These Three Movies Will Help You Understand the Republican Health Care Bill – Slate Magazine (blog)

Fiction.

Columbia Pictures

The Republican health care bill has stalled in the Senate, at least until after the July 4th recess, and for people who live in states with Republican senators, the delay poses a rare opportunity to reach out and let the senate know exactly how they feel about the AHCA. But before picking up the phone, Slates chosen three movies that will help you understand the Republican health care plan backwards and forwards. Check these movies out and youll be an AHCA expert in no time, ready to talk rings around anyone answering the phone at your senators office. Take a look, and get ready to learn to speak Republican!

Its true that you wont find many wonkish health care policy details in F.W. Murnaus 1922 silent masterpiece. But as a primer in the small government philosophy that underlies the Republican partys signature legislation, Count Orloks vampiric reign of terror is at least as instructive as an Ayn Rand novel. Give it a watch to get pumped up before dialing your senator, and remember: Republicans cant enter your house unless you invite them.

You might think that Werner Herzogs 1979 remake of Murnaus film would have just as little to say about effectively lobbying against Trumpcare as the original version. But have you considered that, in many ways, the Republican health care plan resembles the sort of legislation that might be drafted by a political party that was created to serve the interests of vampires? Whos got his finger on the political pulse now?

Yes, I am literally saying that the people who support the AHCA are vampiresand not, like, sexy teenage vampires, but the German Expressionist kind, the ugliest vampires there ever were. Will watching three different films about the same vampire prepare you to call your senators and beg them not to pass a bill that will cause your fellow citizens to suffer and possibly die, just as surely as they would if Count Orlok were drinking their precious blood? I mean, at this point, what harm could it do?

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These Three Movies Will Help You Understand the Republican Health Care Bill - Slate Magazine (blog)