The most effective protest, and the one with the best optics, is the one you make physically: showing up at your shitbag Representative’s district office, camera in hand. Be there when he gets to work in the morning. Be there when she leaves. Ask her if she is embarrassed. Ask him if he is ashamed. Tell her interns and assistants about yourself, about your loved ones. Explain to your local newspaper, to neighborhood blogs, to your facebook friends and Twitter followers why you are furious and disappointed and why you will not forget.
If you would rather call, here’s a potential script. It is maybe not the best? I’m pretty angry.
Hi. I’m calling to register my anger and disappointment at Rep. ____’s Yes vote on the AHCA. [I/my loved ones] am now at risk of losing my insurance, and I am appalled that social programs that personally affect me and my loved ones will be stripped in order to provide tax breaks to the wealthy. Rep. ____ should be ashamed of himself. I and my community will not forget this vote. Will you please take down my information and send me confirmation that the Congressman is listening to constituents? Thanks.
If your rep voted YES and you don’t want to call them, there are PLENTY of people on tumblr who will call on your behalf.
In between the fury and the heartbreak of today (which I am also feeling), I want to also add a few nitty gritty Legislative Process details here:
1. The bill has to pass through the Senate before it becomes law.
2. The reason this is so rushed is largely in part to get it done before the budget reconciliation deadline (which this technically falls under). There are a lot of weird, confusing, conflicting rules for this and TBH I don’t totally understand them (because they’re arcane and extremely complicated), but the point is that our primary goal should be stalling until they run out of time.
3. The Senate cannot vote on the bill until the CBO scores it, which likely won’t be until June.
4. Congress goes into recess this week and they will be back among their constituents. Give them HELL.
Other Notes:
1. Here is the Congress.gov page showing who voted how (at the time of posting not yet updated but check back).
2. Here is the ActBlue page to donate to Democrats running to oppose Republicans who voted for TrumpCare.
Another reason why it’s a good idea to keep up the pressure on House members who votes yes on ACHA is that’s it’s not at all unlikely that they’ll have to vote on it again. Here are three options going forward, as best I understand them:
1. The Senate votes on ACHA as is and as it was passed by the House; the bill becomes law of the land. This is the scariest possibility, but also, imo, the least likely. That doesn’t mean we should get complacent - there’s a real chance of this happening, but we should have a good amount of time to stop it.
2. The Senate votes down the bill. It’s dead and the processes has to start all over again or be abandoned entirely.
3. The Senate amends the bill before voting on it, which means that even if they vote yes it has to go back to the House for another vote on the new version of it. At this point, House members are free to say “Well, I voted for the original version, but this new version is unacceptable.” This could be code for “My constituents are mad at me for my original vote but I don’t want to admit I made a mistake” or even “I never really wanted this bill to pass; I wanted the Senate to kill it for me.” I read an article today with a representative PREEMPTIVELY saying he might not vote yes on the bill again if the senate altered it.
I hope people call their senators and keep the pressure on there too, but I agree that we can’t take our focus off the House.