Our Democracy Will Die.
This Year.
Nearly a dozen states enacted laws this year that could subvert the results of future elections, an analysis finds.
As I say, a screaming, hair-on-fire emergency. If we do not pass a voting rights law that stops voter suppression, partisan gerrymandering, dark money, and election subversion, our democracy will die. Not in centuries: now. The 2022 election will just pronounce the corpse.
– Heather Cox Richardson, Twitter, Sept. 30, 2021
Next year will be too late. Nearly all of the press this past week has been about the two infrastructure bills and their fate in Congress. And that fight is critically important (more about it below). But another battle is getting pushed aside and if it is neglected, our democracy will die. Not at some point in the future. This year.
OUR DEMOCRACY IS BEING DISMANTLED
Republicans are cementing their power in the states to support a future coup like the one Eastman described. Using “audits” of the 2020 elections, notably in Arizona but now also in Pennsylvania and Texas, Trump loyalists have convinced their supporters to distrust elections, softening the ground to overturn them in the future.
– Heather Cox Richardson, Sept. 24
Republicans have learned from Trump’s defeat: they are rigging the system so that they never have to lose elections again. They are doing this by passing laws that allow them to keep people from voting, keep ballots from being counted, and allow them to overturn results they don’t like. They are doing this by gerrymandering. And they are also purging their party of anyone who won’t go along with the electoral theft they’re building the groundwork for.
Democrats haven’t learned a thing.
We have the legislation – the Freedom to Vote Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act – to thwart the attack but both bills are sitting in the Senate. Democratic leadership isn’t focused on the attack, letting both bills languish. Neither Schumer nor Biden is fighting for their passage, nor are they willing to attack the filibuster, an archaic rule that gives Republicans a veto over everything. This has to stop. NOW. If our democracy fails, everything else will fail with it.
Please call President Biden and say:
Mr. President, we can’t “out-organize” voter suppression – not when the results of elections can be overturned on false pretexts. We must have legislation and we need your help to get the job done.
Please make getting the Freedom to Vote Act your top priority and do everything in your considerable power to unite Senate Democrats to pass the bill by any means possible, including by abolishing, reforming, or providing an exception to the Senate filibuster.
PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN
(The White House phone number is 202-456-1111, Tues - Thurs, 11-3 EDT.)
At all other times, write to the President: https://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/
(or better yet, use: resistbot.io)
And please call your Senators, who need to keep the pressure on their colleagues to get the job done quickly, and say:
If we lose our democracy, we will lose everything. Please push for the immediate passage of the Freedom to Vote Act and be willing to modify, reform, or abolish the filibuster to get the job done. There is no time to lose! Please get the job done!!
SENATOR DIANE FEINSTEIN
DC phone: (202) 224-3841
SF phone: (415) 393-0707
SENATOR ALEX PADILLA
DC phone: (202) 224-3553
SF phone: (415) 981–9369
FIGHTING FOR ‘BUILD BACK BETTER’
The House Progressive Caucus did the work this week to save President Biden’s agenda, nearly all of which is contained in the ‘Build Back Better’ Act (BBB). The $3.5T measure has significant provisions to address climate, drug prices and expanded Medicare, the care economy, housing, a pathway to citizenship, and reducing wealth inequality by making the rich pay their fair share.
The President’s plan has been to pass his agenda through this bill and a bipartisan infrastructure deal (BIF) that contains money for ‘hard’ infrastructure, like roads and bridges. The strategy calls for both bills to be passed together, because conservative Democrats, on behalf of their donors, prefer the do-less, cost-less BIF, while liberal Democrats – the overwhelming majority of the caucus – would like to see the President’s promises to the American people honored and recognize that this is a rare chance to do just that. The deal, in other words, is a trade-off, where each side gets what it wants in exchange for letting the other side get what it wants, too.
But nine “Blue Dog” Democrats in the House broke this pledge and tried to pass the BIF first so they could then kill the rest of the President’s agenda. This was an attack on the President’s plan, on their own party, and on the American people, both of whom overwhelmingly support the provisions of the Build Back Better Act.
The fight isn’t over. And, depending on where you live in the county, your representative is either one who fought hard to preserve the bill or one who is in the Blue Dog Coalition with the saboteurs.
Please call Congressman Jared Huffman and say:
I’m so proud of your work with the House Progressive Caucus this past week in keeping the Build Back Better Act alive. You were one of the public faces of the fight and you did a great job. Please continue to hold the line. You must pass the fully funded Build Back Better bill. Our country needs it desperately. Thank you!
CONGRESSMAN JARED HUFFMAN
Phone: (Petaluma) 707-981-8967
Please call Congressman Mike Thompson and say:
I’m asking you to stand with the House Progressive Caucus and continue the fight to deliver the fully-funded Build Back Better Act. I’m well aware that all of the saboteurs who tried to kill the Act last week are in your Blue Dog Coalition and I think it’s time you find another group to caucus with – preferably the Progressives, who are the ones doing the President’s work. The Blue Dogs have shown themselves to be defenders of dark money interests at the expense of the voters. That goes against everything I stand for.
CONGRESSMAN MIKE THOMPSON
Phone: (Santa Rosa) 707-542-7182
NO CLIMATE, NO DEAL
The Build Back Better Act contains two climate provisions that MUST pass if we are to have any hope of averting climate catastrophe: the Clean Electricity Performance Program (CEPP) and Clean Energy Tax Credits. It’s absolutely critical that the final bill contain both and that they not be watered down by fossil fuel interests, which Joe Manchin is trying to do on behalf of Exxon and others. They must be a deal-breaker.
Please call your Members of Congress and say:
The final Build Back Better Act MUST CONTAIN the full Clean Electricity Performance Program and Clean Energy Tax Credits. I’m asking you to vote NO if they are not included. No climate, no deal.
SENATOR DIANE FEINSTEIN
DC phone: (202) 224-3841
SF phone: (415) 393-0707
SENATOR ALEX PADILLA
DC phone: (202) 224-3553
SF phone: (415) 981–9369
CONGRESSMAN JARED HUFFMAN
Phone: (Petaluma) 707-981-8967
CONGRESSMAN MIKE THOMPSON
Phone: (Santa Rosa) 707-542-7182
DEMOCRATS MUST REBALANCE THE SUPREME COURT
The illegitimate Supreme Court demonstrated, in its ‘Shadow Docket’ action that let the draconian Texas anti-abortion, bounty hunter law stand, that it will stop at nothing to promote the agenda of the wealthy donors who stacked the Court. It’s time for Democrats to fight back. The Court must be expanded.
Unless the Court is rebalanced, the radical GOP will use their ill-gotten Court to force their anti-majoritarian agenda down Americans’ throats for the coming decades. This cannot be allowed to stand. But (stop us if you’ve heard this before) Democrats are afraid to act. If you care about abortion rights – or gun restrictions, elections, climate, you name it – help us pressure Democrats to finally use the power we worked so hard to give them.
Please call your Members of Congress and say:
I need [the MOC] to co-sponsor the Judiciary Act of 2021 (H.R. 2584 / S. 1141), which will expand the Supreme Court by four justices. Nothing less will protect us against the illegitimately-stacked radical, right wing Court that McConnell has installed. Please co-sponsor the Act and work hard to make it law.
CONGRESSMAN JARED HUFFMAN
Phone: (Petaluma) 707-981-8967
CONGRESSMAN MIKE THOMPSON
Phone: (Santa Rosa) 707-542-7182
SENATOR DIANE FEINSTEIN
Phone: (San Francisco) (415) 393-0707
SENATOR ALEX PADILLA
Phone: (San Francisco) (415) 981–9369
PROTECT REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS
The House has passed the Women’s Health Protection Act (WHPA) of 2021, which will protect the right to access abortion across the United States. As abortion attacks intensify and the Supreme Court colludes with them, the Senate must step up now and pass the WHPA. And they must be willing to kill the filibuster to do it.
Please call your Senators and say:
Equal access to abortion care—everywhere—is essential for social and economic equality, reproductive autonomy, and the right to determine our own lives. I’m asking the Senator to pass the Women’s Health Protection Act of 2021 as quickly as possible – and to be willing to abolish the filibuster to do it.
SENATOR DIANE FEINSTEIN
DC phone: (202) 224-3841
SF phone: (415) 393-0707
SENATOR ALEX PADILLA
DC phone: (202) 224-3553
SF phone: (415) 981–9369
CLIMATE ACTION:
FIGHT TO PROTECT ROOFTOP SOLAR IN CALIFORNIA
PG&E and other California utilities are trying to kill rooftop solar by raising fees on those who have installed it, including public schools, hospitals, and others. Local, rooftop solar power undermines their antiquated, fire-causing, climate-killing business model and cuts into their profits. It also hardens our communities against blackouts, gives people more control over their own power, and enables us to fight the climate crisis.
We defeated the utilities in the State Assembly, so now they’ve taken their case to the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) and found a compliant audience. We must defeat them there, too, to protect rooftop solar and to battle the climate crisis. The members of the CPUC aren’t elected, they’re appointed – by Governor Newsom. So we need to pressure him.
Please call Governor Newsom and say:
Utilities are asking your CPUC to stall rooftop solar installations and harm those financially who have installed solar panels. Local solar power generation is critical to Biden’s goal of decarbonizing our grid by 2035. It protects and hardens our fire-endangered communities. It is an essential tool to slow the climate crisis. Please stand up for rooftop solar and tell the CPUC to reject the utilities’ request.
GOVERNOR GAVIN NEWSOM
(916) 445-2841
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