Season of Nonviolent Moral Direct Action to Save Our Democracy July 12 - August 8, 2021  Season of Nonviolent Moral Direct Action to Save Our Democracy July 12 - August 8, 2021 

Dear Senator Manchin,

I am joining the West Virginia Poor People’s Campaign along with partners and moral leaders from around the state, West Virginians ‘from the hood to the holler’ who are gathering to demand you stop hiding behind the Coward’s Filibuster and stand up for our democracy by supporting all provisions of the For the People Act, fully restoring the 1965 Voting Rights Act and passing a $15/hr federal minimum wage.

This is an urgent issue of principle, not simply partisanship: it’s time to end the filibuster now. States are passing voter suppression laws at breakneck speed across the nation. And because of disingenuous commitment to the filibuster, you are letting those laws go into effect unchallenged. Sen. Manchin, your name is on each and every voter suppression law in the 18 states that have passed them so far this year, and in the 49 states where they’ve been introduced. It is unconscionable that you will pass budgets and approve Supreme Court justices with a simple majority, but you let our democracy crumble by refusing to do the same with living wages and voting rights.

Sen. Manchin, you were a co-sponsor of the For the People Act when it didn’t have a chance of making it to the Senate floor in the last Congress. You have claimed your love and respect for John Lewis, who wrote the For the People Act. Where is that love and respect for the people for whom Rep. Lewis wrote the Act? As a person of faith, look only to the prophet Isaiah in chapter 10, “Woe unto those who legislate evil and rob the poor of their rights."

This filibuster that doesn’t even require you to defend on the floor and is weaponized without any action is a coward’s filibuster. The history of the filibuster is the history of a non-constitutional tradition being used to block Constitutional rights. It was used to block anti-slavery efforts, civil rights, women’s suffrage, consumer protections and more. The side of the filibuster is the wrong side of history. And by using it today you are engaging in interposition and nullification in the 21st Century.

Failure to pass these provisions has put the infrastructure of democracy and the lives of tens of millions of low-income workers at risk. Senator Manchin, you are hiding behind the cowardly filibuster to appease the forces of the US Chamber of Commerce rather than the people of West Virginia, where 40% of our people are poor or low-income. You have made a fortune off the coal industry here in West Virginia, along with the rest of the top 1% in the state. From 1979 to 2012, income for the top 1% grew by 61%, while income for the bottom 99% actually fell 0.4%. Why are you continuing to defend voter suppression and poverty wage policies that concentrate power and money in the hands of the few? Sen. Manchin, it’s time that you stop kowtowing to the wealthy elite and protecting your own pockets and the status quo under the disguise of “bi-partisianship”. It’s time to take your stand on the right side of history. On the Constitutional side of history and to do what’s right by his state and our nation.

One hundred years ago, the largest multi-racial labor uprising in the history of the nation took place in the mountains of West Virginia. In honor of the thousands who have lost their lives fighting for voting rights, labor rights and living wages…in honor of our fallen hero John Lewis…in honor of the millions of low-wage workers who cannot survive on $7.25 or $8.75, now is your moment to stand with poor and low-wealth West Virginians, now is the time stand on the right side of history. This is your moment. The people are ready to support you in supporting these demands:

1. End the Coward’s Filibuster
2. Pass all provisions of the bill John Lewis wrote: The For the People Act
3. Fully restore and expand protections of the 1965 Voting Rights Act
4. Raise the federal minimum wage to $15/hr now