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WASHINGTON What are the political ramifications of threatening to let your constituents die needlessly?

Up until May 4, 2017, it would have been a theoretical question for which political scientists lacked the data to answer. But come 2018, well find out.

Democrats feel like they already know the answer. For a party that just watched its signature legislative achievement get repealed in a tight vote on the House floor, Democrats had quite the spring in their step, even breaking into song as the vote was gaveled. Nah, nah, nah, nah/Nah, nah, nah, nah/Hey, hey, hey, goodbye, Democrats bellowed in unison to their Republican colleagues in the chamber.

Democrats sang Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye on the House floor after Republicans narrowly passed the American Health Care Act. pic.twitter.com/ubGPxSco4W

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Democrats sang Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye on the House floor after Republicans narrowly passed the American Health Care Act. pic.twitter.com/ubGPxSco4W
HuffPost (@HuffPost) May 4, 2017

The song appalled Rep. Tom MacArthur, a Republican from New Jersey who brokered a deal with the Freedom Caucus that got the party to this point.

I simply dont look at this through a political lens, and frankly I thought that was beneath the dignity of the House to be singing a song with a political message. This isnt about politics. This is about the American people having health care and making sure that prices come down, he said.

The dignity of the House of Representatives aside, MacArthur, elected in 2014, was unaware that his own party had serenaded Democrats with the same song as they passed the Affordable Care Act in 2010.

The taunt was accurate then: Democrats were swept out of office, and voting against Obamacare wasnt enough to save many of them. Of the 32 Democrats who voted against the Affordable Care Act out of political concern, 21 lost or retired in the next cycle. The problem is not only the individual vote, it is also the collective action taken by the party and voters are fond of doling out collective punishment. If the effect is anything like what happened in 2010, any Republican who won his or her seat by 20 points or less is now vulnerable .

The bill passed by the Republican House gives states the option of ignoring Affordable Care Act requirements that people with pre-existing conditions have affordable access to health care. In its place, the state must create a high-risk pool traditionally, an underfunded program that comes nowhere close to providing the kind of coverage needed.

Political punishment, in the form of massive amounts of cash flowing to House Republican opponents, is already being doled out. Rep. Darrell Issa, a vulnerable Republican from California, told reporters none of your business when asked Wednesday how hed vote. By Thursday, he seemed no more willing to share his position with the public, even as the clock on the vote ticked down to zero. Often, members of Congress who want to avoid a tough vote wait until the very end in hopes that theirs wont be needed. With the tally at 215 yes votes, one short of the total, Issa finally cast his vote, putting it over the top and bringing a loud cheer from the Republican side. (It finished with 217, as there is a political maxim that a one-vote win should be avoided at all costs, because it lets the opponent say that every single vote was the deciding vote.)

Democratic activists responded by raising at least $100,000 in a single day dedicated to whomever becomes Issas opponent, according to Michelle Finocchi of the group Swing Left , which launched after the election with the aim of funneling Democratic energy from blue districts into areas where it could make a difference.

Another $300,000 was raised by a Swing Left page that split the money evenly among 35 swing districts where a Republican voted yes. We informally collaborated on this with Jon Favreau and Crooked Media, said Finocchi. Its the result of playing around, brainstorming, trying things out and seeing what worked. The genesis of the ideas was how to turn lemons into lemonade in this awful moment. She said $150,000 of that came in right around the time of the vote.

And another page set up on ActBlue was on its way to an additional $300,000 raised by the time this story was published and has probably climbed much higher since .

The progressive website Daily Kos put out its own call for donors to help defeat the 24 most vulnerable Republicans who voted for the bill. In less than four hours, the site collected nearly $200,000 from more than 4,000 donors. That was even before Daily Kos emailed the fundraising appeal to its 3.5 million members. As of Friday morning, donations to the site had climbed to a record $650,000.

That, at least, will be counterbalanced by one critical but overlooked element of the repeal bill. The politics of the vote are bad for Republicans on every level save one: Wealthy backers of Republican politicians have expected a major tax cut to come from control of both Congress and the White House. Delivering on that promise will pay off in campaign contributions and other benefits, as the repeal of the Affordable Care Act amounts to an extraordinarily large tax cut directed at the wealthiest people in the country.

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