With his American Jobs Plan, America Families Plan, and Made in America Tax Plan, President Biden laid out a bold progressive agenda:
- To provide emergency relief and begin a real economic recovery from pandemic devastation.
- To start bending our economy towards equal opportunity and economic justice and away from inequality and structural unfairness.
For convenience, we refer to his three proposals as the American Jobs and Families Plan (AJFP).
Now Washington is engaged in the long, arduous, and always messy process of trying to turn hope-filled proposals into actual legislation that changes our lives for the better. The news media presents us with a confusing mix of jargon—bipartisan frameworks, reconciliation bills, appropriation bills and budget resolutions. But as voters, as constituents, as Americans, our focus must be on what we want, need, and deserve rather than the complex and messy details of the Washington process.
Our job is to tell our Members of Congress to pass an effective American Jobs and Families Plan that provides for all of us—not just the corporate elite. Such a plan has to address the climate emergency, healthcare for all, economic justice, affordable housing, quality education, family support, and taxation justice. And it has to be paid for by restoring the taxes that the Trump regime cut for the obscenely wealthy and the giant transnational corporations.
This week ISF is concentrating on access to affordable healthcare for all.
Call your Members of Congress and tell them: enact an American Jobs and Family Plan that fosters economic recovery for all and provides access to affordable healthcare.
Deadline for Democracy
Let's be clear: Republican Party leaders are committed to oligarchy and to white racial dominance. Their massively unjust over-representation in the Senate, combined with their exploitation of the undemocratic filibuster, means that we will not have sixty votes to overcome their determination to block equitable electoral empowerment of Americans of all races and identities. Meanwhile, certain "moderate" senators of both parties find it convenient to leave the filibuster in place, whether it is to cling to their personal prerogatives or perhaps to preserve the current economic and racial hierarchy. Yet a simple majority of fifty Democratic senators plus the vice president has the legitimate procedural power to alter the Senate rules.
With the 2022 election approaching, this summer is the last chance to pass federal voting rights and elections administration fairness safeguards, while they still have sufficient time to go into full effect. Indivisible didn’t give the recent “Deadline for Democracy” rallies,” like the one that we held in Oakland, the “deadline” name lightly. Republican state legislatures are introducing and passing more hideous voter suppression bills all the time, on top of their upcoming gerrymandering based upon a Trump-corrupted census. They’re not playing around—they're playing for keeps.
The paths forward are stark and basic. Either our congresspeople put us at severe risk of losing in 2022 and of losing the entire country to the worst oppression imaginable after 2024, or else this Congress and president use the Democratic majority's power—power that we gave them—to righteously protect the freedom to vote for all Americans.
We encourage everyone to call your representatives’ offices about this as often as feasible as well as to talk to friends and relatives in other states and ask them to call.
Tell your Members of Congress that before Congress recesses in August they must first save our democracy.
We’re continuing to fight for democracy on the streets, not just on the phone. On July 7, Indivisible SF and Indivisible East Bay co-hosted the downtown Oakland Deadline for Democracy rally, with over 250 people in attendance. With music, speakers including local progressive leaders, postcards and a teach-in, we called on our elected officials to protect democracy and pass the For the People Act.
Some of our members also attended the July 17 downtown Oakland candlelight vigil for John Lewis to demand an end the filibuster and passage of federal voting protections. One of our members, Bruce Hartford, spoke of his civil rights organizing experiences at both events. See the photos and videos from the events on our blog.
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All are welcome to join our events!
ISF Federal Working Group meeting: Thursday, July 22, 7:30–9 PM. Register here for a Zoom meeting to help us develop strategies to influence our Members of Congress and the Biden administration to enact a progressive agenda.
About this week’s photo
If you’ve seen our newsletter posts on Twitter and Facebook, you might have noticed that we include a photo or graphic with each issue. This week’s graphic is a photo from our Deadline for Democracy rally, courtesy of Pro Bono Photo.
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Keep Fighting,
The Indivisible SF Team
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