The Poor People’s Campaign:
A National Call for Moral Revival
3041 Broadway, Box 47
New York, NY 10027

Sen. Joe Manchin
306 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington D.C. 20510

Dear Sen. Manchin,

We are writing not only to you, but also to those you have chosen to stand with in this season: the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Senate Republicans, and so-called “moderate” Democrats. By obstructing the Build Back Better Act, living wage legislation, voting and immigrant rights protections, you have been downright abusive to poor and low-wealth people in this country. You have used your power to insist that there is no room in this democracy for the basic needs of everyday people. You have blocked investment in our daily lives and prevented legislation to secure the infrastructure of our democracy. We are writing today to be clear: there is room in our democracy for all people.

We are writing today to tell you the truth. We are not going to stop fighting to expose what you are doing and who it is hurting. In the New Year, on Jan 7, we are committing to begin a new season of nonviolent intensification of multiple forms of direct action, led by poor and low-wealth people alongside religious leaders.

Forty years of trickle-down economics have brought us to a place where 140 million Americans are poor and low-income—52 million children and over 73 million women. Sixty-six million of poor and low-wealth people are white, while 26 million are Black. Over 32 million people in this country make less than $15 an hour. Those of you who insist that we cannot invest in everyday people and the infrastructure of our democracy have accepted this devastating reality as normal.

Senator, you have been the head of the pack in this abuse, claiming concerns about debt and inflation as justification, even as you supported the $700 billion military budget. You never questioned $2-3 trillion in less than two years to profit-driven corporations. You never challenged the federal investments that allowed billionaires to make $2 trillion during this pandemic while 8 million people fell into poverty. But even as economists say we need $10 trillion and President Biden asked for $3.5 trillion over 10 years, you have blocked the less than $2 trillion compromise that your colleagues promised to send to the President before Christmas in order to get a vote on infrastructure.

We are writing today because we know these actions are contrary to the Constitution’s mandate to establish justice and to our deepest religious values to care for the least of these. Senator, you have become a modern-day Scrooge. You chose to politically abuse the miners, workers, and low-wealth people of your state by stopping the Build Back Better Act and refusing to act with your colleagues to pass voting rights. But know this, Senator Manchin: our deadline was never December; our deadline is when we win!

Your interposition and nullification has only served to intensify and embolden our agitation. Your position appears to be that there is no money, no policy, and no room in this democracy to invest in the uplift of the working poor and low-wealth people of this nation. But this is a lie. The majority of your constituents in this state know you are lying, and we are here today to say that we refuse to accept the lie.

This no-room attitude is no game. The game is up: you lied to John Lewis when you signed off as a co-sponsor on the For The People Act. You lied to us when we met with you about supporting living wages. Now you are lying about Build Back Better.

We can’t stop fighting as long as you are lying and saying there is no room in this democracy. There is room in our democracy and public policy to extend the Child Tax Credit to 61 million children and benefit 35 million households. There is room to maintain the expanded Earned Income Tax Credit and benefit 17 million low-wage workers. There is room to establish universal pre-K for 3- and 4-year olds, benefitting 6 million children. There is room for Medicaid coverage that provides health coverage to 4 million additional uninsured people. There is room for 18 million low-wage and essential workers to get 4 weeks of paid family and medical leave. There is room to raise wages for home healthcare workers. There is room to insure voting rights and stop voter suppression.

To say that there isn’t enough, that we shouldn’t spend money on these priorities, that we shouldn’t do these things is to say that there is no room in our economy for the poor, unless they STAY POOR; uninsured unless they STAY UNINSURED; poor and low-wage workers, unless they STAY UNDERPAID with low wages. This political nightmare is as bad as Mary and Joseph being told there was no room at the inn when Jesus was born. We refuse it, Senator Manchin, and we will fight nonviolently and mobilize and organize until we win.

Senator, you are on the wrong side of God, the wrong side of the people, and choosing the U.S. Chamber of Commerce over the uplift of the American people. We remind you that the love of money is the root of all evil. We remind you that, “Once to every man and nation comes the moment to decide, in the strife of Truth with Falsehood, for the good or evil side.”

We remind you what Jesus said to nations and political leaders: “‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.’

“They also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?’ He will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’ Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.” (Matthew 25:41-46)

We remind you what the brother of Jesus said, “Now listen, you rich people, weep and wail because of the misery that is coming on you. Your wealth has rotted, and moths have eaten your clothes. Your gold and silver are corroded. Their corrosion will testify against you and eat your flesh like fire. You have hoarded wealth in the last days. Look! The wages you failed to pay the workers who mowed your fields are crying out against you.” (James 5:1-4)

Our message to you is not partisan. It’s love, justice, and truth. What you are doing is so wrong, so ugly, so unjust, so undemocratic, so ungodly, so sinful that we pray for you to repent and turn away, and we will push with your people until you do right, even if you don’t want to do right.

We want to say something to you that Rabbi Abraham Heschel said to John F. Kennedy a month before the 1963 March on Washington: “We forfeit the right to worship God as long as we continue to humiliate Negroes.”

What Rabbi Heschel said then is true for you and your political enablers and the whole nation.
We have to challenge you and fight what you are doing, because we cannot forfeit our right to worship. We choose to stand with God and with the people in this holy season.

Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II
Co-Chair, Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival
President/Senior Lecturer, Repairers of the Breach
Pastor, Greenleaf Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)
Bishop, College of Affirming Bishops

Rev. Dr. Liz Theoharis
Co-Chair, Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival
Executive Director, The Kairos Center for Religions, Rights, and Social Justice