Talk:Bourbon Democrat

Wilson
Is it fair to refer to Wilson as a Bourbon? john k 16:42, 22 April 2006 (UTC)
 * yes WW was a Bourbon and gold Democrat up to 1911-12. See his encomium to Cleveland Wilson, Woodrow, Mr. Cleveland as President Atlantic Monthly (March 1897): pp. 289-301 online When Bryan in 1907 proposed government ownership of railroads Wilson privately wrote "Would that we could do something, at once dignified and effective, to knock Mr. Bryan, once for all, into a cocked hat!" [Walworth 1:217] But in 1911-12 he made up with Bryan. Rjensen 17:35, 22 April 2006 (UTC)
 * We should be careful, though - most people talking about Wilson would mean Wilson as President, and as President he was considerably more progressive. john k 05:37, 25 April 2006 (UTC)
 * yes I agree. But he was not on Bryan's wavelength as the experience of WW1 and Fed Reserve demonstrate. Rjensen 05:49, 25 April 2006 (UTC)


 * The Socialist New York Call was still using the term "Bourbon Democratic" about Wilson's postal censorship regime in a series of articles published on the front page during the week of Aug. 18, 1919 — so, yeah, it was more or less fair to call Wilson that (albeit as an epithet), and the term was around longer than 1904... Carrite (talk) 16:44, 21 March 2012 (UTC)

Excellent article! So, what BECAME of the Bourbons?
This article is excellent, overall, except in one area: a good conclusion. What ever BECAME of the Bourbons? Did they just fade into the political wood-work? Were they a precursor for conservative, southern Democrats (Blue Dogs)? Anyway, a good ending would be excellent. Perhaps I will take it up. ProfessorPaul 23:33, 10 October 2006 (UTC)

A pun?
Quoth the article:

The nickname Bourbon Democrat was first used as a pun, referring to bourbon whiskey from Kentucky and even more to the Bourbon Dynasty of France...

Where exactly is the pun here? A pun would be if there were a joke involving a similar sounding but different word (like if the two leading Bourbon Democrats were named Burr and Bonne, for instance). This just seems like a straightforward borrowing of an existing word. --Jfruh (talk) 20:36, 21 February 2011 (UTC)
 * the same word had two entirely different meanings and they were now combined as both relating to the group. That fits the dictionary definition: pun = " the humorous use of ... words having the same or nearly the same sound but different meanings." (Webster 3rd) Rjensen (talk) 04:59, 23 February 2011 (UTC)

unpleasant aspects of Bourbonism
It could be made clearer that Bourbons often represented upper-class interests in solidly-Democratic areas, and were protective of upper-class power. They especially hated political Populists, and the idea that lower-class whites might find common economic interest with blacks to restrain the economic power of upper-class whites, and they took active measures to ensure that such an alliance never happened, including taking away the ability of blacks to vote in several states. The Bourbons as a national Democratic party faction fighting over national issues (such as silver vs. gold) may have ended in 1904, but the same or very similar groups had powerful positions in some individual southern states for decades afterwards. The opponents of Huey P. Long in Louisiana were sometimes called "Bourbons"... AnonMoos (talk) 10:56, 13 August 2017 (UTC) "'Across the South, the Bourbons were legendary for reducing the tax burden on property owners. As they did elsewhere, Louisiana's Bourbons balanced the budget by dramatically reducing investment in infrastructure such as levees, roads, and railroads and social services such as education.'"

Well, not exactly...
The nickname "Bourbon Democrat" was first used as a pun, referring to bourbon whiskey from Kentucky and even more to the Bourbon Dynasty of France, which was overthrown in the French Revolution, but returned to power in 1815 to rule in a reactionary fashion until its final overthrow in the July Revolution of 1830.[4]


 * Well, of course, Louis-Philip was still a Bourbon. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Seiopotessi (talk • contribs) 16:19, 17 April 2019 (UTC)