FRIDAY RECAP: January 14, 2022
Democrats will be using a bicameral bill about NASA also containing the Freedom to Vote Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, that passed the House yesterday, to begin debating these voting rights acts with only a simple majority.
The first debate this Congresswill begin next week, culminating in a motion to end debate, which Republicans will filibuster. Dems will then try to modify the filibuster to allow for an up-or-down vote.
This is the closest to passage we’ve come, making it imperative that we continue calling.
WEST VIRGINIANS SUFFER AS MANCHIN PANDERS TO HIS DONORS
Democrat Joe Manchin is certainly not working for his voters. And in state after state, people of goodwill will find it impossible to get elected because the MAGA mobs have used the “Big Lie” to get GOP legislatures to pass laws to decide who can vote and who can win. We can negate these laws with Senate passage of pending voting rights legislation.
ENSHRINING THE RIGHT TO VOTE DETERMINES OUR COUNTRY’S DESTINY
While Biden has appointed great judges to the lower federal courts, the voters who made Trump president by staying home in 2016 allowed him to tilt the courts far to the right. These judges, especially the six ultra-conservative Supreme Court Justices, are sabotaging Biden’s agenda, intent on killing “the administrative state” and destroying our democracy. To stop this power grab requires protecting voting rights.
BIDEN BETS HIS PRESIDENCY ON DEFENDING ELECTIONS
States have enacted 33 laws designed to block likely Democrats from the ballot box. Biden is pulling all levers of his office to override these laws. Also, Senate Leader Schumer has pledged to defang the Republican nuke, the filibuster loophole, allowing votes on two bills to protect the will of the majority through fair elections.
FRIDAY RECAP: January 7, 2022
On the anniversary of the January 6 insurrection President Biden acknowledged our democracy’s in peril and called for Senate action on voting rights. Senators Wyden and Merkley also spoke forcefully of the urgent need to pass these bills, which Majority Leader Schumer’s again vowed to bring up for a Senate vote. To ensure this happens, we must keep calling daily.
Protecting our democracy also requires removal of those members who assisted the insurrection.
THE WAR ON OUR COUNTRY CONTINUES, SO FIGHT BACK
The MAGA militants, including many leading Republicans, are waging a slow-motion war against our country, weaponizing lies about vaccines and elections, inciting right-wing violence, and attacking our elections and even school boards, so they can rule for the wealthy and powerful few. You can help stop them.
COVID DISINFORMATION RADICALIZES TRUSTING PEOPLE
Covid can, and is being tamed. But not here in the US. Why? Because millions of Americans have been ruthlessly misled by people they trust, whose priority is not protecting lives. Republican politicians are driving this misinformation campaign, and it’s their constituents who are paying the highest price.
SAVING OUR DEMOCRACY MUST BE CONGRESS’ FOCUS
“Democracy is most likely to break down through a series of incremental actions that cumulatively undermine the electoral process, resulting in a presidential election that produces an outcome clearly at odds with the voters’ will. It is this comparatively quiet but steady subversion, rather than a violent coup or insurrection against a sitting president, that Americans today have to fear most.” Washington Post, Dec. 10, 2021.
Don't Privatize Medicare!
“Democracy is most likely to break down through a series of incremental actions that cumulatively undermine the electoral process, resulting in a presidential election that produces an outcome clearly at odds with the voters’ will. It is this comparatively quiet but steady subversion, rather than a violent coup or insurrection against a sitting president, that Americans today have to fear most.” Washington Post
“NO CHILD IN THE RICHEST COUNTRY IN THE WORLD SHOULD FACE HUNGER” –Rep. Ilhan Omar
The Universal School Meals Program Act of 2021 addresses US food insecurity by ensuring that all school children receive free meals regardless of income. It expands U.S. food programs and makes successful plans permanent.
SAVING DEMOCRACY REQUIRES A FILIBUSTER CARVE-OUT
Despite Indivisible Oregon’s campaign to pass voting rights bills, the bills are still stuck in the Senate. We are now at democracy’s tipping point. The GOP’s commitment to undermine, not protect and strengthen, democracy, makes a filibuster carve-out imperative. The Senate must remain in session until these bills pass.
FRIDAY RECAP: December 10, 2021
Tomorrow is the last day of our week-long campaign to convince the Senate that, to protect the integrity of our elections and save our democracy, Senate Democrats must remain in Washington until they pass the Freedom to Vote and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Acts by whatever means possible.
That Senators are considering filibuster reforms and Schumer is hoping for a vote this month suggests that our campaign’s had some impact. So, we must keep up the pressure.
PROTECT OUR VOTE FROM ELECTION SABOTAGE!
In the aftermath of the 2020 Presidential election, states have rushed to pass laws that invite election sabotage by anti-democratic politicians. The Senate must pass the Freedom to Vote and the John Lewis Voting Rights Acts immediately before future elections are irreparably compromised.
EXTREME GERRYMANDERING MUST BE STOPPED
Republicans are frantically redrawing lines to increase their advantage to ensure that every election’s result will be clear long before the issues are debated or voters consider their choices. Their goal is to make elections irrelevant so that no matter what the majority of voters want, Republicans will always be able to keep their positions and stay in power.
THE ELECTION iNSURRECTION
The Republican war against our form of government is now attacking the ballot box, democracy's sanctuary. That votes must be freely cast and fairly counted is a principle that doesn’t work for a shrinking Republican party. Its plan to hold power rests on sabotaging elections, by blocking certain voters and rigging ballot counting. Two Senate bills can safeguard elections, and they must pass.