If Congress Fails to Pass the Obama Health Care Plan ... Robert Creamer ~ Huff Po

[mzmolly]

The Clinton health care bill never came to a vote in the House, but only 11 of the 36 incumbents who lost had co-sponsored the bill. Many of the 23 others had opposed the Clinton health care plan. Didn't matter; they were the biggest political victims of the failure of health care reform.

Democratic Congressman Jim Cooper (D-TN) was one of the leaders of the opposition. He left the House to run for the Senate in 1994 and lost.

And it wasn't just that swing voters lost faith in Democrats. Base Democratic voters failed to turn out. Republican base voters -- smelling Democratic blood -- turned out in record numbers.

Of course none of this should come as a surprise. Look at our recent political history. The principal political victims of the disastrous Bush legacy were not mainly hard right Republicans from strong Republican districts. They were often Republican "moderates" like Connecticut's Christopher Shays. That's why New England no longer has any Republican Members of the House. That's why the Republican Caucus in the House is now mainly composed of members from highly Republican districts and the South.

So the next time a Member of Congress tells you that he'd love to vote for the President's health care reform package but he represents a tough swing district, remind him about all the ex-members of Congress who said the same thing in 1994 and were retired by the voters to resume their careers selling insurance or practicing law.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-creamer/history-shows-that-democr_b_233056.html">LINK

[mzmolly]

1. Thanks for the mystery rec.

;)

[crickets]

2. It would be wise of Dems to remember this. K&R -nt

[mzmolly]

3. Agreed.

Thanks crickets. :hi:

[mzmolly]

4. .