Tell your Senators: Get the Filibuster Out of the Way!
Call BOTH of your Senators.
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Call Script
My name is __________. I am a constituent, and my zip code is _______. I am a member of Indivisible SF.
A minority of Republican voters have dominated the Senate for far too long, and the filibuster only makes things worse. Now that months of negotiations have finally produced the Freedom to Vote Act, which contains strong voting rights protections, we’re asking you to end the filibuster or at least create a filibuster carve-out for voting rights to protect democracy.
President Biden’s agenda is popular with a majority of the American people. He won election decisively, by more than 8 million votes, by campaigning on restoring our democracy and building a robust infrastructure that will protect every state from the ravages of climate change and create millions of great jobs that recapture our leadership in clean energy, paying for it with a more equitable system of taxation in which the wealthy pay their fair share.
Background
The Senate already has a major problem of minority rule. Every state gets two senators, no matter its population. That means that 44 senators represent the 40 million people who live in the smallest 22 states, but only two senators represent the 40 million who live in California. In the election cycle that produced the 2019 Senate, the Democratic senators actually got 4.5 million more total votes than the Republican senators, but the Republicans still won the majority of the seats, and with it, control of the Senate – a flagrant case of minority rule.
The filibuster, which is not in the Constitution, makes that worse. It takes less than half the Senate – 41 senators from the smallest states, who collectively represent only 10% of the country’s population —to uphold a filibuster and block any legislation favored by the vast majority of voters. In no other Western democracy is the potential for this kind of misrepresentation and minority rule so extreme. (1, 3, 4)
Unfortunately, the Democratic Senate majority may be too small right now to achieve our goal of eliminating the filibuster. Senator Manchin has been insisting that the bipartisan 2006 re-authorization of the Voting Rights Act proves that a compromise bill could get ten Republican votes in hyper-partisan 2021. A team of junior and senior senators (including our Senator Padilla) introduced The Freedom to Vote Act this week, which contains strong and significant protections of our voting rights. It prohibits partisan gerrymandering, establishes minimum requirements for how states conduct federal elections, expands voter registration, provides increased protection for election workers, sets minimum standards for early voting, creates a nationwide right to vote by mail, and more.(6) If (or rather, when) it fails to win votes from ten Republican senators,, we hope that will motivate the Democrats to pass filibuster reform in the shape of a “carve-out” for our fundamental voting rights. If that happens, The Freedom to Vote Act can pass, protecting all citizens’ voting rights and enabling us to build up a Democratic Senate majority in the 2022 midterms.
President Biden won the election decisively, and his agenda is popular with a majority of the American people. We need Senate Democrats to defend his policies boldly, instead of protecting arcane traditions like the filibuster, which has been used primarily by conservative rural states to block bills supported by a majority of Americans.(2)
For The People Act
“Three-fourths of survey respondents — including 66 percent of Republicans and 85 percent of Democrats — back a constitutional amendment outlawing Citizens United. The study also indicates that most Americans — 88 percent overall — want to reduce the influence large campaign donors wield over lawmakers at a time when a single congressional election may cost tens of millions of dollars.” Study: Most Americans want to kill 'Citizens United' with constitutional amendment, May 10, 2018, Center for Public Integrity
“By a 56% to 41% margin, survey respondents said making sure that everyone who wants to vote can do so is a bigger concern than making sure that no one who is ineligible votes.” Voting Rights Poll: People More Concerned With Access Vs. Fraud, July 3, 2021, NPR
John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act
“The House Judiciary Committee and the House Administration Committee held extensive hearings, including in states like Georgia and Texas, to document the need for a renewed Voting Rights Act. The bill passed the House on a largely party-line vote, 228 to 187.”
“Unlike in 2006, when the reauthorization of the Voting Rights Act passed the House by a vote of 390-33” House Votes to Restore the Voting Rights Act – Mother Jones, December 6, 2019
Biden Climate Action Plan
“70% of voters support addressing the challenge of climate change by shifting to greater use of clean energy, reducing carbon pollution from vehicles and industry, and making homes and buildings more energy efficient.” New Data: Poll Shows Voters Strongly Back Climate-related Infrastructure Investments, June 28, 2021, Earth Justice report on Hart Research Survey
American Families Plan
“Over 3 in 5 voters support child care subsidies for low- and middle-income workers and free preschool for 3- and 4-year-olds. Two years of free community college is backed by 59% of voters.” Biden's $1.8 Trillion American Families Plan Is Supported by Nearly 60% of Voters, May 5, 2021, Morning Consult
Made In America Tax Plan
“Every proposal we tested related to raising taxes on the wealthy and corporations was supported by at least 55% of voters, with most generating support with over two-thirds of voters. This is a winning policy issue and a winning political issue.” NEW POLL SHOWS OVERWHELMING SUPPORT FOR BIDEN'S PLANS TO RAISE TAXES ON WEALTHY AND CORPORATIONS, June 10, 2021, Americans for Tax Fairness
Reproductive Justice
“The poll, conducted June 10-14 among 1,125 U.S. adults, found 57% of respondents believe abortion should be legal overall in all or most cases—with 23% saying it should be legal in all cases and 33% saying only in most cases—including 76% of Democrats and 36% of Republicans.” Majority Of Americans Support Abortion, Poll Finds — But Not Later In The Pregnancy, June 25, 2021, Forbes
References
Two Senators per State: A Recipe for Minority Domination, Second-Rate Democracy, a web project of Douglas J. Amy, Professor Emeritus of Politics, Mount Holyoke College
The Filibuster: The Rule that Creates Minority Rule, Second-Rate Democracy, a web project of Douglas J. Amy, Professor Emeritus of Politics, Mount Holyoke College
The Filibuster Explained (Simplified), Indivisible SF Explainer
The Filibuster, Explained, The Brennan Center
Senate Democrats Forge Agreement On New Voting Legislation, 9/14/21, NPR
My Thoughts on Manchin's Compromise Bill, 9/14/21, Marc Elias, Democracy Docket
A BILL, Freedom to Vote Act full text, PDF