Why in the heck should anyone care about a random rule in the U.S. Senate called the Filibuster?
It’s the end of August in Wisconsin for crying out loud! We’ve got to pack in a month’s worth of boating this Labor Day weekend, and the entire beer aisle has been replaced by Octoberfests--a stressful harbinger that our summer is ending and our farmer’s tans aren’t gonna be around much longer.
“Stop talking politics, you random beer company from #UpNorth, we just wanna chiiiillllllll!”
Yeah, we get you, Greek Chorus, we get you, so here’s the deal: Party your tushies off on Labor Day, but come back ready to #KillTheFilibuster.
Here’s why it’s so important: The Filibuster is currently endangering our Democracy, and not only that, it has been an Achilles heel to civil rights in our country going all the way back to 1837 and was used frequently during the Jim Crow era to squash civil rights legislation.
Why is our democracy in danger?
Over 14 red states have recently passed voter suppression bills as part of the Big Lie that the presidential election was rigged (it wasn’t).
Remember how democrats just BARELY won those two Senate seats in Georgia that enabled us to just BARELY win the majority in the senate? This won’t happen again if the voter suppression bill in Georgia that passed last April isn’t dismantled by a strong federal voting rights law.
And why can’t we pass this law with not only a majority of Americans believing that we need MORE access to voting instead of less, but a Democratic majority in the legislative and Executive branches?
Because of the Filibuster, that’s why.
This Senate rule has been abused by both parties over the decades, and it allows the minority party to BLOCK legislation unless a total of 60 senators vote to override it. Getting 60 senators to do anything together is practically impossible in good times, and super impossible when one party has lost its mind and has become part of the Trump Cult intent on authoritarian rule.
So we can’t protect American democracy until we #KillTheFilibuster, and we’re very close to be able to doing that. For reasons inexplicable to us, there are two Democratic senators unwilling to get rid of the filibuster and protect American Democracy: Arizona’s Kyrsten Sinema and West Virginia’s Joe Manchin.
We encourage you to call or write to them, or call and write to our own senator Tammy Baldwin to put pressure on them to change their minds.
While there’s not a lot that we can do in Wisconsin to change the minds of senators in other states, what we can do is get rid of our other Senator, Ron Johnson, who helped cause the insurrection on January 6 by amplifying the “Big Lie,” and is Wisconsin’s leader of the Trump Cult hellbent on killing our democracy.
So that’s where our new “Filibuster Ale: Must Be Quaffed Before 2022” comes in. If you buy this beer or merch, you’ll not only help raise awareness about this important issue, but you’ll be indirectly contributing to our Super PAC whose primary goal is to remove Ron Johnson from office and help elect a progressive Senator willing to get rid of the filibuster forever.
#FilibusterAle will be in stores in early September, here’s a map of where you can buy it.
Or you can buy Filibuster Ale Merch right now here.
Thanks for helping #KillTheFilibuster, and making Wisconsin Great Again, One Beer at a Time.