Dear fellow MoveOn member,
Our campaign to end the filibuster is making incredible progress, and Mitch McConnell is starting to flat-out panic.
First, President Joe Biden said that he would support bringing back the "talking filibuster," which would force Senate Republicans to stand on the floor and talk nonstop for hours or even days in order to block legislation. Then, last week, he went even further, suggesting that he might support ending the filibuster if Republicans continue to just say "no, no, no" to everything, all the time.1
Now, with momentum on the side of Democrats, McConnell is lashing out with wild threats about "scorched earth tactics" and a "nuclear winter" in the Senate.2 McConnell is freaking out because he knows that ending the filibuster would allow the Senate to pass popular bills to address voting rights, gun safety, immigration reform, and infrastructure—without a single Republican vote. And that is his worst nightmare.
My friends at MoveOn have been on the front lines of this fight from the beginning, and now, they are aiming to turn up the heat to end the filibuster and pass voting rights legislation by flooding Congress with phone calls, digital ads, and—if they can raise enough money—TV ads and billboards. Will you chip in $65 to help MoveOn demand an end to the filibuster?
The need to end the filibuster gained new urgency last week when Georgia's Republican governor signed into law voter suppression legislation aimed at making it even harder for Black people, young people, and low-income voters to cast their ballots.
That bill is just one of more than 300 that have been introduced this year in state legislatures.3 Progressive leader Stacey Abrams is calling these attacks on voting rights "Jim Crow in a suit and tie."4
That's why it's crystal clear that Senate Democrats must now choose between saving the filibuster or saving our democracy. There is no middle ground.
President Biden isn't the only one fed up with the filibuster. New polling shows that voters would support eliminating the filibuster rule to pass voting rights legislation by a 28-percentage-point margin, and Democratic senators who oppose the filibuster, including Arizona's Kyrsten Sinema, have seen their approval ratings drop sharply.5,6
McConnell is freaking out over this because he knows that the filibuster is his one and only chance at stopping voting rights and other popular proposals addressing infrastructure, campaign finance reform, and background checks for guns.
With momentum on our side, we can't take our foot off the gas now. Will you donate $65 to help end the filibuster and pass federal legislation to stop right-wing voter suppression?
Thanks for all you do.
–Robert Reich
Sources:
1. "In His First Press Conference, Biden Moved Closer To Supporting Radically Changing How The Senate Works," Buzzfeed News, March 25, 2021
https://act.moveon.org/go/150573?t=4&akid=293842%2E53570607%2EWFD3BA
2. "A 'nuclear winter' foretold," Axios, March 24, 2021
https://act.moveon.org/go/150574?t=6&akid=293842%2E53570607%2EWFD3BA
3. "The States Where Efforts To Restrict Voting Are Escalating," FiveThirtyEight, March 29, 2021
https://act.moveon.org/go/150571?t=8&akid=293842%2E53570607%2EWFD3BA
4. "'Jim Crow in a suit and tie': Stacey Abrams condemns slate of GOP voter suppression laws," The Independent, March 15, 2021
https://act.moveon.org/go/150575?t=10&akid=293842%2E53570607%2EWFD3BA
5. "Voter Support Eliminating The Filibuster," Data For Progress, August 13, 2020
https://act.moveon.org/go/150576?t=12&akid=293842%2E53570607%2EWFD3BA
6. "New poll shows Kyrsten Sinema's moderate approach has weakened democratic (sic) support," AZ Family, March 22, 2021
https://act.moveon.org/go/150577?t=14&akid=293842%2E53570607%2EWFD3BA
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