Thread by @RevDrBarber

This is why voting rights have not received the same urgency as infrastructure & Build Back Better: “Sen. Mike Lee of Utah, a Republican who sits on the Senate Judiciary Committee: ‘Democracy isn’t the objective; liberty, peace, and prosperity are. 1/13

‘We want the human condition to flourish. Rank democracy can thwart that.’ Rank democracy? The only saving grace for such a pronouncement is that, at last, a Republican politician was being honest about his or her intentions, 2/13

and this could well be a turning point in the narrative of our country and our national discourse.” —Joseph Stiglitz @NYTimes December 8, 2020

nytimes.com/2020/12/08/opi… 3/13

There are those who still want the vision of the southern states prior to the writing of our Constitution and before the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments. An America permanently dominated by a political minority that pays no respect to the rights of the majority. 4/13

Stiglitz continues: “We won’t succeed in restoring trust and a sense of social cohesion until we confront, head on, our intertwined racial, ethnic, and economic inequalities. These schisms inevitably divide us and undermine the solidarity democracy demands.” 5/13

On December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks sat down on the bus, 66 years ago this year. We must demand that @POTUS Biden and @SpeakerPelosi and @SenSchumer pass a full, just combined For The People Act and Voting Rights Advancement Act. Not the watered down stuff Manchin has presented 6/13

because he promised he could get Republicans on board—and he hasn’t. It’s time to demand what’s right and fight for it. 7/13

If all of us—especially Black, Latino, native, progressive Congresspeople, and Democrats—don’t do this then we have no right to call ourselves the descendants of those whose blood signed voting rights laws in the past. 8/13

This should have been tied to #BuildBackBetter and the infrastructure bill. But Democratic congressional leaders didn’t do it and Black Dem congresspeople didn’t demand it, civil rights orgs didn’t fight for it, so that ship has sailed, but we must talk about going forward. 9/13

It’s the US Chamber of Commerce that has been lobbying against voting rights, and if their money in any way tries to mute civil rights orgs and ensure that the passage of economic bills are not connected to voting rights bills, then that money is filthy lucre. 10/13

Some have said all year “we are working behind the scenes,” while 26 million poor and low-wealth people are suffering everyday. And some say “we are working behind the scenes,” while 56 million Americans who used voting processes in 2020 are now being threatened. 11/13

And some say “we are working behind the scenes,” but it’s been over 370 days since the 2020 elections and what has “working behind the scenes” gotten us? A weaker bill than we had originally and a continued commitment to holding onto the filibuster. 12/13

It’s time to come out in public, and let the people speak, not others speaking for the people! #PoorPeoplesCampaign 13/13