Democrats hope to use Obamacare rewrite to turn activism into change

By Peter Slevin March 13 at 8:04 PM

CHICAGO — This is “the all-hands-on-deck moment of the health-care fight,” MoveOn.org’s Washington director, Ben Wikler, told the 26,373 listeners who tuned into the organization’s Sunday night strategy call, a weekly event that has drawn vast audiences of progressives seeking solidarity and guidance. “We have a plan.”

Determined to defeat the fast-paced Republican overhaul of the Affordable Care Act, Wikler called for protests Thursday and Friday at the offices of nine GOP senators and 23 House members. He said demonstrators should bring props: crutches, stretchers, slings.

“Suddenly we’re in this turbo mode, this race where they’re going to try to torpedo health care for millions of people and we have three weeks to stop them,” Wikler said. “This is a full-on health-care emergency. But we actually have, I think, a really good shot at stopping these guys.”

The Obamacare rewrite by House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) and the Trump administration is presenting progressive organizations with a clear target and a powerful challenge as they labor to channel the diffuse grass-roots opposition to President Trump’s agenda. Beating back the effort became more urgent on Monday after the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimated the GOP proposal would lower the number of Americans with health insurance by 24 million while reducing the federal deficit $337 billion by 2026.

The energy of the anti-Trump forces since Jan. 20 has surprised even his most fervent opponents. The question is whether Democrats can turn activism into policy victories and success at the polls. Defeating the GOP proposal is shaping up as a defining test, with significant implications for policy and politics alike.

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