Federal Marriage Amendment. 108th Congress (2003-2004). United States Congress , accessed March 23, 2018 .
  8. ↑ Bart Acocella: Cell Hole. In: The Gadflyer. April 7, 2004, archived from the original on May 12, 2004 ; Retrieved March 24, 2018 (English, Terry McAuliffe's speechwriter discusses Miller's new speeches at the time and A National Party No More ).
  9. ↑ Stephen Dinan: Stoic losers disdain change. In: The Washington Times . November 4, 2004, pp. 21-22 , archived from the original on August 6, 2017 ; accessed on March 24, 2018 (English).
  10. ^ Three ex-presidents praise Zell Miller's legacy in Georgia Atlanta Journal Constitution, March 28, 2018
personal data
SURNAME Miller, Zell
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Miller, Zell Bryan (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American politician
DATE OF BIRTH February 24, 1932
PLACE OF BIRTH Young Harris , Georgia
DATE OF DEATH 23 March 2018
Place of death Young Harris , Georgia