Hey Independent Voters: GOP Resolution Denouncing Socialism Splits Democrat Vote

A House vote on denouncing Socialism passed easily with Republican support. But it was the way this vote tied Democrats in knots that really attracted attention.

Their party was almost evenly split on the issue, highlighting just how far their party has drifted ideologically from the party that elected JFK.

So many people have echoed President Reagan’s sentiment, “I didn’t leave the Democratic party, the Democratic Party left me,” especially in recent years, that a vote like this might help explain why.

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What was the vote? The vote was H.Con.Res.9 – Denouncing the horrors of socialism. It was sponsored by freshman Rep. Salazar, Maria Elvira [R-FL-27]

The text:

CONCURRENT RESOLUTION

• Whereas socialist ideology necessitates a concentration of power that has time and time again collapsed into Communist regimes, totalitarian rule, and brutal dictatorships;
• Whereas socialism has repeatedly led to famine and mass murders, and the killing of over 100,000,000 people worldwide;
• Whereas many of the greatest crimes in history were committed by socialist ideologues, including Vladimir Lenin, Joseph Stalin, Mao Zedong, Fidel Castro, Pol Pot, Kim Jong Il, Kim Jong Un, Daniel Ortega, Hugo Chavez, and Nicolás Maduro;
• Whereas tens of millions died in the Bolshevik Revolution, at least 10,000,000 people were sent to the gulags in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), and millions more starved in the Terror-Famine (Holodomor) in Ukraine;
• Whereas between 15,000,000 and 55,000,000 people starved to death in the wake of famine and devastation caused by the Great Leap Forward in China;
• Whereas the socialist experiment in Cambodia led to the killing fields in which over a million people were gruesomely murdered;
• Whereas up to 3,500,000 people have starved in North Korea, dividing a land of freedom from a land of destitution;
• Whereas the Castro regime in Cuba expropriated the land of Cuban farmers and the businesses of Cuban entrepreneurs, stealing their possessions and their livelihoods, and exiling millions with nothing but the clothes on their backs;
• Whereas the implementation of socialism in Venezuela has turned a once-prosperous nation into a failed State with the world’s highest rate of inflation;
• Whereas the author of the Declaration of Independence, President Thomas Jefferson, wrote, “To take from one, because it is thought that his own industry and that of his fathers has acquired too much, in order to spare to others, who, or whose fathers have not exercised equal industry and skill, is to violate arbitrarily the first principle of association, the guarantee to every one of a free exercise of his industry, and the fruits acquired by it.”;
• Whereas the “Father of the Constitution”, President James Madison, wrote that it “is not a just government, nor is property secure under it, where the property which a man has in his personal safety and personal liberty, is violated by arbitrary seizures of one class of citizens for the service of the rest”; and
• Whereas the United States of America was founded on the belief in the sanctity of the individual, to which the collectivistic system of socialism in all of its forms is fundamentally and necessarily opposed: Now, therefore, be it

Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate concurring), That Congress denounces socialism in all its forms, and opposes the implementation of socialist policies in the United States of America.

All Republicans in attendence supported the motion. Democrats were split:

You can find the list of all votes on the House clerk’s website, here.

Here’s who voted present:
Blunt Rochester Democratic Delaware
Brown Democratic Ohio
Cicilline Democratic Rhode Island
Crockett Democratic Texas
Escobar Democratic Texas
Eshoo Democratic California
Hoyle (OR) Democratic Oregon
Jackson Lee Democratic Texas
Jacobs Democratic California
Leger Fernandez Democratic New Mexico
Matsui Democratic California
Ross Democratic North Carolina
Scanlon Democratic Pennsylvania
Stansbury Democratic New Mexico

Here’s who voted AGAINST

Adams Democratic North Carolina
Balint Democratic Vermont NAY
Barragán Democratic California
Beatty Democratic Ohio
Beyer Democratic Virginia
Blumenauer Democratic Oregon
Bonamici Democratic Oregon
Bowman Democratic New York
Bush Democratic Missouri
Cárdenas Democratic California
Carson Democratic Indiana
Casar Democratic Texas
Castro (TX) Democratic Texas
Chu Democratic California
Clarke (NY) Democratic New York
Cleaver Democratic Missouri
Connolly Democratic Virginia
Courtney Democratic Connecticut
Davis (IL) Democratic Illinois
DeGette Democratic Colorado
DeLauro Democratic Connecticut
DeSaulnier Democratic California
Doggett Democratic Texas
Espaillat Democratic New York
Evans Democratic Pennsylvania
Fletcher Democratic Texas
Foushee Democratic North Carolina
Frost Democratic Florida
Garamendi Democratic California
García (IL) Democratic Illinois
Garcia (TX) Democratic Texas
Garcia, Robert Democratic California
Goldman (NY) Democratic New York
Gomez Democratic California
Green, Al (TX) Democratic Texas
Grijalva Democratic Arizona
Hayes Democratic Connecticut
Higgins (NY) Democratic New York
Himes Democratic Connecticut
Hoyer Democratic Maryland
Huffman Democratic California
Jayapal Democratic Washington
Johnson (GA) Democratic Georgia NAY
Kamlager-Dove Democratic California
Kelly (IL) Democratic Illinois
Larson (CT) Democratic Connecticut
Lee (CA) Democratic California
Lee (PA) Democratic Pennsylvania
McCollum Democratic Minnesota
McGarvey Democratic Kentucky
McGovern Democratic Massachusetts
Mfume Democratic Maryland
Moore (WI) Democratic Wisconsin
Mullin Democratic California
Nadler Democratic New York
Napolitano Democratic California
Neal Democratic Massachusetts
Ocasio-Cortez Democratic New York
Omar Democratic Minnesota
Pallone Democratic New Jersey
Pascrell Democratic New Jersey
Payne Democratic New Jersey
Pingree Democratic Maine
Pocan Democratic Wisconsin
Porter Democratic California
Pressley Democratic Massachusetts
Ramirez Democratic Illinois
Raskin Democratic Maryland
Sánchez Democratic California
Sarbanes Democratic Maryland
Schakowsky Democratic Illinois
Scott (VA) Democratic Virginia
Scott, David Democratic Georgia
Sherman Democratic California
Smith (WA) Democratic Washington
Takano Democratic California
Thanedar Democratic Michigan
Tlaib Democratic Michigan
Tokuda Democratic Hawaii
Tonko Democratic New York
Torres (CA) Democratic California
Vargas Democratic California
Velázquez Democratic New York
Waters Democratic California
Watson Coleman Democratic New Jersey
Williams (GA) Democratic Georgia NAY