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Segami

(14,923 posts) Mon Jan 26, 2015, 07:34 PM Jan 2015

Only 12 Of The 64 DEMOCRATS Who VOTED FOR The Stupak Amendment Are STILL In The House

A lot has changed in the five-plus years since then- Rep. Bart Stupak forced a vote on an anti-choice amendment that nearly derailed the passage of the Affordable Care Act. If you weren't following the ins-and-outs of the health care reform debate back in 2009, Stupak, a Democrat, wanted language added to the ACA that would prohibit the use of federal funds from paying for abortions—even though the notorious Hyde Amendment had already done so for decades. Democrats held a wide majority in Congress at the time, but Stupak's retrograde amendment passed the House because 64 Democrats joined with all 176 Republicans to vote in favor of it. However, the amendment ultimately did not become law because there was insufficient support for it in the Senate—though President Obama did sign an executive order that purported to restrict abortion funding in order to placate Stupak's junta. The amendment also didn't save many Democratic hides the next year. As Ron Elving at NPR recounts, 2010's gigantic GOP tsunami, fueled by deep economic unease, swept out most of the Blue Doggish Democrats who had represented more conservative turf and had sided with Stupak. Those same trends have continued in the years since then, leaving just 12 Democrats in the House today who voted for the Stupak amendment. Below is the complete list, along with the percentage of the vote Obama took in each district in 2012:

Colin Peterson MN-07 44
Jim Cooper TN-05 56
Dan Lipinski IL-03 56
Stephen Lynch MA-08 58
Sanford Bishop GA-02 59
Jim Costa CA-16 59
Henry Cuellar TX-28 60
Jim Langevin RI-02 60
Tim Ryan OH-13 63
Richard Neal MA-01 64
Marcy Kaptur OH-09 68
Mike Doyle PA-14 68

In addition, Joe Donnelly now represents Indiana in the Senate. Back in 2009, most of the Stupak faction came from red districts. But except for Donnelly and Peterson, everyone above now holds a blue seat, and many are ardent Catholics who represent pro-labor Rust Belt turf. This is a phenomenon that mirrors the changes in the Democratic Party as a whole. As recently as 2010, Democrats sat in dozens of districts that historically had given their presidential vote to Republican candidates. Now, as the party's caucus has shrunk, only five members currently serve districts won by Mitt Romney. The country is simply more polarized than it once was, and the partisan realignment that began under Nixon is now all but complete. So if there's a silver lining to the Democrats' electoral woes in recent years, it's that our congressional caucus is much more progressive than it ever was. Indeed, last week, as Elving points out, just three Democrats—Cuellar, Lipinski, and Peterson—voted with the GOP on another anti-abortion measure. We have a long and difficult road back to the majority, particularly given Republican gerrymandering and our own terrible turnout in midterm elections. But when the Democrats do retake the House, it won't happen because of those old Blue Dog districts—our future lies in moderate suburban districts and areas with heavy minority growth. And when that day comes, it'll also mean that rebellions like Stupak's will be a thing of the past.