Last week, we took a deep dive into the filibuster and democracy with U.S. Senator Jeff Merkley and U.S. Rep. Barbara Lee on Our Revolution’s LIVE National Organize-to-Win Call.
Progressives are leading the fight for a government and an economy that works for all of us — that means ending the racist relic of the filibuster and delivering material change for people’s lives.
Merkley spoke to how the current Senate is broken, gridlocked, and a threat to the foundations of our democracy. He explained how the minority party can just declare a “no talk” filibuster requiring 60 votes to pass nearly any bill, and have veto power over the majority’s agenda — all behind closed doors.
“The filibuster is used by the powerful to block progress on every issue – from democracy reforms to climate legislation,” Merkley said. “No matter what aspect of the progressive movement you’re passionate about, we need to push Congress to fix this.”
We were also joined by Mike Zamore, who served as Sen. Merkley’s chief of staff from the beginning and co-authored their new book “Filibustered: How to Fix the Broken Senate and Save America.”
“The filibuster is perfect for the Republicans, it’s ‘heads I win, tails you lose,’” Zamore said. “We can’t build power when we’re hamstrung by the filibuster. It’s not just policies that get blocked, it’s us and our power and our ability to show that our vision of America is worth fighting for.”
Barbara Lee gave powerful insights into the institutional racism from which the filibuster emerged — and how we must fight back.
“This is one of the fights we have to make if we’re going to defend our democracy and our freedoms,” she told us. “I’ve said this for years — a lot of people think it’s a law, but any rule that is established to discriminate against African Americans has got to be awful.”
Rep. Lee said she intends to join Sen. Merkley in the Senate so, together, they can work together and work with our outside movement to fix the filibuster and deliver policy that saves lives in America.
Don’t miss this final opportunity to get your signed copy of Sen. Merkley’s and Mr. Zamore’s new book “Filibustered: How to Fix the Broken Senate and Save America” — skip Amazon and buy it through Our Revolution here to help support this movement!