Friend,

In the span of two days, the San Francisco Chronicle and Politico have
called out Dianne Feinstein for being a blue-state senator who refuses to
end the filibuster.(1,2)

And Feinstein is feeling the heat we've been putting on her -- she just
said she's open to "analyzing reform" of the slavery-era rule.(3)

Our pressure is working, but her response is just not good enough.

With the filibuster in place, all of our progressive priorities -- from
Medicare for All to a Green New Deal -- will end up in the same
legislative graveyard where Mitch McConnell put more than 400 bills last
year alone.(4) It’s time that Feinstein get on board with ending this
terrible rule.

[ [link removed] ]Will you donate to Courage California and help pressure Dianne
Feinstein to end the filibuster?

Right now, the Senate is considering H.R. 1, a landmark voting rights and
election reform bill. But Republicans have already pledged to filibuster
the bill, making it impossible to pass. Republicans are, instead, trying
to pass over 250 voter suppression bills in 43 states.(5)

Republicans recently used the filibuster to block the $15 minimum wage.(6)
They are planning to do the same to upcoming bills on police brutality,
gun control, and election reform.(7)

But Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer needs every single Democratic
senator on board to overturn the rule, and right now, Senators Kyrsten
Sinema of Arizona, Joe Manchin of West Virginia, and Dianne Feinstein of
California won’t sign on.(8) And as long as Feinstein refuses, Manchin and
Sinema -- who come from a red state and a swing state, respectively --
have no reason to risk their approval ratings by agreeing to do it either.

By not ending the filibuster, Feinstein is betraying her constituents, who
sent her to the Senate to make the country more progressive. Her
California colleague, Alex Padilla, has come out in favor of ending the
slavery-era rule. Barack Obama has called for its end, as have Senators
Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders.(9) They realize how unreasonable the
McConnell-led Republicans have been, and how much our country needs the
legislation they are blocking.

Right now, Feinstein’s approval rating is just 35%, the lowest in her
career.(10) She’s vulnerable to public pressure, and the Chronicle’s
article is proof that our campaign to get Feinstein to change her mind is
working. We’re getting the media attention we need, and now we need to get
as many Californians as possible to sign on to call for Feinstein to vote
to end the filibuster.

[ [link removed] ]Will you donate to Courage California today?

Yours in the fight for our democracy,

Irene, along with Angela, Annie, Caitlin, Deepthi, Jay, Lindsay,
LisaMarie, Molly, Raquel, and Scottie (the Courage team)

Footnotes:
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Courage California (formerly Courage Campaign) makes sure our democracy works for ALL of us by fighting corruption in California politics. We believe the solution lies in exposing and solving systemic problems through strategic organizing, enhancing coordination between progressive organizations, and mobilizing civic engagement from our communities, particularly voters of color, young voters, and self-identified progressives.

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