Neal is a very powerful, very bad congressman. He ignores constituents, carries water for corporate donors, and kills progressive ideas. This year, he's facing a real Dem challenger. Pro-Neal forces responded with a slimy smear campaign. (short thread...) nytimes.com/2020/08/23/us/…
This is crappy, but it shouldn't be a surprise. Neal is a career politician - been in politics for nearly 50 years! He's been working for corporate donors since disco - they're sure as hell not gonna just give up that power without a fight.
This matters because Neal isn't just any congressman - he's Chair of the powerful Ways and Means Committee. Green New Deal? Paycheck Guarantee? Stimulus? ALL of that legislation goes through Neal's committee. And he consistently wields his power to crush progressive ideas.
Neal ain't the real deal. But his challenger Morse is - no corporate donors, solid progressive credentials, genuine commitment to his people. So if you care about what happens in 2021, you gotta care about the next 9 days. Support Morse here: secure.actblue.com/donate/morse20…
Local Indivisible groups in the district endorsed Morse and then nominated him for a national endorsement - which he got. You can help by making calls, sending texts, and donating. Early voting is happening NOW so the time to help is NOW. /end alexmorseforcongress.com
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Here's what happened. Early this year, @IndivisibleTeam began arguing that our only shot at winning the midterms was to force public attention on GOP extremism. This wasn't a popular opinion, but we weren't alone. Some appreciation for the folks who fought for this strategy...
.@anatosaurus, @jenancona, & @WayToWinAF: message makers for the movement. They offered invaluable messaging guidance for us and movement leaders on how to land the blow against MAGA extremism and for protecting our freedoms.
Navin Nayak at @CAPAction: We were trying to figure out how to succinctly describe "GOP extremism" which was just a mouthful. Navin's smart research made a solid case for the phrase "MAGA Republicans." We immediately adopted this approach in all messaging.
Some folks think Indivisible started in response to Trump - but that’s only half true. We really decide to start Indivisible in response to feckless Dem leadership at the outset of an authoritarian surge. Here's why that’s still needed... thehill.com/homenews/senat…
After shelving BBB this week, Biden and Senate Dems said they were going to pursue voting rights “aggressively” for the rest of the year. And then just about 24 hours later, we learned they were going to go on vacation.
The only good news from this garbage week is that we're closer to filibuster/democracy reform than we've ever been. In the Senate, there was real progress - three holdouts endorsed filibuster reform: Warner, Hickenlooper, and Hassan. More have done so privately. We're close.
Two must-read articles this #FilibusterFriday with the good/bad of where we stand on democracy reform. 1) The Good: @Grace_Segers on how congressional leadership is actively working to get to the finish line on filibuster reform and democracy. newrepublic.com/article/164582…
Trump packed the court with anti-choice zealots explicitly for this purpose. Short thread on what Dems *could* do in response... nymag.com/intelligencer/…
Trump wasn't coy about it - he told the public (and GOP senators like Susan Collins) exactly what he was doing.
The court has been packed, politicized, and perverted. The solution to this problem is not just "win elections," or "replace retiring justices," or even "pass democracy reform." You have to reform the institution itself or the answer to Sotomayor's question is clearly "No."
Everybody who is not Sinema/Manchin should be FURIOUS now. We can have fights on policy - that’s normal. That’s NOT what’s happening here. Sinema/Manchin AGREED to the reconciliation top-line. THAT AGREEMENT is what got the BIF 69 votes in the Senate. Short angry thread...
Without that agreement on reconciliation, the BIF would never have gotten through the senate. We know this because 11 Senate Democrats signed a letter saying passing BIF without the reconciliation bill would be QUOTE “in violation of that agreement.” thehill.com/policy/finance…
This is easy math. Take out those 11 senate votes and what do you get for BIF? 58 votes - not enough to clear the dumb filibuster hurdle of 60. BIF is DEAD without those 11 votes. And the way Sinema/Manchin GOT them was by promising a reconciliation bill along with BIF.
In July, we set a deadline for democracy for the senate to pass the For the People Act before August recess. They just blew past it. Here's my read on what that means and what our options are. Three points to pull out: [short thread] indivisibleteam.medium.com/we-blew-past-t…
1) Missing this deadline means that the anti-gerrymandering provision in the bill is more likely to fail an inevitable court challenge. So the GOP is more likely to succeed in rigging maps next year. That is an unavoidable consequence of missing the deadline. This simply sucks.
2) The bill at large and even the gerrymandering provision isn't dead. All Dems voted for it early this morning, and Schumer committed to taking it up as soon as recess is over. If the Senate Dems eliminate the filibuster and pass the bill, there is a ton of good it can still do.