As we learned in our Monday educational session with Meagan Hatcher-Mays, the National Indivisible Director of Democracy Policy, the filibuster is an archaic rule that allows minority rule to defeat legislation proposed and favored by the majority. It empowers the minority to block the will of the voters and the American Public. This is not the way our founders envisioned the Senate. They designed the Senate to be majoritarian and did not intend for most legislation to require a supermajority (60 votes), just to allow a bill to be voted on. The Senate is already minoritarian because of overrepresentation of small and rural states (the 40 smallest states have 80% of Senate representation but only 46% of the US population). The filibuster exacerbates this. It creates a sense of fundamental illegitimacy that is very destabilizing for democracy. The filibuster is rooted in this country's systemic racism and has played a part in denying civil rights and delayed the passage of an anti-lynching law until 2018!  And it is clearly a barrier that dilutes the long-term influence of diverse and younger voters.

Abolishment of the filibuster will restore the Senate to the original vision of the Framers. It will allow the Senate to pass important legislation, such as expanding voting laws, passing gun safety legislation and climate change bills that are vital to the future and survival of our country.  And it will ensure that our government works for all people!

We need to push our senators to be more vocal and bold about abolishing the filibuster and to do all they can to bring all Democratic senators on board. All 50 Democratic senators will be needed along with VP Harris to abolish this partisan tool that denies the majority and the American public of beneficial and life changing legislation.