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A '''conservative Democrat''' is a member of the [[Democratic Party]] in the United States who holds [[conservative]] views on social or economic issues. Conservative Democrats are extremely rare today, if any exist at all.<ref>Scaliger, Charles (August 3, 2018). [https://www.thenewamerican.com/print-magazine/item/29597-done-with-conservative-democrats Done With Conservative Democrats]. ''The New American''. Retrieved August 6, 2018.</ref> However, despite that party's longstanding reputation as a [[liberal]] political party, the Democratic Party had a conservative wing for much of its history. Conservative Democrats were organized into the [[Blue Dog]] caucus in the House. Previously they were known by other names including "boll weevil Democrats" during the 1980s, when a large number of conservative Democrats voted with [[Ronald Wilson Reagan|President Reagan]] on fiscal and social policy.
The [[The South|American South]] had a long tradition of electing conservative Democrats to office, including in Presidential presidential elections until they broke from the Democrats in 1964 to vote for [[Barry Goldwater]], the Republican nominee. From 1948 to the 1970s an even more conservative wing of the party, mostly from the South, was called "Dixiecrats". This Dixiecrat wing of the party has been essentially defunct since the 1970s, when the House contingent was led by the late [[Joe Waggonner]] of [[Louisiana]]. A few former Dixiecrats, including [[Strom Thurmond]] and [[Jesse Helms]], were early converts to the [[Republican Party]], foreshadowing a long trend of conservatives leaving the Democrats and joining the Republicans that continued through the 1980s and 1990s.
Today there are several caucuses of people with relatively conservative views in the Democratic Party. These conservative Democrats often find themselves at odds with the liberal majority of their party. The Blue Dog caucus in the House was organized in 1994 by conservative Democrats who believed the liberal wing of the party had "choked blue" conservative voices in the party. There is also a [[pro-life]] caucus within the Democrats called [[Democrats for Life of America]] currently led by [[Nat Hentoff]], a pro-[[Second Amendment]] caucus called [[Amendment II Democrats]] which supports [[gun rights]], and even a minority-held position within the [[environmentalist]] and [[organized labor]] movements opposed to unregulated [[immigration]] into the United States on environmental or job protection grounds, although it should be noted that these voices have been all but shut out by the current leadership of those movements.<ref>Briggs, Vernon. ''Immigration and American Unionism''. Cornell University Press, 2001.</ref><ref>Beck, Roy and Leon Kolankiewicz. ''The Environmental Movement's Retreat from Advocating U.S. Population Stabilization (1970 - 1998): A First Draft of History''. Journal of Policy History, (ISSN 0898-0306) Vol 12, No 1, 2000</ref>
