Ari Berman Profile picture
Jan 22, 2021 9 tweets 4 min read Read on X
Senate Dems represent 41 million more Americans than GOP but Mitch McConnell wants 21 small state GOP senators representing less than a quarter of population to be able to block laws supported by huge majorities of Americans with filibuster motherjones.com/politics/2021/…
This is how undemocratic US Senate is:

-15 states with 38 million people elect 30 GOP senators

-California with 40 million people elects 2 Dems

-By 2040, 30% of America will elect 70 senators. 70% of America will elect only 30 ImageImage
-Senate split 50-50 but Dems represent 41 million more people

-majority of SCOTUS justices appointed by presidents who lost popular vote & confirmed by senators representing minority of Americans

-GOP legislatures hold power despite winning fewer votes b/c of gerrymandering Image
Violent mob that stormed Capitol represented extreme version of longtime GOP strategy: a blatant disregard for will of the majority

Unprecedented attempt by Trump and his allies to overturn election results is prelude to new era of GOP minority rule Image
“In the 87 years between the end of Reconstruction and 1964, the only bills that were stopped by filibusters were civil rights bills" writes @AJentleson

Filibuster is Jim Crow remnant that McConnell now wants to use to preserve white GOP minority rule Image
Trump tried to throw out millions of Black votes & GOP already doubling down on voter suppression in states like Georgia

This is why Dems need to get rid of filibuster to restore Voting Rights Act & make it easier to vote Image
"the unprecedented attempt by Trump & his allies to overturn the election results is mere prelude to new era of minority rule, which not only will attempt to block agenda of a president elected by an overwhelming majority but threatens the long-term health of American democracy" Image
“the GOP has dropped any pretense of trying to appeal to a majority of Americans. Instead, it caters to a conservative white minority that is drastically overrepresented in the Electoral College, the Senate, and gerrymandered legislative districts” motherjones.com/politics/2021/…
How to reverse GOP minority rule:

-abolish Electoral College

-statehood for DC & Puerto Rico

-kill filibuster

-expand voting access & pass constitutional right to vote

-restore Voting Rights Act

-end gerrymandering

-expand the court

• • •

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More from @AriBerman

Dec 7, 2022
Huge case before SCOTUS today: Republicans want to reinstate extreme gerrymander in NC giving GOP 71-78% of House seats in state where Trump got 49.9% of vote & grant state legislatures unprecedented power to pass new gerrymanders & voter suppression laws motherjones.com/politics/2022/…
Leonard Leo & Federalist Society engineered right-wing takeover of SCOTUS. Now they want court to give state legislatures king-like power to rig state & national elections. One anti-democratic system entrenching the other Image
A ruling that state legislatures could not be constrained by state courts or constitutions would eviscerate checks & balances, give heavily gerrymandered legislatures huge power to rig state & national politics & embolden them to attempt to overturn future election results
Read 5 tweets
Jan 28, 2022
SCOOP w/ @RyanLittleE: Georgia voters 45 times more likely to have mail ballot applications rejected & not vote in Nov 2021 vs 2020 after GOP passed new voting restrictions

That rate would've led to 38,000 fewer votes in 2020, 3x Biden's margin of victory motherjones.com/politics/2022/…
“States are not engaging in trying to suppress voters whatsoever” Mitch McConnell claimed last year

Here are facts: "During municipal elections in Nov, Georgia voters were 45 times more likely to have their mail ballot applications rejected—and not vote as a result—than in 2020"
Before he sided with GOP to kill voting rights bills Joe Manchin said: “​​We act like we’re going to obstruct people from voting. That’s not going to happen.”

4500% increase in rejected mail ballot applications in Georgia & 700% increase in Texas shows he is very wrong
Read 6 tweets
Jan 20, 2022
Stunning stat: 48 Democrats who supported reforming filibuster to pass voting rights bills represent 34 MILLION more Americans than 52 senators (all Republicans + Sinema/Manchin) who opposed it
48 senators who voted to reform filibuster represent 182 million Americans, 55% of US

52 senators who upheld filibuster represent 148 million Americans, 45% of US

This is why US Senate so broken

Data via @atausanovitch
“Manchin & Sinema allowed 41 GOP senators representing just 21% of country to block a bill they both supported that would protect voting rights for tens of millions of Americans, reinforcing how filibuster has historically been used to block civil rights” motherjones.com/politics/2022/…
Read 6 tweets
Jan 13, 2022
Sinema & Manchin represent 2.8% of US population but allowing 41 GOP senators representing just 21% of country to block voting rights bills supported by 70% of Americans that would protect voting access for tens of millions. US political system completely broken
“Sinema, by refusing to support changes to the filibuster, is now giving the anti-democratic party veto power over protecting democracy. She is saying it would be divisive and partisan to respond to a divisive and partisan effort to weaken democracy” motherjones.com/politics/2022/…
GOP states have passed new voter suppression laws, gerrymandered maps & election subversion bills through simple majority, party-line votes yet Sinema & Manchin demand bipartisan supermajority to protect voting rights. This is how coup succeeds
motherjones.com/politics/2022/…
Read 5 tweets
Jan 10, 2022
This week is one of most pivotal in history of American democracy. If Dems don’t pass federal legislation now to stop voter suppression, extreme gerrymandering & election subversion, GOP will make it impossible to have fair elections going forward motherjones.com/politics/2022/…
Republicans not just suppressing votes & subverting fair elections, but trying to enshrine anti-democratic system where they hold power no matter the views of a majority of voters

“They are basically signing off on a political apartheid system” says @ericholder
It makes no sense that Republicans can pass voter suppression laws at state level with simple majority vote & confirm right-wing judges to uphold those laws with simple majority vote but Dems can’t protect voting rights with simple majority vote

This asymmetry must end
Read 6 tweets
Dec 6, 2021
Breaking: Justice Department files suit challenging extreme gerrymandered Texas redistricting maps
Under extreme gerrymandered Texas US House & state legislative maps:

Whites 40% population but control 60% districts

Latinos 39% of population but control 20% districts

Blacks 12% of population but control 2% districts

Asians 5% of population but control 0% districts
95% of population growth in Texas from communities of color during last decade but gerrymandered GOP maps increase # of majority white districts & decrease # of majority Latino/Black districts. Incredibly brazen racial gerrymandering motherjones.com/politics/2021/…
Read 5 tweets

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