HoustonChronicle.com - Williams: Yellow dog Democrats losing bite in East Texas

What has happened in East Texas is a 40-year evolution of Southern politics that started when the Civil Rights and Voting Rights acts were signed in the early 1960s, said Charles Elliott, a self-proclaimed yellow dog Democrat and semiretired political science professor at Texas A&M University-Commerce.

At that point, many white conservatives started moving toward the Republican Party, where they were more simpatico on issues like abortion, school prayer and gun control.

"Lyndon Johnson said he was cutting his party's throat, and he did," Elliott said, referring to LBJ's observation about his support for civil rights.

"I'd vote for a yellow dog if he ran on the Democratic ticket." a dying legacy.