The Republican health care bill has stalled in the Senate, at least until after the July Fourth 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 American Health Care Act. But before picking up the phone, Slate’s chosen three movies that will help you understand the Republican health care plan backward and forward. Check these movies out and you’ll be an AHCA expert in no time, ready to talk rings around anyone answering the phone at your senator’s office. Take a look, and get ready to learn to speak Republican!
Nosferatu
It’s true that you won’t find many wonkish health care policy details in F.W. Murnau’s 1922 silent masterpiece. But as a primer in the small government philosophy that underlies the Republican party’s signature legislation, Count Orlok’s 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 can’t enter your house unless you invite them.
Nosferatu the Vampyre
You might think that Werner Herzog’s 1979 remake of Murnau’s 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? Who’s got his finger on the political pulse now?
Shadow of the Vampire
Yes, I am literally saying that the people who support the AHCA are vampires—and 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?
