I'm much crabbier than I was the last time he called -- this is the third scam telemarketing call I've gotten today, and my back hurts, and I keep thinking it might be my mom, who is sick, so each time I get up to answer the phone.
So again the same recorded spiel about Obamacare and how the GOP is valiently trying to muster enough support in the Senate to defeat it comes through the phone line. Again my plan was just to try to get Huckabee's book to find out exactly what he thinks is wrong with Obamacare.
So I press 1, and again a nice-sounding, young-sounding, not-very-intelligent-sounding woman is on the phone. Could it be the same one as last time? Maybe.
Again, I think "How long can the GOP keep this up? They used to actually have something to sell to the electorate. Back when they were the more fiscally responsible party, before jumping the 'deficits don't matter' shark, there were parts of the Republican platform that appealed to me. But now, all they offer is to the plutocracy, to the globalized corporatocracy. To get the vote of the actual regular guy, they have to lie. They have to sell that lie."
So I say to the nice-sounding young woman "So tell me, what exactly is wrong with Obamacare (I call it Obamacare...I think, if we get to keep it, it will be seen as one of the great achievements in governance in my lifetime, and if it's Obamacare for the rest of my life, that's going to be like calling "Social Security" "Democrat Security" -- if the GOP can't kill it at the Supreme Court or with a new President this year, it the Affordable Care Act will be "Obamacare" forever, and forever an albatross around the necks of the GOP, a signature Democratic achievement under a Democratic President who will be more fondly remembered as the years pass)?"
"Well" she says "it was passed over the opposition of most of the American people, so it was not in keeping with the way our goverment is supposed to work"
"Do you know how our government is supposed to work?" I ask her "Do you think that Americans vote on legislation and that's how laws are made?"
"no" she says
"We have a representative government. We elect our representatives, and they write legislation and vote on whether or not it becomes law. There was nothing at all dodgy or illegal about how Obamacare was passed into law. And also, you're factually incorrect about support for the law. A great majority of Americans who say they do not support it say they do not support it because it does not go far enough. Obamacare was a compromise"
She murmurs something polite, but I can tell she's not with me on that one. Those arguments don't seem to work. I decide to get more personal, which seemed to have more of an effect that last time.
"Do you have health insurance?" I ask
"Yes, I do"
"Are you afraid of losing it?" I ask
"Yes, I am"
"There are a lot of Americans right now who would like to quit the jobs they're in, who would like to try to get better jobs than they have, or to go into business for themselves, but who can't, because they'd lose their health insurance, and it would be too expensive to get individual health insurance, or they have a pre-existing condition and they know they couldn't get health insurance." This is an unfair argument. She's working as a telemarketer, for Pete's sake, of course she wants a better job than the one she has. She's also a woman, which probably means the following argument may sway her. I go on, "My daughter only has health insurance now because of Obamacare. She's more than 21, and has a pre-existing condition. If it weren't for Obamacare, I couldn't insure her; she wouldn't be able to have the health care she needs"
"Oh," she says.
"Obamacare isn't perfect," I say, "But it's a lot better than what we had. A lot of Americans who couldn't get medical care are getting medical care now. And I don't think the GOP has a plan at all. Obamacare may not be going fast enough, but at least it's going the right direction."
"I have to go now. I have another call" she says.