Today Obamacare repeal is up for a vote. It appears it may fall short but the Republican whip feels he can apply pressure on the 5 by blaming the "failure of repeal" solely on them.
He may have reason to be optimistic.
If it passes, it must go through the Senate. Which means a conference between the two, and a “surprise” raced out most likely before a long recess.
If I am any indicator, we are all tired of this... We did it for the Muslim ban. It worked. We did it for the DeVos and the others with mixed success. We've made town halls a living Republican hell. We did it for the last repeal attempt; we succeeded.
But this one is important. Out of nowhere, it is here. And it is worse than the last one, for every living and dying American. This one is sooooo bad; it has a great chance of passing.
Imagine a box divided by 4 squares. Across the top you add labels Should Call and Not Call. Down the side you add labels Will Succeed and Will Not Succeed.
Then you look at the options.
If you call, and it succeeds, you wasted your time. You wasted your life really. For without the protections of the ACA, in its caps, its coverage of pre-conditions, its 100% healthy visit coverage, your life will end at the first onset of anything you can't currently afford to stop yourself. If you have no house or real estate, you die quickly. If you have them, you transfer their assets over to your health provider, then die quickly thereafter. That was reality from 2000-2008 and one of the prime reasons the ACA was passed by a huge majority in Congress...
If you call, and the repeal act does not succeed, you have effectively joined the effort to preserve Obamacare for at least this Congressional session, or until Single Payer steps in to augment it.
On the other side, what happens if you don't call.
If you don't call and this bill succeeds, you have not only doomed yourself, but your nation. Could your one call have made a difference? Maybe. All our personal decisions are usually made not on hundreds of data points, but on one single instance that tips the balance to where we finally say, “ok, this is now my decision”. It involves emotions. You may be that instance for that representative... That is how it works in the real world... If you don't call and the Republican bill passes, we will never know if you could have made a difference.
If you don't call and it still fails to pass, then you have no part in claiming victory. You did nothing but you earn the same rewards from those who did...
In this arrangement, there are three negative boxes and one positive. That positive is if you call and the measure fails and Obamacare goes forward at least to the next Congress.
Calling, UNLIKE LOSING EVERYTHING, is painless. Do it for your country. your future, your own self respect.