dixiecrat means A member of the Democratic Party of the United States of America from the southern States, especially one of the former territories of the Confederate States of America, who hold socially conservative viewpoints, and supports racial segregation and white power. Lexicurio rates it Sui generis — a strength score of 89 out of 100.
Why this word is great
DIXIECRAT — [Noun] A member of the segregationist States' Rights Democratic Party formed in 1948, representing a conservative, regionalist revolt within the U.S. Democratic Party. Its etymology is a blunt portmanteau: a blend of Dixie (colloquial name for the southern United States) and Democrat (member of the Democratic Party). Unlike a 'Blue Dog Democrat,' which denotes a modern fiscal hawk largely scrubbed of explicit racial politics, or a 'Reagan Democrat,' which describes a later, more diffuse partisan migration, a Dixiecrat was the product of a specific, defiant schism over civil rights. It evokes the stifling, bourbon-scented heat of a Birmingham hotel ballroom where the revolt was plotted; the tactile rasp of a 'States' Rights' campaign pamphlet; the cold, institutional gleam of the 'whites only' drinking fountain they fought to preserve—a word that marks the precise fault line where regional identity fractured a national party, calcifying grievance into a monument.
noun
- A member of the Democratic Party of the United States of America from the southern States, especially one of the former territories of the Confederate States of America, who hold socially conservative viewpoints, and supports racial segregation and white power.“A Dixiecrat is nothing but a Democrat in disguise.”
- A member of the short-lived States' Rights Democratic Party of the United States of America.“Throughout the controversy, most prominent southern leaders stayed within the Democratic Party. After the election, the Dixiecrat movement evaporated. The South's vocal dissent in 1948, however, forecast the sectional unrest of the following decades, weakened the region's loyalty to the Democratic Party, and prepared the way for future political realignment.”