meetings, indivisible weekly to-do's and more

MONDAY NIGHT WEEKLY ZOOM MEETING AT 7:00 PM

 Join our  in person meeting @ 7: 00 pm

 Held 2nd & 4th Monday at the Center of Progress and Justice 1420 Cerrillos Rd Santa Fe NM

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82219239396 

Meeting ID: 822 1923 9396 

Password: 690635 

There  are also Tuesday zoom mornings at 9:30 a.m. sencond Tuesday of every month

Next meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, June 8, 2021 @ 9:30 am. https://zoom.us/j/94356731737

1. Right now: Watch the Deadline for Democracy Launch Video and share it with your friends to get them to join you at an event this week or next.

2. Tonight (Monday at 8 pm Eastern/5 pm Pacific): Attend the Deadline for Democracy Launch Event: In just a few hours, we’re launching the campaign with the Deadline for Democracy livestream event. Click here to RSVP for the event and we’ll send you links to watch on YouTube or Facebook.

3. This Week and Next Week: Show up for a Deadline for Democracy Event. Your nearest events are listed below, or check out our event map to find one that’s most convenient for you.

4. Bonus: If you haven’t yet seen it, take a second to watch Indivisible Co-Executive Director Ezra on Rachel Maddow earlier this week and then share it with a friend. It’s a little out of date now (it was from before last week’s filibuster) but it gives a great overview of the Deadline for Democracy campaign. Then if you’re feeling inspired, chip in a few bucks to help fund this week of action and all our work.

1. Check out the Deadline for Democracy website, with resources and materials to help you get up to speed. That’s where you can find and register events, see the full partner list, and more. 

2. Find an event near you and sign up to attend, then be sure to write it on your calendar (in ink!). No event nearby? Register to host one yourself. If you’re one of the thousands of people in all 50 states who pledged this month to take action during recess, this is the action for you! 

3. Read Ezra’s Medium Post about Joe Manchin. We know lots of folks are worried about Manchin, and we don’t blame you! Check out what Ezra had to say last week and let us know what you think. 

4. Sign up for Indivisible Texts: We send out breaking news and action alerts to our text message rapid response team. Text INDIVISIBLE to 97779 to join. 

5. Donate to Indivisible. Running digital ads, providing event merch, updating policy explainers, hosting maps and websites, and sending recruitment texts all cost money -- plus all our ongoing expenses. We’re spending $505,154 to make Deadline for Democracy happen, so if you can, please chip in to make it and all our work possible.

1. Call your Senator and tell them to support the For the People Act. For the People is a must-pass bill that strengthens our democratic systems and norms, and we’re gearing up for a fight to get it passed. It’s crucial we make our voices heard now (if you’ve already called, please call again.) If you’re in West Virginia, use this special script just for Sen. Manchin. 

2. Tell your Senator to Abolish the Filibuster. The filibuster gives Mitch McConnell a cudgel to stop all our legislation in its tracks, even without a majority behind him. Pick your favorite issue (voting rights in the For the People Act or Protecting Workers’ Rights or DC statehood or Unrigging the Supreme Court or the COVID Recovery Package are all good options!) and call your senator to tell them you expect them to pass it -- including abolishing the filibuster to get it done.

3. Join us on June 3rd at 8 pm ET/5 pm PT for our monthly National Activist Call. The June call will be a special kick-off for the Deadline for Democracy Recess -- so you'll want to register here to make sure you can learn how to take action during that recess. Our National Activist Calls are for Indivisible group leaders, group members and other activists.

4. Call your Senators & Members of Congress and tell them to support a broad and inclusive recovery package. 

5. Tell your Senator to vote for D.C. statehood. Statehood for Washington D.C. is a major civil rights issue, and the Senate has the power to end taxation without representation for nearly 700,000 people. There will likely be some speeches in the Senate about this tomorrow (Tuesday, time is still TBD), so that would be a great day to call your Senators and tell them you expect them to stand up for the residents of D.C.

You might have seen Senator Manchin’s op-ed explaining his opposition to the For the People Act (here). The piece is riddled with historical falsehoods and bizarre, antiquated political analysis. We won’t spend a lot of time on that (Rep. Mondaire Jones has a good thread on it here if you’re interested). But worth noting upfront: despite the intransigence of Senate Republicans, the For the People Act has overwhelming bipartisan support in West Virginia and across the country, including overwhelming majorities amongst Democrats, Independents, and Republicans. I’m here to give you my best take on what this means, what comes next, and what is to be done.

Here’s the short version: This democracy fight is coming to a head now, which means things are getting ugly. Manchin doesn’t want to move forward without GOP support, but he also doesn’t want to be squeezed, so he wrote his op-ed trying to head off a showdown where he comes off as the bad guy. Don’t get me wrong, his opposition in this moment is bad, but it’s not game over. We need to stop treating him with kid gloves, but most of all, we need top-level leadership from President Biden  and Majority Leader Schumer, and we need grassroots-level leadership from all of you (click here to find out what you can do). One way or another, the showdown is coming soon.

First, why did Manchin write this op-ed now?

To understand Manchin’s actions, you have to view them in the context of recent events. We’re in the pre-negotiation phase of the democracy reform fight. What you’re seeing is posturing ahead of the showdown. 

Just last week, Majority Leader Schumer announced plans to start forcing the GOP to actually filibuster bills. Their first filibuster was of the bipartisan Jan 6th commission. Schumer plans to bring up the Paycheck Fairness Act this week, and the For the People Act the week of June 21st. 

The point of scheduling these votes is not because anybody believes they’d actually pass on the first try. Of course, they won’t pass -- McConnell will filibuster them. Instead, the point of scheduling these votes is to force McConnell to filibuster -- to demonstrate to Manchin and any other hold-out Senate Democrats that the other side will simply sink everything. Prove that Senate Republicans are just obstructionists, the logic goes, and then that will help unify the Senate Democrats to act.

But Manchin would prefer not to force that question. As misguided as it is, Manchin believes that to protect voting rights, we should have to get the consent of the party that is attacking voting rights. He wrote this op-ed to try and take the wind out of the sails of those setting up that showdown. If folks throw in the towel on the For the People Act, Manchin can go back to talking to Republican senators about roads and bridges.

So what comes next? 

All attention has been on Manchin, and to a lesser extent, Senator Sinema, but the real main character in this play is Schumer. As Majority Leader, he controls the Senate calendar. He can’t make the pieces move, but it’s his job to set up the play. Manchin just threw a wrench in the gears, and so now he has to adapt. 

The risk this week: The big risk we’re facing this week is that Manchin’s announcement derails Schumer’s plan to bring popular bills for a vote. That would look like Schumer canceling the planned vote, pointing to Sinema’s opposition to filibuster reform and Manchin’s op-ed, and saying, “Look, we tried, but we just don’t have the votes.” Another plausible version of this would be Schumer announcing that he is still fully committed to the For the People Act, but he is delaying the vote to some future unspecified date. Delay is death for this legislation.

This will be a crucial test of Schumer’s leadership: will he allow his plan to be derailed, or will he hold firm? Remember, Schumer has sworn up and down that “Failure is not an option” because he wants everybody to know how much he cares about this. Now’s the time to see if he backs up these words with action. 

What victory will look like: If Schumer sticks to his guns, the first vote on the For the People Act will come the week of June 21st. As expected, McConnell will filibuster it. But then the fight goes on. Possibly Schumer forces McConnell to keep filibustering on the Senate floor for days or longer. When the Senate returns from the 4th of July recess, he brings up the bill again and forces McConnell to filibuster it again. He grinds senate business down to a halt, refusing action on anything until there is a vote on the For the People Act. All the while, during the days and weeks of the fight, senators offer amendments, the President uses the full power of his bully pulpit to focus national attention on the issue, and masses of grassroots advocates show up in communities across the country to demand Congress act to save the democracy.

If we win democracy-saving reforms this year, that’s what victory will look like.

What needs to happen

If we’re going to achieve that victory in the coming weeks, three things need to happen:

1. Isolate Manchin. If Manchin’s got 10 GOP votes for democracy, great -- show us. If he doesn’t, he needs to stop enabling McConnell. Indivisible’s position is this: Democracy is on the line, and he needs to put up or shut up. Historically, a senator who’s stroking his chin and making lofty pronouncements about bipartisanship can expect a warm response from much of Washington and his constituents. It’s really important that that not be Manchin’s experience with this op-ed. Manchin is doing what southern segregationist senators did for decades: using the filibuster to block voting rights legislation. Simple as that. No media figure, no Democratic politician, and certainly no grassroots advocate should give him any reinforcement. If you’re from West Virginia, you should be calling Manchin (duh!), but if you’re from anywhere else in the country, you should be demanding your senators speak out right now to reiterate that the path forward depends on For the People, not hazy ideas about compromising with a party of insurrectionists.
We can be honest that Manchin doesn’t care that much about pressure from his left -- but there’s a big difference between getting pushed by the lefties and feeling the full weight of the entire party, congressional leadership, and the President pushing for a resolution here. And that brings us to...

2. Leadership from the top. Manchin is not the king of the universe -- he’s a single senator working within a complex political system. And in that system, hard legislation never gets done unless key political leaders prioritize it. Since Manchin’s op-ed, we’ve seen no statement at all from President Biden or Majority Leader Schumer. Radio silence is not what you want to hear from your leaders at moments of national crisis. We need Schumer to publicly, loudly, forcefully recommit to getting democracy reform done before August recess. And we need President Biden using his full moral authority and bully pulpit power to drive the national conversation and urgency around the threats to our democracy.

3. Leadership from the grassroots. This is Indivisible's whole theory of change: elected officials don’t do what their constituents want unless those constituents make them do it. This is why we showed up to save the Affordable Care Act. It’s why we demanded our Democratic House impeach Trump. And it’s why we have to show up creatively, forcefully, and in big numbers to encourage this Democratic trifecta to finally act. This is precisely why we are launching the Deadline for Democracy nationwide actions this Friday. We’ll have more details then -- but suffice it to say this is the largest cross-movement coalition we’ve been part of since the fight to save Obamacare. You can sign up and start recruiting folks here to get details when it launches.

So, where does that leave us?

Let’s review:

• We are headed for a series of GOP-led filibusters this month
• Manchin’s terrible op-ed was intended to take the wind out of our sails
• The only realistic pathway to victory on democracy reform is a drawn-out legislative fight
• Victory depends on the full commitment of Biden and Schumer, and historic grassroots engagement

If this were easy, it would have been done already. If this were pre-ordained, we wouldn’t have to make it happen. If this were a lost cause, I wouldn’t be writing you this email. It’s not easy, it’s not pre-ordained, it’s not lost. That’s what makes what we do right now so important. 

We’re living through historic times, so I’ll turn to some history to close us out. In 1964, it took overcoming a 54-day filibuster to pass the Civil Rights Act in the Senate. The next year it took more than a month after the Voting Rights Act started full senate debate to get past the threat of a filibuster. The Jim Crow filibuster, then as now, did not go down without a long, drawn-out fight.

The For the People Act has not even been scheduled for a full senate vote yet. There's been no debate. There's been no filibuster. This is all pre-negotiation posturing -- Manchin's effort to defuse the situation so he can continue playacting the role of a statesman. But Manchin doesn't get to decide what happens next -- we do. Click here to pledge to take action.

The real fight has not yet begun, but it's coming, and we're bringing it.

In solidarity, 

Ezra Levin

Co-Founder and Co-Executive Director, Indivisible

(a recent e mail from ISF member Josh Rappaport)

As I said right after Biden squeaked his way into the WH, REVISING the U.S. ELECTORAL COUNT ACT, the law that gives the U.S. Congress the power to NULLIFY the electoral slates of states, is the most urgent challenge facing our country / democracy. This article lays out how the REPUBLICANS have been intensely plotting before, during and since Jan. 6, to steal not only that election, but the next Presidential election in 2024. This is MORE urgent than getting money out of politics, immigration, civil rights, even  voting rights … because even if the next democratic candidate wins fair and square, it won’t mean a thing when the Republicans STEAL the election with a consolidated House and Senate, which is quite possible. All they need is simple majority control of  both chambers and they can throw out any state slate of electors that they want and  replace it with a fake set that backs a Republican who lost.

‘

Why National Indivisible is NOT prioritizingthis as issue #1, or an issue at all, is beyond me. Please read this article and see if you you  agree.I really don’t want to be in the position of "I told you so” in November 2024.

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2021/5/5/2029105/-By-ousting-Cheney-House-Republicans-are-laying-the-groundwork-for-nullifying-the-2024-election

Donna Thiersch shared the above article and Josh's concerns with Lauren Oerter, our Indivisible Regional Coordinator. This is her response:

Hi Donna (and everyone), 

This is Indivisible's top priority. We are working on Democracy reform every day to prevent terrible things like this from happening. We have our Guide for Fixing Our Democracy, For the People Project, and this weekend we have John Lewis Voting Rights Day "votercade" events across the country, including the one your group is hosting - thank you! We are doing everything we can to protect (and improve) our democracy so that this terrible outcome won't become a reality. The biggest thing in our way is the filibuster, which is why we're pushing for the elimination of that. Thanks to pressure from Indivisible groups across the state, both NM Senators have taken the right stance on this, which helps us get closer to these goals. We have also already started working on the midterm elections so we can do everything possible to prevent Republicans from getting to that majority position. We encourage groups to keep up the pressure on these issues, as well as submitting Letters to the Editor to keep these top of mind for everyone. We also welcome suggestions on specific messages/events that you'd like us to promote for these efforts. 

Thanks for bringing this up!

Lauren

Thousands of Americans are calling their lawmakers in support of the For The People Act (H.R. 1/S.1) -- a groundbreaking package of voting rights, money in politics, ethics, and anti-gerrymandering reforms.

It’s our best chance in years to make our democracy more accountable and representative. But we can only seize this opportunity if people like you and me speak up right now.

Your Representative, Teresa Leger Fernandez, already supports the For The People Act -- and it’s critical they hear that you appreciate their efforts.

Please call Rep. Fernandez at (202) 225-6190 -- here’s an idea of what to say:

Hi, this is [NAME] from [TOWN], and I’m calling to thank you for continuing to support the For the People Act (H.R. 1/S.1). Please do everything you can to pass the strongest possible bill. Thank you!

The For The People Act passed the U.S. House with unanimous support from House Democrats in 2019, and was cosponsored by all Democratic senators at the time. That means we have a real chance to pass it into law this year, and break through Mitch McConnell’s legislative filibuster.

Here’s why that’s a BIG deal:

The For The People Act protects our right to vote with universal Automatic Voter Registration, Online Voter Registration, and Same Day Registration -- while modernizing our voting systems to make them more secure and accessible.

The For The People Act blocks partisan and racial gerrymandering by setting up independent redistricting commissions to draw legislative maps -- so politicians can’t abuse their redistricting power for their own advantage.

The For The People Act makes democracy more transparent by making secret money organizations disclose their donors, making sure voters know who is paying for the political ads they see, and making sure anyone who violates disclosure rules is held accountable.

The For The People Act gets big money out of politics with a small-donor driven matching funds system -- to let candidates run for office without relying on special interests, and so public officials can better reflect the constituencies they serve.

The For The People Act holds public officials accountable by slowing the revolving door between government and lobbyists, making presidential candidates disclose their tax returns, expanding conflict-of-interest laws to stop corruption, and requiring the Supreme Court to adopt a code of ethics.

Your voice right now is absolutely critical to getting this legislation passed -- so please make your call today >>

Please call Rep. Fernandez at (202) 225-6190 -- here’s an idea of what to say:

Hi, this is [NAME] from [TOWN], and I’m calling to thank you for continuing to support the For the People Act (H.R. 1/S.1). Please do everything you can to pass the strongest possible bill. Thank you!

Even though Donald Trump is no longer president, we can’t afford to go back to "business as usual." That’s what gave us Trump in the first place -- which is why we’re counting on Congress to take big, bold action right now to make sure our democracy serves and includes all of us.

Indivisibles,

If you had the misfortune of being 

• WHAT'S HAPPENING IN NEW MEXICO

STREET PROTEST 

SATURDAY NOON TO 1 pm 

@ the of Cornor of 

Cerrillos & St Francis

RANDOM ACTS OF PROTEST
 

IMAGINE THOUSANDS OF
FIVE-MINUTE STREET CORNER PROTESTS.

TODAY, when peaceful protests against racism, police violence, caging of children and other crimes and wrongs are attacked by illegal secret police (and kudos to the brave protesters in Portland, Minneapolis and across the country).........................
....................How can the rest of us be visible? 

Every person, with a partner (family or friend, young or old)....
holding a protest sign....
for just 5 minutes.....once a week (or more) ....
IMAGINE the message we could send to our communities and the nation about the administration’s attacks on OUR COUNTRY.
 

IMAGINE how we could inspire everyone to show up and vote in the November 2020 election.
 

PICK YOUR SIGN: Black Lives Matter, Police the Police, Safe Schools, Climate Action, Wear a Mask, Protect our Troops, Protect Our Elections, Vote in 2020
.......or your own message.
 

SPREAD the word!!!

EVERY STREET CORNOR COUNTS.

NMLegis.org
Local & State Legislation and  Legislators 
New Mexico In DepthInvestigative Journalism for New Mexico
New Mexicans for Money Out of Politics
Retake Our Democracy
New Mexico Indivisible Congress

nmindivisiblecongress@gmail.com
350 ORG
Stand up to the Fossil Fuel Industry
Common Cause of NM  
League of Women Voters
New Mexicans to Prevent Gun Violence    
American Civil Liberties Union  
Tewa Women United
Sierra Club Rio Grande Chapter
Indivisible East Bay San Francisco
newsletter@indivisibleeb.org
http://www.factcheck.org.
Online fact checking resource
aclu.org/end-face-surveil