Blue Dog Democrat

A Blue Dog Democrat is so-called because of the character Dino on the cartoon television show The Flintstones. Dino was a blue dog, and the letters DINO stand for "Democrat In Name Only."

Blue Dog Democrats are also sometimes called "Reagan Democrats." They are conservative, rather than progressive, and have a tendency to align themselves with GOP policies in matters of taxation and spending.

1. A politician who represents corporate interests and wealthy individuals rather than the interests of middle and working class Americans and chooses to run as a Democrat rather than Republican either because his state or district will not elect a Republican or he has convinced the wealthy he would do a better job protecting their money than the GOP alternative. 2. A Democrat who puts the interests of corporations and wealthy individuals ahead of the progressive ideals of the Democratic Party and ahead of even the success of the party as a whole. 3. A Democrat who calls himself a moderate when in fact he is an extremist in protecting moneyed interest and is to the right of the overwhelming majority of the American people and even his own constituents.

A member of the group of Democrats who are most owned by corporate America and consequently least responsive to the will of the people.

A centrist democrat that is more moderate than your typical left-wing democrat, but not quite conservative enough to be classified as a republican.

Democrats from red states can sometimes be considered "blue dogs". However, the democrat party of today has moved so far to the left that those who are still closer to the center may also be classified as such.

A blue dog democrat typically has moderate views. They might support toughening border security, but also support granting amnesty to illegal immigrants already inside the country.
They are often more pro-gun than their liberal counterparts. Some of them can be pro-life or oppose same-sex marriage. But like most Democrats, they often want to expand education funding, protect funding for government programs, and raise the minimum wage.

The views of a Blue Dog Democrat can vary quite widely (it's possible to have two Blue Dogs that disagree on a lot of things) but in general, they are liberal to moderate on fiscal and economical issues, and moderate to conservative on social issues.

For example: Dan Lipinski, Collin Peterson, John Bel Edwards, Joe Manchin.

A Republican from the 1990s, prior to the Republicans becoming even more extreme than they already were, causing conservatives to call themselves Democrats.