Voting for
Hogan is voting for a Republican. Not voting for Ben Jealous is a vote
for Trump.
Kagiso, Max
Peacemakers,
Warmongers and Fence Sitters: Who Represents You?
commondreams.org
In lifetime voting records tabulated by Peace Action, the
average House Democrat has a 72% peace voting record, while the average House
Republican scores only 10%. In the Senate, the difference is 69% to 14%
October 23, 2018
As a
foreign policy crisis explodes over the apparent Saudi assassination of journalist Jamal
Khashoggi in Istanbul, the failure of the U.S. Congress to assert its
constitutional war powers over three years of illegal U.S. military action in
the war on Yemen and booming U.S. arms sales to Saudi Arabia
and its coalition partners is finally coming home to roost.
The UN
already reported two years ago that a child was dying every 10 minutes in
Yemen, wracked by the war and its consequences, including malnutrition,
diphtheria, cholera and other preventable diseases. Data already showed
that more than a third of Saudi-led airstrikes were
hitting schools, hospitals, markets, mosques and other civilian sites. But none
of the dire warnings by UN agencies and NGOs could trigger the constitutionally
required debate and decisive action by the U.S. Congress. Even now the
Trump administration is trying desperately to salvage its blood-soaked arms
sales to Saudi Arabia.
The
elephant in the room that none of them want to discuss is that Congress keeps
handing more than 60% of discretionary federal funds over to a military
industrial complex whose recent wars have only succeeded in plunging half a
dozen countries into intractable violence and chaos, leaving vital domestic
priorities permanently underfunded.
Yet as
early voting gets under way across the country, Congressional campaigns have
focused mainly on domestic issues and personality politics, with almost nothing
to say about the war in Yemen or other critical questions of war, peace and
record military spending. The elephant in the room that none of them want to
discuss is that Congress keeps handing more than 60% of discretionary federal
funds over to a military industrial complex whose recent wars have only
succeeded in plunging half a dozen countries into intractable violence and
chaos, leaving vital domestic priorities permanently underfunded.
To
fill this dangerous vacuum and help voters make critical decisions at the
voting booth, the CODEPINK 2018 Peace Voter's Guide and Divestment Record has
gathered data on arms industry campaign contributions from Open Secrets and the peace voting records of every
Member of Congress from Peace Action, and published them all in
one place for easy reference.
We
invite voters to check out the Peace
Voter's Guide to see where your Senators and Representatives
stand on critical issues of war and peace. How much money have your
representatives collected from the arms industry in this election cycle? How
have they voted on critical bills and amendments for war, peace, weapons and
military spending during their time in Congress?
You
can use the Guide to compare your representatives
with their colleagues. You can check out the differences between Democrats and
Republicans, and see who are the real hawks and doves in each party.
Figures
show that arms companies, including their PACS, have contributed about equally
to Democrats and Republicans in the Senate in this election cycle, giving an
average of over $180,000 to each Senator. In the House, however, they have
given more to Republicans (an average of $46,000 each) than to Democrats
($31,000 each).
The
Senators who are most indebted to the arms industry tend to be high-ranking
members of committees key to Pentagon funding. In 2017-18, the senator
receiving the most weapons industry contributions, $969,550, was Richard Shelby
(R-AL). Shelby chairs the powerful Appropriations Committee, the committee that
allocates funding for all federal agencies.
The
number one recipient on the Democratic side, with $675,8287 in contributions,
is Jack Reed (D-RI), ranking member at the Armed Services Committee. Other
major recipients, all on key committees, are Tim Kaine (D-VA) with $607,850;
Dick Durbin (D-IL) with $550,161; James Inhofe (R-OK) with $478,249; Lindsey
Graham (R-SC) with $458,893; Mark Warner (D-VA) with $399,928; and Bill Nelson
(D-FL) with $391,800. The arms industry's most favored House Reps are Armed
Services Chair Mac Thornberry (R-TX-13), with $402,250; Appropriations
Committee member Kay Granger (R-TX-12) with $368,410 and another Appropriations
member Peter Visclosky (D-IN-1) with $328,583.
When
it comes to critical votes on war, peace and militarism, the differences
between Democrats and Republicans are more stark. In lifetime voting records
tabulated by Peace Action, the average House Democrat has a 72% peace voting
record, while the average House Republican scores only 10%. In the Senate, the
difference is 69% to 14%.
There
are noteworthy outliers, like Rep. Justin Amash (R-MI-3) with an 82% peace
voting record and Rep. Pete Aguilar (D-CA-31) at only 18%. In the Senate,
Republican Rand Paul (KY) has a better voting record (62%) than Democrat Joe
Donnelly of Indiana (16%), although even Rand Paul would be below-average if he
was a Democrat.
And
then there are real champions for peace and disarmament in Congress: 16
Democrats and 10 Republicans in the House who have run this year's campaigns
with no arms industry cash at all; and progressive leaders who stand up to vote
for peace at almost every chance they get, like Barbara Lee (CA-13), with a 99%
lifetime peace voting record, Katherine Clark (MA-5) at 98%, Jared Huffman
(CA-2), Mark DeSaulnier (CA-11) and Earl Blumenauer (OR-3) at 96%, and Tammy
Baldwin of Wisconsin with the highest score in the Senate at 94%.
At the
other end of the scale, there are 22 Members of Congress (all Republicans) with
a 0% peace voting record, meaning that they have never once voted as requested
by members of Peace Action, CODEPINK and our partners in the U.S. peace
community. They are Senator Tom Cotton (AR) and Representatives McSally (AZ-2),
Walters (CA-45), Curbelo (FL-26), Carter (GA-1), Allen (GA-12), Bost (IL-12),
LaHood (IL-18), Brooks (IN-5), Poliquin (ME-2), Bishop (MI-8), Emmer (MN-6),
Stefanik (NY-21), Katko (NY-24), Rouzer (NC-7), Russell (OK-5), Costello
(PA-6), Ratcliffe (TX-4), Hurd (TX-23), Brat (VA-7), Comstock (VA-10) and
Newhouse (WA-4).
We
invite you to explore the CODEPINK
2018 Peace Voter's Guide and Divestment Record before you vote.
We hope it will help you to find incumbents or challengers where you live whose
campaigns are not tainted by big contributions from the arms industry, and whom
you can count on to reflect your values by casting decisive votes for peace,
diplomacy and disarmament in the coming years. Please vote wisely.
Millions of lives depend on it.
This work
is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 License
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of people like you, another world is possible. There are many battles to be
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Nicolas J. S.
Davies is the author of Blood On Our
Hands: the American Invasion and Destruction of Iraq. He also
wrote the chapters on "Obama at War" in Grading the 44th
President: a Report Card on Barack Obama’s First Term as a Progressive Leader.
Medea Benjamin,
co-founder of Global Exchange and CODEPINK: Women for Peace, is the author
of the new book, Inside Iran: The
Real History and Politics of the Islamic Republic of Iran. Her
previous books include: Kingdom of the
Unjust: Behind the U.S.-Saudi Connection; Drone Warfare:
Killing by Remote Control; Don’t Be Afraid
Gringo: A Honduran Woman Speaks from the Heart, and (with Jodie
Evans) Stop the Next
War Now (Inner Ocean Action Guide). Follow her on Twitter: @medeabenjamin
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