We’re tired of being polite. For months now, we’ve been writing courteous Calls to Action asking our MoCs to protect our basic voting rights against Republican legislatures trying to strip them away piece by piece and state by state under the rationale that We The People did not honestly vote out the most corrupt, incompetent, racist president in US history. There is absolutely nothing courteous about the Republican party’s continuing attempts to defend and serve the interests of white supremacists. None of the GOP’s so-called moderates have stepped up to support nonpartisan national voting standards.
When we mention the hundreds of new voter suppression laws being enacted, we’re told to vote harder next time, to “fix things at the ballot box” again—but there are far fewer ballot boxes now. We sent water and pizza to voters standing in eight-hour lines in Georgia during the pandemic—but that’s now illegal. On top of that, some Republican legislatures have given themselves the power to overturn election results they don't like. How bad do things have to get before our senators recognize the danger in the aggressive Republican pursuit of Jim Crow 2.0?
While Democrats continue their courteous deliberations, white supremacist Republican mobs have stepped up their intimidation of election officials nationwide and made plans to run for their seats; screamed at school board meetings over the teaching of history and made plans to run for their seats; and violently threatened front-line essential workers who are just trying to stay alive. If people don’t feel safe in the public square because it’s ruled by intimidation and threats of violence, they won’t be able to participate as citizens. That’s what the Trumpists want: to abolish democracy through coercion and harassment.
The Freedom to Vote Act is ready to go. Protecting our democracy is far more important than preserving the filibuster. The time to do it is now.
Call your Senators and tell them: bust the filibuster for equal voting rights!
Speaking of people who need to do their damn job, our nation’s attorney general has the power to file criminal contempt-of-Congress charges against people who blow off Congressional subpoenas. So far, Attorney General Merrick Garland has not filed contempt charges against Steve Bannon, who has been subpoenaed over his involvement in the January 6 coup attempt.
Our friends at Indivisible Ventura have written a script calling for the Department of Justice to file criminal contempt charges against Steve Bannon. You can adapt it for use on the DOJ’s phone comment line or email it verbatim to the Department of Justice.
Holding the Line against Efforts to Water Down the Build Back Better Act
In the meantime, the fight goes on for economic justice in the Build Back Better Act. We stand with House progressives as they #HoldTheLine, refusing to vote on the Bipartisan Infrastructure Framework until an adequate and just Build Back Better Act is passed. And we are looking to Speaker Pelosi’s leadership to steer House Democrats in the right direction. They must not abandon the climate, fair-tax, and drug-price negotiation proposals originally included in the Build Back Better Act.
With this in mind, we wrote and sent an open letter to Speaker Pelosi demanding that she support the key proposals in the Build Back Better Act and work to pass it in a form that serves the American people, not corporations. Read our open letter on our website.
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ISF Federal Working Group meeting: Thursday, November 11, 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. All are welcome to join our events!
Fight Back Fridays: Friday, November 5, 5–6 PM, at 1 Post Street. Join a coalition of local Indivisibles every Friday for FIGHT BACK FRIDAYS. We gather at 1 Post in SF (in front of Senator Feinstein’s office building at one of the Montgomery Street BART exits) every Friday until the Freedom to Vote Act is passed! More information here.
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 an editorial photo of voters in Washoe County, Nevada, standing in line on Election Day 2020. The image is courtesy of Trevor Bexon for Shutterstock.com.
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Keep Fighting,
The Indivisible SF Team
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