Indivisibles,

You already know that our democracy is broken, and that it didn’t get that
way by accident -- but we have a plan to fix it.

In this email, we’re going to lay out one of our democracy reform
priorities for 2021: eliminating the filibuster. We know that a lot of
folks are worried about abolishing the filibuster, but please hear us out.
And as always -- feel free to email back with your thoughts! 

A quick reminder: the filibuster isn’t our only priority in the coming
year. We’re working on lots of things, from impeachment to gun violence
prevention to immigration. If you don’t have time to read an in-depth
policy outline of what we’re doing on the filibuster and why, but still
want to help out, [ [link removed] ]please consider making a $10 or more donation to
Indivisible Project to advance progressive priorities on every
front! We’ll ask you once more at the end, once we’ve made our case for
eliminating the filibuster.

Picture this...

It’s January 2021. We saw record turnout in the 2020 election, from the
presidential race on down. We’ve protected the Democratic majority in the
House and won back the Senate and White House -- you can pick which of the
amazing Democratic candidates you’ll imagine sitting in the Oval Office!

Our newly elected leaders have a narrow post-election window of
opportunity to enact progressive legislation, including major structural
reforms that will finally get our democracy working for the people. That
means things like health care, the Green New Deal, voting rights
expansion, immigration and human rights, fair election maps, gun violence
prevention, and every issue you care about. These ideas are popular, and
should be achievable. 

But wait: the picture isn’t quite as rosy as it looks. Senate Minority
Leader Mitch McConnell (ha!) waves his hand and says one magic word, and
suddenly all of our legislation is stopped in its tracks.

What’s the magic word?

Filibuster 🎩 🐰

The filibuster is a Senate rule that lets the minority in the Senate block
the majority from passing most legislation. It’s by its very nature
undemocratic: it means that in the United State Senate, majority doesn’t
rule. 

Quick history lesson (if you want more detail, check out this Vox
[ [link removed] ]video!): 

 1. The filibuster is not written into the Constitution. It’s just a
Senate rule, created in its current iteration in 1975, that can be
changed like any other Senate rule.
 2. Filibusters used to be incredibly rare. Up until the mid 1900’s
filibusters were a rarely used tool. That’s until...
 3. In the Civil Rights era, conservatives used the filibuster to block
major civil rights legislation. We’re talking about the Civil Rights
Act, the Dyer Anti-lynching bill and other incredibly important pieces
of legislation.
 4. Since then, conservatives have learned that the filibuster gets them
what they want. Mitch McConnell used it as a cudgel to stop or weaken
nearly every piece of progressive legislation that President Obama
tried to pass. 

We know that when lots of people think about the filibuster, they think of
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington: someone standing up and talking for hours
and hours to defend their principles. But nowadays, obstructionists don’t
have to actually talk to filibuster legislation. All they have to do is
say they’re going to, and the legislation dies. And the GOP uses it every
chance they get. 

That’s what Mitch McConnell meant when he said he’d be a “grim reaper” for
progressive legislation. He’s planning to wave his filibuster wand and
stop everything we’ve worked for, day after day after day. Remember
Merrick Garland? Imagine two years of that for everything.

Our Plan

Like we said up above: the filibuster is not in the Constitution. We can
get rid of it! And we have to if we want to pursue big change for this
country in 2021 and beyond. It’s the only way to pass legislation on a
simple majority vote. 

That’s why we’re launching our FiliBUSTED campaign. We need to start
getting our 2020 candidates on the record in support of abolishing the
filibuster when they take office in 2021, so we can hit the ground running
for the people as soon as possible.

We’ll be rolling out more specific actions in the coming weeks and months,
but here’s a broad overview of what we’re working on and asking you to
help with:

 1. Getting Senate and presidential candidates to commit to eliminating
the filibuster to advance progressive policies in 2021.
 2. Getting current Democratic Senators to commit to voting to eliminate
the filibuster to push forward progressive legislation.
 3. Pushing back on Members of Congress and 2020 candidates who publicly
oppose getting rid of the filibuster.
 4. Showing up to town halls and public events to make it clear that there
is broad public support for getting rid of the filibuster!

Here’s where we ask for money

So here’s where we make our pitch: Eliminating the filibuster is one part
of our massive plan to save democracy and advance a progressive vision of
the future (no pressure, right?) We hope you can tell from messages like
this how much time, strategy and thought go into all of the work we ask
you to do. But it can be a little harder to picture the costs associated
with it, so here’s a quick look:

Costs: We will pay over $60,000 this year for our video platform. We’ll
pay nearly $100,000 for the email tool that gets events and actions in
front of supporters like you. Little costs like access to photo editing
tools and printer paper add up fast. And we make sure we live our values
and pay Indivisible staff real living wages. All of those things mean that
we really do need to hit our goals each month. This month, our Indivisible
Action goal is about $154,000, and we’re two thirds of the way to it as of
now. 

Timeline: We’re not in a be-all-end-all financial crunch. But the plain
truth is that if we miss a goal in one month, we’re behind going into the
next, and just like expenses, missing by a little every month adds up to a
lot over time. That’s why even though we know it’s summer, and the news
may seem a little slow, we really need you to donate TODAY, not put it
off. 

So please, if you’re all in to stop the filibuster, or even if you’re not
100% sold on this but you believe in what we’re trying to do on other
major issues, donate $10 or more today to fund Indivisible Action and
invest in a progressive future: 

If you’ve saved your information with ActBlue Express Lane, your donation
to Indivisible Action will go through immediately:

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We’ll be getting back to you with more information about the filibuster
and our entire democracy reform plan in the coming weeks. In the short
term though, we hope this has given you a taste of what we’re up to and
why, and that you’ll [ [link removed] ]chip in to support it. And if you happen to be in
a room with a presidential candidate -- go ahead and ask ‘em how they’re
planning to get legislation past the filibuster. We’re counting on you to
get them on the record!

- The Indivisible Democracy Team

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