Why the Zell Miller transformation?

[Ebowed]

The Democrats of that era weren't as conservative on economics as they were on social and foreign issues.

Southern Democrats allied with Republicans in preventing FDR, Truman, and JFK from fully implementing their economic platforms on a wide variety of subjects.  About the only thing keeping those politicians (and the voters who supported them) from joining the Republicans in the first place was the fact that Lincoln freed the slaves.