“The Congress will not pass this,” Republican Rep. John Boehner of Ohio said more than six weeks ago, agreeing that the Democratic health care reform bill was dead. Kneejerk disbelief is what one might have expected from the leader of the Republicans — the leader of a party whose lack of ideas derives directly from its lack of imagination.

If health care legislation does pass this year, it will be an unprecedented feat by Democratic politicians. In the face of economic crisis and multiple wars, moneyed opposition and misinforming media, policy disputes and dire predictions, Democrats have pressed on for months, reaching one goal after another, and now they race down the final stretch.

Late Saturday night in a show of strength and resolve, Democrats forced through the House of Representatives the most substantial reform legislation to be taken up in Congress in our lifetimes. Chairing the House of Representatives was Democrat John Dingell of Michigan, who also held the gavel in 1965 when Congress passed its last substantial wave of health care reform in the form of Medicare.

Like that program, this too will be held as a third-rail institution, part of the birthright of Americans and reflective of the genius of our country. In the long term, it will be one more entry in the canon of progress toward social justice. In the short term, it will drastically improve the lives of millions of Americans.

Imagine: in a space of less than 10 years, a population equivalent to that of California will transition from the insecurity that comes with lacking insurance to accessing the best health care system in the world. Imagine the difference that could make for millions of people. Think of the aggregation of this change, as countless members of rural and urban under-served communities lead healthier lives. Morally, this legislation is indispensable.

Practically, however, there are challenges. Not the least of which is the fact that the legislation would disproportionately aid poor, neglected communities — not the kinds of communities where consistent voters and high-income donors live. This makes politicians afraid to support the legislation. In fact, that has been the message of the Republican opposition to the public all along: do not support this, it will only help people poorer than you.

Normally that has been an effective mantra for the Republicans, and given the turnout at the Tea Party events, it has been working on a particular set of voters. Luckily, these traditionalists are outmoded and outnumbered.

What conservative inciters forget is that the election of 2008 really did represent change. President Obama’s message called for a new set of values to be held in esteem and enshrined into law: values like empathy and community, understanding and mutual respect. Given the chance to put these values into action, even at a cost to themselves, Americans will selflessly push forward.

In a matter of weeks, Congress will have the chance to put the American people to the test: to dare them to defy their own beliefs by denying millions of people health care. What America does now will define its future. It is time for our country to truly represent the character of its people.