The 34

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

Several people have asked me, "who were the 34 Democrats" who voted against the long-standing plank in the Democratic Party platform calling for a national health insurance program? I have culled the names from the roll call vote. I have also compared the list to the list of 54 current members of the Blue Dog Coalition ("BD"), for those of you who asked.

John Adler (NJ-3)
Jason Altmire (PA-4) – BD
Michael Arcuri (NY-24) – BD
John Barrow (GA-12) – BD
Robert Marion Berry (AR-1) – BD
Dan Boren (OK-2) -BD
Rick Boucher (VA-9)
Bobby Bright (AL-2) – BD
Ben Chandler (KY-6) – BD
Travis Childers (MS-1) – BD
Artur Davis (AL-7)
Lincoln Davis (TN-4) – BD
Chet Edwards (TX-17)
Stephanie Herseth Sandlin (SD-1) – BD
Tim Holden (PA-17) – BD
Larry Kissell (NC-8)
Frank Kratovil, Jr. (MD-1) -BD
Daniel Lipinski (IL-3)
Stephen Lynch (MA-9)
Jim Marshall (GA-8) – BD
Jim Matheson (UT-2) – BD
Mike McIntyre (NC-7) – BD
Michael McMahon (NY-13)
Charlie Melancon (LA-3) – BD
Walt Minnick (ID-1) – BD
Glen Nye (VA-2) – BD
Collin Peterson (MN-7) – BD
Mike Ross (AR-4) – BD
Heath Shuler (NC-11) – BD
Ike Skelton (MO-4)
Zack Space (OH-18) – BD
John Tanner (TN-8) – BD
Gene Taylor (MS-4) – BD
Harry Teague (NM-2)

Some quick observations. Only 24 of the 54 Blue Dog Democrats voted no, and not every Democrat who voted no was a member of the Blue Dog Coalition. However, Blue Dogs did comprise 24 of the 34 no votes. Make of it what you will.  There was also a few votes that switched from the original House bill. Daily Kos: HCR: Dem "No" Votes and Dem Switchers

Most of the Democrats who voted no come from the South and five sparsely populated districts in the West. You will note the rare exceptions in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Massachusetts.

What is the common thread for all these districts? These districts tend to be sparsely populated rural districts with small towns and an agricultural or a single dominant employer economy. It is the America that is rapidly disappearing and feels that its idealized way of life is threatened by a future that is leaving them behind.

In 2008, for the first time in American history, the majority of the U.S. population lived in urbanized areas. That trend will continue and accelerate. The idealized "small town" that John Mellencamp sang about is disappearing as rural areas suffer economic decline and force people to move to urban areas to find employment.

There really are "Two Americas": one an urbanized, cosmopolitan (socially, racially, economically) society that tends to be politically moderate to liberal. And one a rural, homogeneous (socially, racially, economically) society that tends to be politically conservative. It is this urban versus rural dichotomy that is increasingly coming to define our politics today.

The sad part about this vote is that there is much to benefit rural areas in the health care reform bill including new rural clinics and an improved compensation schedule for medical providers in rural areas. Access to affordable health care in rural areas will improve. But the politics of rural America swayed the vote of these Democrats.

Media in these rural areas is dominated by conservative media conglomerates, particularly conservative talk radio and conservative television media, and not just FAUX News. The mighty Wurlitzer of the conservative noise machine churns out an alternate reality of misinformation and disinformation to stoke fear and loathing of the "other" America — those godless, liberal heathens living in urban America.

So as Thomas Frank wrote about in "What's the Matter With Kansas?," these rural voters continue to vote against their own economic self-interest based upon wedge issue politics that conservatives use to divide them. As Joe Sudbay observed in The GOP's strategy of fear lost yesterday:

Fear, it's all the GOP had. It's all they still have. The Republican motto should be, to paraphrase FDR, the only thing we have is fear itself.

While we can't control what Republicans and their conservative media empire do, Democrats representing rural America have an obligation to stand up for the principles of the Democratic Party and to educate and to explain those principles and policies to a fearful and often misinformed public. Accepting the FAUX News alternate reality is unacceptable. Education is the cure for ignorance. Understanding is the cure for fear. The courage to stand on principle is respected, if not always rewarded.