If the President wishes to become a historic figure on the order of an LBJ, he’ll have to rise to the historic challenge he so accurately describes. But he will not succeed in passing this bill if he can’t even say the word 'filibuster,’ let alone rally the nation to reform it.
Today, Indivisible released the following statement outlining the three things they hope to see from President Biden during his speech on Tuesday in Philadelphia on voting rights.
We need to get rid of the filibuster. We need to pass the For the People Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Act. And then, to protect those critical pieces of legislation, we must add seats to the Supreme Court and cut off Roberts’s ability to destroy our democracy. Today’s decision only adds to the urgency for Congress to move quickly to rebalance the courts by moving quickly to pass the Judiciary Act of 2021, a bill that would restore balance and fairness in our judicial system by adding seats to the Supreme Court. Our democracy depends on it.
The Supreme Court, led by Chief Justice John Roberts, is skilled at chipping away at constitutional rights and civil liberties with a subtle knife, hoping to evade notice. It won’t work. The Unrig the Courts coalition will continue to fight for critical reforms to the judiciary, most importantly, the expansion of the Supreme Court. We cannot spend every June hoping and praying that the 6 conservative justices will grow a conscience and do the right thing. We must restore balance to the Court, and faith in the institution, by adding seats.
Now the real fight begins. This bill did not fail. It didn’t even receive a vote because Senate Republicans chose to hide behind the filibuster and block their colleagues from debating the subject of voting rights. Mitch McConnell led his caucus to embrace the legacy of Strom Thurmond and use Jim Crow-era tactics to block debate over desperately-needed reforms to protect voting rights and return power to the people. The question now is whether congressional Democrats and President Biden join forces in order to repel the attacks on our democracy.
Indivisible, Declaration for American Democracy Coalition, Stand Up America, End Citizens United Action Fund, Common Cause, Fix Our Senate, Advancement Project, Transformative Justice Coalition, Just Democracy, and over 70 other organizations are launching Deadline For Democracy, a cross-movement mobilization plan for the July Recess demanding lawmakers act urgently to defend democracy and pass the For the People Act by August.
Today’s filibuster proves, yet again, that the Republican party is committed to obstructing basically every part of President Biden’s agenda, regardless of how popular or how needed the legislation is.