Name an issue worth whipping votes:

[tritsofme]

8. Especially from the minority, whipping is rarely about the substance of the issue and almost always about

about the strategic value of the vote.

If withholding votes can plausibly scuttle a bill the party strongly opposes, then a heavy whip effort makes sense.

If the bill is going to pass on Republican votes alone, and there are Democratic members, particularly in Trump-won districts, whose reelections would be materially harmed by a symbolic “no,” then whipping them accomplishes nothing.

In that case, whipping isn’t moral leadership, it’s burning your own coalition for performative satisfaction, and it actively makes future Democratic majorities less likely.