Yo if you live in Alaska, WV, Maine, Nevada, Arizona, Colorado, Pennsylvania, or Louisiana, or Arkansas, please please PLEASE call your senator and tell them not to vote to defund Obamacare. There are calling scripts at the following link. A vote is planned today or tomorrow.
You may have noticed the healthcare bill was finally released! You may also have noticed that it sucks and people will literally die if it passes! Here’s what you can do!
Call your senator’s office. Say “Hi, my name is (your name). I’m a constituent from (your town) . I’m calling to urge you to vote against the AHCA. Cutting healthcare to children, elders, and people with disabilities to give tax cuts to 400 wealthy families is unconscionable. This will destroy our state’s economy. If it passes (tell them how it will impact you, your family, your town, your friends). I will not vote for any politician who would put my/my family’s healthcare at risk for a few wealthy donors.”
Now, please.
The bill is now called the “Better Care and Reconciliation Act ” so make sure you use the right name!
If you’ve been talking a big political game, this is your chance to put your money where your mouth is.
If you’ve already been really politically involved, I’m so glad, keep up the good work.
CALL YOUR SENATORS.
REMIND THEM THAT THEY WORK FOR YOU.
URGE THEM TO VOTE AGAINST THE AMERICAN HEALTH CARE ACT.
If you have phone anxiety, look into the Stance app. If you don’t know what to say, I can help you write a script that you can read straight off the screen. If you’re low on spoons, I can think of like four people off the top of my head who will make the call for you.
Make it personal with your senators, because this bill is personal. For a lot of people, this bill is life or death.
Click that link. The GOP’s Senate health care bill would cut 800 Billion just from medicaid.
CALL.
YOUR.
FUCKIN
REPS.
If you cannot, message me your info (name, name of your senators) and I will call for you.
BUT CALLLLLL
Seriously if you don’t have the spoons for this sort of call today or have anxiety about calling, I WILL DO IT FOR YOU I AM COMPOSED MOSTLY OF RAGE AND SALT AND SPITE IT WOULD BE MY PLEASURE
HEY KIDS, I HAVE PHONE ANXIETY TOO BUT THERE IS A GREAT APP, IT IS CALLED STANCE (Android link) (iPhone link) AND IT WILL LET YOU RECORD A STATEMENT.
THEN IT TAKES YOUR RECORDED STATEMENT AND CONSTANTLY CALLS YOUR REPRESENTATIVE UNTIL IT GETS THROUGH TO DELIVER YOUR MESSAGE.
Coordinated effort for people to call their Senators on June 14 - Dem or GOP - to protect ACA. In general, I recommend trying local in-state offices before the DC office.
This this this.
Congress has reported that their call level has dropped to pre-election levels: a few dozen scattered calls a day.
Flood those offices. If you’re in a swing state, call to say that blocking the AHCA is important to you, and tell them why. (A sentence or two is fine: “I have a condition that wouldn’t be covered under it,” or “my sister was never able to get insurance before the ACA,” or whatever.)
If you’re in a red state, tell them you’re appalled at your senator’s voting record, and you want them to AT THE LEAST insist on a full committee review and open discussion of the AHCA - especially the costs!
If you’re in a blue state, or your senator is solidly against the AHCA, call to thank them for fighting the good fight.
The one thing I worry about is that they’ll try to push it through before the 14th.
Good morning everyone! In case you have crept FURTHER into the sensory deprivation tank which is everyone’s only source of peace these days: last night Trump fired FBI director James Comey. Comey found out about it on TV, bc Tromp is a lunatic who loves a spectacle. 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸
A few sample call scripts, slightly adapted from Indivisible:
FOR HOUSE GOP:
Hi, my name is [your name] and I’m a constituent from [your town]. I’m calling because I’m appalled by President Trump’s firing the director of an investigation into his own administration’s ties to Vladimir Putin. It’s the kind of thing autocrats do. [SHORT PERSONAL STORY ABOUT WHY U WOULD RATHER NOT BE RULED BY AN AUTOCRAT??] The American people deserve to know exactly what happened, how it happened, and what our elected leaders are doing to prevent it from happening again. Will [Rep’s name] stand up for [his/her] constituents by supporting an independent investigation into Russian tampering in our elections, and co-sponsoring the Protecting Our Democracy Act (H.R. 356)?
FOR SENATE GOP:
Hi, my name is [your name] and I’m a constituent from [your town]. I’m calling because I’m appalled by President Trump’s firing the director of an investigation into his own administration’s ties to Vladimir Putin. It’s the kind of thing autocrats do. [SHORT PERSONAL STORY ABOUT WHY U WOULD RATHER NOT BE RULED BY AN AUTOCRAT??] The American people deserve to know exactly what happened, how it happened, and what our elected leaders are doing to prevent it from happening again. Will [Senator’s name] stand up for [his/her] constituents by co-sponsoring Senator Cardin’s bill, S. 27, which would create an independent investigation into Russian interference?
FOR DEMOCRATS IN BOTH HOUSES:
Hi, my name is [your name] and I’m a constituent from [your town]. I’m calling because [SCREAMING] IT’S ON FIRE!! IT’S ALL ON FIRE, DUDE! HELP!!!!!!! HELP!!!!!!!!!!!!
no, just kidding, hahahaha. FOR DEMOCRATS & GOP-ERS WHO HAVE COME OUT IN SUPPORT OF INDEPENDENT INVESTIGATION:
Hi, my name is [your name] and I’m a constituent from [your town]. I’m calling because I’m appalled by President Trump’s firing the director of an investigation into his own administration’s ties to Vladimir Putin. [SHORT PERSONAL STORY ABOUT WHY U WOULD RATHER NOT BE RULED BY AN AUTOCRAT.] I just want to thank [elected’s name] for speaking out and I ask him/her to keep fighting on behalf of his/her constituents and the American people.
Please remember that one of the most effective tools in the arsenal of autocracy is the feeling of hopelessness. People who believe their voices are not useful don’t speak up. People who believe the war is over don’t fight back. But your sense that there’s Nothing You Can Do About All This isn’t an objective truth. It’s a weapon being actively deployed against you by an administration that wants you to stop caring. As MC Lyte once said, Fuck that motherfucking bullshit. Kiss my motherfucking ass.
after u call, u can come to my inbox and i will tell you what a BRAVE, BEAUTIFUL RUBY you are, because you are one, and i love u.
Hey, so I don’t talk about politics much on here, tumblr’s my safe zone both for myself and my followers
(Because who doesn’t need the break?) BUT
I did want to mention something that I do that is much less overwhelming than a lot of the MUST CALL THIS ONE NOW
AND THIS ONE
until you have a list of fifty million things that are ALL TERRIBLE and you feel like it’s your fault the world is about to end because you can’t do them all yourself RIGHT NOW
‘cause of course that’s no good for anyone, especially yourself but also the world
which numerous other people have mentioned, but in case you’ve missed it, is a website which gives you a manageable list of issues, pulls up the appropriate phone numbers for who to call, and gives you a script as well as a place to record your feedback (ie message, talked to someone, etc) so you can chart your progress.
but jilly, my followers say, the telephone is an infernal device that triggers my anxiety and maybe I can make a call or two or maybe I can’t but either way I end up having a panic attack and crying next to my desk all morning HOW IS THIS BETTER?
wow, think the other half of my followers who don’t have weird phone issues, that is a very specific example jilly, are you ok over there? to which I reply I AM NOW BECAUSE I STOPPED TRYING TO MAKE PHONE CALLS
5calls.org is, even if you’re not actually making literal phone calls, an excellent organizational tool to help prevent yourself from getting overwhelmed by ALL THE TERRIBLE EVERYWHERE and gives you a bullet list of Actual Things To Do and tells you just to start with five of them rather than trying to do 100 at once. Yay. <3
which brings us to the how do you use 5calls.org if you’re not calling people, jilly?
Now, you can uses resistbot either via texting on your phone OR facebook messenger (which may help some of you because Easier to Type At Computer or if you don’t actually have a smartphone, though I know politicians never believe that that is a thing) and it will FAX your comments of whatever sort directly to your Senators’ office(s). (YES THEY STILL HAVE FAXES! It’s amazing.) Avoid the phone! Don’t buy stamps! Just say whatever and it will print it FOR YOU. (It will unlock additional options as you use it, but that’s where it starts, faxes to your Senators. It has a very nicely paced progression.)
AND, if you are also using 5calls.org, you can just … use their list and copy their scripts so if you don’t know what to say while typing any more than you do while having to talk, it’s all right there for you.
So hey, be an adult, participate, but there are tools out there so doing so doesn’t make you even more stressed than the news does to begin with. (There are way more tools than just these two, obviously, but they are very user-friendly and easy to access with a computer even if you’ve never been politically active in your life.)
