Rev. William Barber, II: Mr. President...

[ancianita]

Last edited Tue Nov 30, 2021, 01:27 PM - Edit history (2)

Tell it, Reverend Barber!

Link to tweet

I want to remind the White House to remember that scripture says, "Woe unto those who legislate evil and rob the poor of the their rights and make women and children their prey..."

In every battleground state, if just 20% of poor and low wealth people who have not voted would vote, and be organized together, they could determine every election in this country. That is the sleeping giant that they are literally afraid of...

Mr. President, we want you to succeed and we will stand with you but we need you to fight against the filibuster because the filibuster is being used to fight against us and to bring down the democracy....

You've met with the senators, you 've met with the corporate leaders, now meet with us who make this country run. We need you to understand that something is happening that is trying to deny people the right to vote and deny living wages, to deny the provisions in your own Build Back Better Program. It's all connected, it's not separated...

Republican extremists like McConnell changed the filibuster to put Supreme Court justices on the bench for life, Mr. President.
Now they and two Democrats are using the filibuster to destroy and undermine the life of this democracy and the daily needs of people.
There are three infrastructures -- there is the infrastructure of our daily lives... our democracy... our bridges... technology. And we don't want some of it. We demand all of it.

Mr. President, do you realize that if these plans get passed at the state level, 56 million Americans who used processes the last time in 2020, would be denied their right to vote or their vote would be supprressed... we better understand, this effort is not just an attack on black folk, this is not just Jim Crow, .... it is an attack on the progressive voice in this country. And we have to decide: Not On Our Watch.

The filibuster's being used to block policies that would lift from the bottom... 73 million of the 140 million poor and low wealth people in this country are women?
The filibuster is being blocked by the Chamber of Commerce. And the Chamber of Commerce is also blocking $15 living wages... we need to understand the unholy connection between money and greed and denial of the right to vote.

Mr. President, it's time for you to use all your weight... of the presidency. And if you do the American people will reward you with votes. But if you don't and let them stall your agenda, it will depress the electorate.

Mr. President, it's time to fight.

The filibuster is not constitutional. So you did not swear to uphold it. But you did swear to uphold equal protection under the law for all people. Mr. President, it's time to stand up.

And lastly ... this is a coward filibuster. Even Robert Byrd and Strom Thurmond wouldn't use this kind of filibuster... where you hide in an office ... you [Mr. President] can't stand for it because you're not a coward.

It's time to have the fight now while Nancy Pelosi is Speaker. Because if the two senators in your party want to switch, let 'em do it now while Pelosi still has the House...

The filibuster was used to block anti-lynching ... women's suffrage ... labor laws ... civil rights laws ... equal employment opportunity commission ... the Consumer Protection Agency ... The filibuster was used to block the protection of women's health from corporate interference, but the men wanted to keep Viagra in the bill.

There is an unholy alliance between racism and sexism and classism and the pornographic sums of money behind the filibuster, and Mr. President, it's time to stop the cowards from controlling and undermining the country.

21 states with the fewest residents that make up only 11% of the total population can filibuster the whole country. That is not what democracy looks like.

When John Lewis and Martin Luther King were on that bridge, at the end of it, Martin said something, that we very seldom lift up ... this is what he said to Johnson and to the nation and we need to understand this. My brother said this is not just a black issue -- don't you make it that small, don't marginalize this.

Dr. King said, "The threat -- listen, now -- of the free exercise of the ballot by the poor Negro and the poor white masses is what created the segregated society.

The white Southern aristocracy is afraid of poor whites and poor blacks and Latinos coming together.
Because if they can come together and vote they will change the economic architecture of this nation.
That's the fear.

And guess what. We're coming. Like it or not, we're coming. Like it or not, we't not going to stop.
We're going to challenge the president, we're going to challenge the Senate or anybody in our way.

Because the right time to do right is right now! Our voting rights, our voice, our power, our strength, our ability.

We will not be filibustered! Not now! Not ever! Not now! Not ever! Not now! Not ever!

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Amen amen, Reverend Barber!! America hears you! May President Biden hear you, also!

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