In past years, progressive activists might have believed that such votes could never take place in a majority-Democrat Congress. They worked hard to get Democrats elected in the hope that those Democrats would then work to undo the Patriot Act and other attacks against the Constitution from the Bush years. Such a belief can no longer be maintained, given the actions of the majority-Democrat Congress to maintain George W. Bush’s regime of government secrecy, arbitrary imprisonment, unjust trials, and widespread surveillance against law-abiding citizens.
Yesterday’s Patriot Act vote was another clear indication that the Democrats in Congress, as a whole, cannot be relied upon to support Americans’ constitutional rights. 162 House Democrats voted in favor of extending the Patriot Act without any reforms at all. The following list contains the names of these 162 anti-liberty Democrats:
Gary Ackerman / John Adler / / Jason Altmire / Rob Andrews / Mike Arcuri / Joe Baca / Brian Baird / John Barrow / Melissa Bean / Shelly Berkley / Marion Berry / Sanford Bishop / Dan Boren / Leon Boswell / Allen Boyd / Bob Brady / Bobby Bright / Corrine Brown / G. K. Butterfield / Dennis Cardoza / Russ Carnahan / Chris Carney / Andre Carson / Kathy Castor / Ben Chandler / Travis Childers / William Lacy Clay / Jim Clyburn / Gerry Connolly / John Conyers / Jim Cooper / Jim Costa / Joe Courtney / Henry Cuellar / Kathleen Dahlkemper / Artur Davis / Susan Davis / Danny Davis / Lincoln Davis / Diana DeGette / William Delahunt / Rosa DeLauro / Norm Dicks / Joe Donnelly, Mike Doyle / Steve Driehaus / Chet Edwards / Jo Ann Emerson / Anna Eshoo / Bob Etheridge / Chaka Fattah / Bill Foster / John Garamendi / / Gabrielle Giffords / Charles Gonzalez / Bart Gordon / Alan Grayson / Gene Green / Luis Gutierrez / John Hall / Deborah Halvorson Martin Heinrich / Stephanie Herseth Sandlin / Brian Higgins / Baron Hill / James Himes / Ruben Hinojosa / Paul Hodes / Tim Holden / Steny Hoyer / Jay Inslee / Steve Israel / Jesse Jackson / Sheila Jackson Lee / Eddie Bernice Johnson / Paul Kanjorski / Marcy Kaptur / Patrick Kennedy / Dale Kildee / Carolyn Kilpatrick / Mary Jo Kilroy / Ron Kind / Ann Kirkpatrick / Larry Kissell / Ron Klein / Suzanne Kosmas / Frank Kratovil / James Langevin / Rick Larsen / Sander Levin / Dan Lipinski / Zoe Lofgren / Nita Lowey / Stephen Lynch / Betsy Markey / Jim Marshall / Eric Massa / Jim Matheson / Carolyn McCarthy / Mike McIntyre / Mike McMahon / Jerry McNerney / Kendrick Meek / Charles Melancon / Brad Miller / Harry Mitchell / Alan Mollohan / Dennis Moore / James Moran / Chris Murphy / Scott Murphy / Patrick Murphy / Grace Napolitano / Glenn Nye / Dave Obey / Solomon Ortiz / Bill Owens / Bill Pascrell / Ed Perlmutter / Gary Peters / Collin Peterson / Ted Poe / Earl Pomeroy / Mike Quigley / Nick Rahall / Charles Rangel / Silvestre Reyes / Ciro Rodriguez / Mike Ross / Steve Rothman / Lucille Roybal / Allard / Dutch Ruppersberger / Bobby Rush / John Salazar / Mark Schauer / Adam Schiff / Kurt Schrader / Allyson Schwartz / David Scott / Joe Sestak / Heath Shuler / Albio Sires / Ike Skelton / Louise Slaughter / Adam Smith / Vic Snyder / Zack Space / John Spratt / Betty Sutton / John Tanner / Gene Taylor / Harry Teague / Bennie Thompson / Dina Titus / Paul Tonko / Niki Tsongas / / Chris Van Hollen / Tim Walz / Debbie Wasserman Schultz / Diane Watson / Anthony Weiner / Ed Whitfield / John Yarmuth
If you want a progressive Congress, these Democratic U.S. Representatives won’t help you. Progressive voters may decide they have little reason to give them support in return for the 2010 election.