Daily Dems Doing the Work, Making Noise and Fighting Back Day 169

Jeff Merkley makes me so proud to be a Democrat today

Today’s Daily Dems is a bit different than usual….

Last night, at 6:23pm in DC, Oregon Senator Jeff Merkley took the Senate floor. And he held it for 22 hours and 39 minutes, but it wasn’t about that. He wasn’t trying to break a record, even though he did (Longest speech by an Oregonian and third longest in Senate history), he was making sure as much of Trump’s corruption, destruction and fascism was on record.

He may not be one of the most well known Senators, but he is one of the most consistent. And instead of me telling you why he’s so wonderful, I’ll let my followers do it. Threads | BlueSky | Substack

He has been a Senator since 2009, and this year he became the Ranking Member of the Budget Committee. He led the Dems on that committee in using the Byrd Rule to kill some of the worst aspects of the Big Ugly Law. If it was in the bill, but didn’t make it into the law, that’s because of Sen Merkley.

He didn’t hold the floor to become the most well known Senator, though I do wish that had been the outcome, because that’s not why he does anything. When he does something, it’s because he knows it’s the right thing to do.

He also is a huge proponent of the power and importance of the talking filibuster, so much so, that he wrote an entire book about it last year titled “Filibustered!”

Now I want to share some clips, but first let’s cover the arguments against the choice to use this Senate tool.

1. Booker already did it, it’s not creative anymore!

   And we already held Hands Off, why bother protesting again? We already boycotted Target, why bother boycotting Disney? We already voted, why bother voting again? In my interview with Heather Booth (that I promise will be up this week) she said that repetition is one of our most important tools. A tactic or a phrase or an idea doesn’t becomes stale when it’s used over and over again. Wouldn’t it be great if we were seen as the party that won’t shut up no matter how much Republicans want us to?

2. He wasn’t stopping anything, so who cares?

   First off, he definitely slowed down some business that probably would have been completed this morning, but most importantly, every single thing he said is now part of Senate Record. That’s a powerful thing. We want as much of this to be on record as possible.

3. 99% of people don’t care, so it’s a waste of time.

   We have the full power to determine what matters and make sure other people follow our lead. If you’re not posting about it, you’re right, no one is going to hear about it and it’s not going to move the needle. But that’s not a given, that’s a choice. If someone knows about it and is choosing not to talk about it then it absolutely is a self fulfilling prophecy.

So, now that that’s out of the way, here are some of the stand out moments:

One hour in he was just getting started

Seven hours in he was talking about the beginning of tyranny:

Eight hours in, why Americans are standing up

Thirteen hours in on why we can’t stop talking about the far reaching attack on free press

Fourteen hours in on why Republicans are destroying our lives and economy. It all boils down to protecting the current billionaire class.

Fifteen hours in on why small businesses can’t survive

These are just the clips he posted on social media, but if you want to watch the whole speech, along with all the wonderful questions from all his Dem Senate colleagues, you can do that too. It’s 22 hours so it’s 3 parts long:

He ended with:

So let’s all work together, in every possible way, to ring the alarm bells, because, it is a fact, that if we do not ring the alarm bells, well, the longer you are in an authoritarian state, it becomes more and more entrenched. So, we have to fight it in every possible way.

He continues:

We have to recognize that the next election is absolutely critical if we’re gonna save our Republic, because, the strategy of an authoritarian is to rig the elections, and the more time they have, the more entrenched it becomes.

And already, here is Trump trying to do a national voter registration file that can be more easily manipulated for the elections next year. Here is President Trump trying to do massive gerrymandering in a whole bunch of states, in order to offset the balance between Democrats and Republicans that are fairly represented in the House of Representatives. Here is President Trump saying he’ll do everything possible to stop the use of vote by mail across the country because, we know why, because vote by mail has such integrity.

It can’t be manipulated on election day like the precincts can. In precincts, you can move their location, you can put them where they’re no parking, you can understaff them, the machines can break down. You can send intimidators. You can proceed to put out fake information about their location, you can put out information that the election was last week, when it’s really this coming Tuesday. You can’t do that with vote by mail.

And, when we have the majority, we must pass the For the People, Freedom to Vote bill and lockdown the integrity of our elections, so we will not worry, for a generation, about people having a fair voice in our government by and for the people.

It’s not flashy, but that’s not his style. It just facts that we need to use to move forward and save Democracy.

So thank you Senator Merkley, and to your incredible staff for putting this together and making sure that not a second of Trump’s destruction can happen in the dark.

And if you posted about this, thank you too. That’s the only reason anyone is going to know this happened. It takes all of us amplifying this story. And if you haven’t yet, it’s not too late. Just cause he yielded the floor doesn’t mean what he said doesn’t matter anymore.

Most people probably don’t even know this happened. It’s up to US to change that.

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Because….

OUR voices are our superpower, but ONLY when we use them!

If you made it to the end of this post, comment 🫏 (donkey) because, well, I’m very proud to be a Dem today.