Arizona activists have gathered at Kyrsten Sinema's office to send her a very strong message: Ditch the filibuster and ditch it now. Because they are outside in the Arizona desert sun marching at the building her office occupies, exercising their First Amendment rights, they are being arrested and taken away.
They could have been doing any number of things today, but what they chose to do was stand up for democracy, even at the risk of being jailed for it.
We are sitting in at @kyrstensinema’s office to say it is time to end the Jim Crow filibuster. Our democracy can’t wait. Justice can’t wait. We won’t wait.#EndTheFilibuster pic.twitter.com/NDNnkqs3w0
— Kai Newkirk #EndTheFilibuster (@kai_newkirk) June 22, 2021
At the same time this is happening, Senate Republicans are busy filibustering the For The People Act, the legislation passed by the House which would cement voting rights nationwide and make sweeping changes to how dark money is handled and how voting mechanisms are handled nationwide.
And by "busy," I mean they raised their hand and objected to the bill being debated. They didn't have to actually say anything or even do anything at all. They merely had to object while sitting in their cushy offices. An email will take care of the rest. And then at some point, they will go to the Senate floor and cast a vote against opening debate on the bill. As a consequence of that vote, the Senate will choose NOT to debate the bill because the final vote will be 50-50 with VP Harris casting the tie-breaking, but not filibuster-busting, vote.
They won't even debate it. At all.
Kyrsten Sinema will vote with the Dems to debate it but will not consider ditching the filibuster because she wants "durable, lasting results" -- something that won't be forthcoming if they can't even get a bill to the debate stage. A bill to PROTECT DEMOCRACY.
A bill to protect those people going to jail for speaking their minds.
Call your senators and demand they get this done. We owe it those people baking in the Arizona sun to defend our democracy.
UPDATE: It is 107 degrees in Arizona today. Here are some videos of protesters explaining why they are out in that kind of heat to protest. Click through the tweet to read the whole thread.
UPDATE 2: True to form, every single Republican in the Senate filibustered the motion to DEBATE the bill. They're afraid to DEBATE.
It is time for Schumer to ditch the filibuster and save democracy.
