Ok, let's talk about conservative Democrats

[Lee-Lee]

47. Heath Shuler is a good case study

He is about as liberal as you could ever hope to elect in a conservative district like NC-11.

He didn't follow the party line on issue like gun control, reproductive rights and many others, because he was pretty much voting down the line in a way the represented his district almost as if he consulted polls for every issue and followed his district. If you look where he was in virtually every issue you see a snapshot of the typical resident of NC-11

Was he great on many progressive issues? Hell no.

But he had a D next to his name and caucused with Democrats. He and others like home have use a majority in the 111th Congress in the House.

Because we had the majority then this is just some of the legislation that was passed:

Affordable Care Act
Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act
American Recovery and Reinvestment Act
Cash For Clunkers
Matthew Shepard & James Byrd Hate Crimes Prevention Act
Dodd-Frank
Don't Ask Don't Tell repeal


He didn't vote for many of those bills. But because he held a seat that put us in the majority all those bills got to be voted on because we were in charge of what came up for a vote.

Now, was getting all that passed worth having Shuler and others with a D by their name who were weak on many issues? In my book it damm sure was.