Every battle is a learning opportunity. For Conservatives, it's time to learn who stands where, and that takes a call for question, win, lose, or draw. Many of those we had been told were allies in this have turned coat, and it would be nice to have a roster of who stands where--we won't get that without a vote.
I understand that and can appreciate it to some extent. But I do think the value of "taking names" is being over-estimated by those who believe that people "went back on their word." LIke I've been saying, the truth is that the moderates didn't run on a full repeal without replacement, and their refusal to give up some things they liked in ObamaCare actually is consistent with where they've been. Those people generally are not in conservative districts/states, and won't "pay a price" for not getting rid of ObamaCare entirely.
And as you note, we didn't even get a vote. I go back and forth on this -- I think that holding a vote on just a straight repeal may be a good way to demonstrate that the votes aren't there for it. But the reality is that we'll never get that vote in the Senate. Even if the House managed to pass it, it would go over to the Senate and just sit there. Conservatives would keep insisting that it be voted on, McConnell won't hold a vote he knows he's going to lose, and we'd spend the next 18 months arguing about giving that bill a vote rather than passing something. I think it might become the ultimate red herring that would prevent anything from being passed, which would be a massive victory for the Democrats.
To put it differently, I think that if the GOP doesn't pass significant legislation regarding ObamaCare by the midterms, we'll lose the House. I think this vote made it more likely that no such bill will pass. And when that happens, we will have lost any ability to pass anything that doesn't move ObamaCare even more to the left.