This appears to be an obligation for Republicans who represent Liberal districts. Off hand, I cannot think of a recent Democrat who acquiesced to the Conservative leanings of the district which they represent. I guess they have different obligations.
I'm not saying I don't understand Cao's situation. I'm just saying that this is a one-way street in which Republicans are expected to give in and Democrats are not.
Thirty-plus Democrats voted against this health bill. Dozens of Democrats were against previous iterations of the bill. This is why something that Ogabe hoped to get passed in July is finally getting passed in November.
Blue Dogs are in the same position, and many of the voted against the bill because they represent more conservative districts.
“Off hand, I cannot think of a recent Democrat who acquiesced to the Conservative leanings of the district which they represent.”
How about the 39 Dems from conservative districts who voted AGAINST the PelosiObamaCare bill ? They don’t count?
Exactly
“Off hand, I cannot think of a recent Democrat who acquiesced to the Conservative leanings of the district which they represent”
Frank Kratovil, here in Merlin, many a Free State Freep melted his phone lines and contacted this freshman.
He is a liberal and I am guessing that he would have otherwise supported the bill, except that he won his race in a conservative district by a few hundred votes.
It is quite possible that he may have been given a “hall pass” by the whip ~ to vote against the bill once they realized that they had the votes.
There are no Democrats representing a district as heavily tilted towards the other party as Cao is doing for the GOP (as Impy pointed out, the "solid Dem" regions of the country are alot more solid than the solid GOP regions of this country... there are urban areas that give Dems 95% of the vote but even the staunchest part of flyover country would never give vote 95% GOP).
But when it comes situation, voting with the GOP on some high profile bills but voted with the Dems on Obamacare some other major economic legislation... the situation is no different for Dem Congressman in super GOP district's. Cao's district has a PVI rating of a +28 Democrat than the rest of the country. The Dem is the most lopsided GOP district is Gene Taylor, he's Trent Lott's former house seat in Mississippi which has a PVI rating of +20 (not as strongly Republican as Cao's district is Dem, but still pretty lopsided GOP majority). Taylor votes with the GOP on most issues but he refuses to switch parties, and yes, Taylor voted AGAINST Obamacare, as did most Dems in districts that are majority GOP by double digits.
I could probably make a good case that Cao votes with us on major issues more often than Taylor votes with the Dems on major issues, even though Cao's in a district harder for his party to win. But I can't be sure without having data on all of Cao's votes and that won't be available to Jan.
Bottom is the Dems in heavy GOP district "acquiesced" to their constituency on health care just as Cao did. I'm not saying that was the right thing to do, or that I justify Cao's vote, just saying that's the reality. I agree it won't earn him any sympathy from the left. Whether Cao votes with the GOP 100% of the time or 0% of the time, the Dems in district will hate him and demand his head on a platter simply because he's not a black Democrat (Mark Kirk and Joe Lieberman do the Dem's bidding on most major issues, and they basically hate them for shaking hands with President Bush once). But here's the thing... if Cao had vocally opposed Obamacare the Dems could motivate more Dem turnout by running ads about how "mean ol' Republican Cao and his racist Republican supports want granny to die from cancer". That would motivate Dem to turnout against him in droves. The same would be true in reverse for Taylor's district... Republicans who show up on election day are going to vote against no matter what, but if he voted in favor of Obama care, Mississippi conservatives would be up in arms and beat down the door to defeat him. In both cases, low turnout helps the incumbent win re-election in his district.
I get ticked off at conservatives who say we should give Peter King a pass for being a RINO douchebag because he's from "blue state New York" (nevermind the fact HIS district voted AGAINST Obama), but I can really see the difficulty of trying to represent a district so lopsided against you. I wouldn't vote in favor of Obamacare, but neither would I give the Dems ammo by speaking out against an issue the leftist constiuency clearly wants.